Plot: What’s it about?
Pixar is living proof that if you get a bunch of creative folks together, you’re passionate about what you do and have a little financial backing from Steve Jobs that you can make anything entertaining. “Toy Story” burst on the scene some fifteen years ago and changed the face of animation in the process. Since the original “Toy Story”, Pixar has delivered hit after hit to commercial and critical acclaim with movies like “The Incredibles”, “Wall-E” and “Finding Nemo” to name but a few. The thing that makes these work is painstakingly simple: they have equal appeal to both adults and children. With the success of “Toy Story”, “Toy Story 2” was hot on its heels (albeit four years later) and was just as good as the original. I don’t know why it took another decade to get a third installment, but rest assured it’s worth the wait. The movies combine the voice talent of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and others and the characters in the films have become so etched in our sub-culture, it’s impossible to mention “Buzz Lightyear” to someone without them not getting the reference. But, the previous two movies set the bar pretty high and going back to what made Pixar famous in the first place was a bit of a risk. Did it pay off? Is Buzz Lightyear’s catchphrase “To infinity and beyond!”?
The focus of the first two movies were the toys, but the toys belonged to Andy (John Morris, who reprises his role from the earlier films). Well time has passed and Andy is on his way to college and it’s time for him to get rid of the beloved toys that he played with as a child. He decides to take Woody (Tom Hanks) with him, but the rest are relegated to the attic. However, fate has other plans in mind and the other bag of toys gets sent to “Sunnyville”, a day care center that’s somewhat of a retirement home for toys. The group of toys, led by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), think all is well but quickly find out that there’s a hierarchy in place. They meet Lotso (Ned Beatty), a teddy bear who smells of strawberries but has all the toys singing to his tune. Woody realizes what’s happened and tries to rescue his friends, but nothing is ever as easy as it would seem. Escape from “Sunnyville” is the equivalent of getting out of Alcatraz and the fun is (once again) watching all the shenanigans that ensue as the group tries to get out of dodge.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve just seen it and I really enjoyed the first two “Toy Story” movies, but this third one was instantly my favorite of the three. The film won both critical and commercial acclaim (it raked in over $400 million at the box office this year becoming Pixar’s highest-grossing film of all-time) and if this is any indication, I think we’ll see “Toy Story 4” in the coming years. Hanks and Allen are again at the top of their game, injecting such liveliness into the characters of Woody and Buzz (respectively) that it’s hard not to like them and the ensemble cast does a fine job as well. Wondering who’s part of that ensemble? Don Rickles, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton and the rest of the crew from the first two films. “Toy Story 3” is a testament to good filmmaking and was a pleasure to watch. It not only met my expectations, but it exceeded them as well. Pixar continues to have the golden touch and that’s just fine by me. This one gets our highest recommendation.
Video: How does it look?
Presented in a 1.78:1 AVC HD transfer, is there anyone out there who thinks this won’t be the epitome of a perfect transfer? It is. As expected. All of the Pixar movies have received 5 star ratings in terms of video (and most for audio as well) and “Toy Story 3” is certainly no exception. The 2-D image is so crystal clear and sharp that I felt like I could reach out and touch the characters on screen. Colors are strikingly bold and sharp, black levels are right on the money and contrast is stellar. Detail is, quite simply, amazing. Take the texture on T-Rex or the patterns on Bulleye’s hide. Amazing. I could go on and on about this, but I’m telling you what you already know. This is a perfect example of how something should look on Blu-ray.
Audio: How does it sound?
Just as pristine as the video is the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack. All of the “Toy Story” movies have been equally impressive on the technical fronts and this latest installment is no exception. Dialogue is crisp and sharp as a knife and the ensemble cast of voice actors is instantly recognizable (with both old and new faces). The LFE get their day in the sun and surround effects are spewing out something in most every scene. By and large the front stage handles the meat of the audio, but when it all works in cohesion it’s a beautiful thing. Like the video presentation, I could go on and on but suffice it to say that you’ll get your money’s worth out of your home theater setup with this one in the player.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The folks at Disney are certainly no dummies and they know that “Toy Story 3” on Blu-ray will be one of the biggest-selling (if not the biggest) title of the year and they’ve wisely loaded it to the gills with supplements. This is the four disc combo pack reviewed with the latter two discs being a standard DVD of the film and a Digital Copy respectively. But that means we’ve got two discs full of supplements just waiting to be discovered. So let’s get started, shall we?
Disc 1
The first disc contains the movie in full Blu-ray glory as well as a sampling of features.
Day & Night – A 2-D Pixar short featuring two “shmoo” type characters that represent the title (Day and Night). Thisis a pretty clever little segment and features a “Making of…” segment on the second disc.
Toys! – this shows us the myriad of toys used in past features as well as the challenge of coming up with new ones for this film.
Buzz Lightyear Mission Logs: The Science of Adventure – gives us a bit of a tour of NASA and even features some shots of Buzz in space (really)!
Paths to Pixar: Editorial – Tells of the various paths some of the folks at Pixar and how they ended up working (and loving) their jobs.
Disc 2
The second disc contains the remainder of the supplements and is wisely laid out in four easy to navigate sections. We start off with the “Family Play” section.
The Gang’s All Here – Interviews with the cast and crew as they get back together for the making of “Toy Story 3”. All the original cast members were reunited except Jim Varney who was replaced as he passed away after “Toy Story 2.”
Goodbye Andy – The name is a bit misleading as this is about how the technology has progressed in how the characters were portrayed (in a physical manner). the trick being to not make the humans to look “too” human, else they delve into the “Uncanny Valley” (you’ll understand once you see this featurette).
Accidental Toymakers – Tells of how the characters in the movie aren’t actual toys, yet they actually end up being actual toys. However, Thinkway Toys CEO seized the opportunity to make these toys and market them. This gives new meaning to the phrase “art imitates life” or is it the reverse?
A Toy’s Eye View: Creating a Whole New Land – This focuses on how they got the characters from the movies into the actual Disney theme parks. Disney’s Toy Story Adventure had a feature called “Toy Story mania.” In Paris, France however, the perception was altered in that a huge backyard was created with the actual toys becoming the attractions. Interesting.
Epilogue – (NON – HD) Randy Newman sings “We Belong Together” as we get shots of toys galore and we get shots of the toys as they go through a day in the life at “Sunnyside.”
Moving on, we come to the second segment entitled “Film Fans”
Cine-Explore – Is a picture-in-picture commentary by director Lee Unkrich and producer Darla K. Anderson. As they mention, the movie wasn’t even finished when the recorded the track and there was somewhat of a challenge trying to squeeze four years worth of information into a 100 minute movie. But, you know what, they pulled it off. There’s a ton of technical information here as well as the challenges with the cast (delightful to work with as always) and the task of living up to the first two films.
Beyond the Toolbox – Is an “alternative” commentary track with some department heads on the writing, technical, art and animation as they discuss the more technical aspects of the film and some of this has been covered in other features as the technology has changed and so forth. I preferred this track, but then again I’m more technical in nature.
Roundin’ Up a Western Opening – Filmmakers Lee Unkrich and Darla Anderson tell us their inspiration for the western-themed opening and how it contrasted to the more sci-fi like opening for “Toy Story 2.”
Bonnie’s Playtime – A Story Roundtable – This is, as the title suggests, a literal roundtable as they discuss this sequence that was more of a challenge than the others that made it to the screen, but was a challenge. We learn of the origin (Gilda Radner on “SNL”? Random) of the story and how it all came to fruition.
Beginnings: Setting a Story in Motion – We get a look at what it takes to write a screenplay and the comparison to “climbing a mountain blindfolded.” I’m not a screenwriter, so maybe I don’t get this metaphor but nonetheless…it sounds impressive. And, as we all assume, the screenwriter was inspired by previous Pixar films and the act of writing a great introduction.
Life of a Shot – Producer Darla Anderson gives us the lowdown as she gives us a detailed look at, literally, every detail that goes into a single scene. See something on the screen? There’s a lot more to it than meets the eye. And a lot more time involved than you might think that brought it there.
Making of Day & Night – Again, as the title suggests, this is an abbreviated “Making of…” of the short film that appeared on Disc One.
Paths to Pixar – Despite what the title says, this is more of a crash course on film editing and we get different points of view as to how a film is edited (digital or otherwise) and the different personalities that come together to edit a film.
Studio Stories: Where’s Gordon? – We learn of the new Pixar building and of the secret hole in the wall. All of the sudden we’ve got a secret room in the new building and Gordon (the guy who made the secret room) and of the executives who found the room and the subsequent parties that happened within (ok, not really).
Studio Stories: Cereal Bar – This is the literal cereal bar. Cereal plays an intregal part in how movies are made. We see an animated version of the plexiglass(ed) cereal bar and where and how they eat. Odd, indeed.
Studio Stories: Clean Start – We see the life of the animators and their rather unique ways. They start things off with a literal “clean slate.” They shave their heads and beards and then go from there. This gives new meaning to the phrase “a new beginning!” As always, there was a contest and the last man standing who didn’t cut their beard wins. What did they win? Hmmm…
We’re not done yet! The last two sections are “Games and Activities” and “Publicity” respectively.
Toy Story Trivia Dash (BD Live) – This is a ‘fast paced’ trivia game and you can select trivia from just this movie or all three “Toy Story” movies. It’s Woody vs. Buzz, though you might have guessed that.
Grab Bag – This is a collection of teasers and trailers for the film complete with “Ken’s Dating Tips”, a “Grab Bag” and “Lots-o’-Huggin” Bear Commercials” (as well as a “Making of these commercials). A poster gallery is also included as well as some character introductions for the movie.
All of the supplements are presented in full HD except “Epilogue” for whatever reason. As previously mentioned, the final two discs are the standard DVD of the movie (with limited features) as well as a digital copy of the movie for your mobile device.
There are some titles I’ve seen in 3D in which I felt that it was a waste of time. A gimmick, if you will. And then there are the Pixar movies. I won’t say that I prefer the 3D version of “Toy Story 3” over the standard Blu-ray, but I will say that watching this title in 3D was a lot better than most of my recent experiences. It’s my humble opinion that anything in the computer animated realm will most always look better in 3D than anything live action. That being said “Toy Story 3” in 3D looks simply stunning, with the majority of the movie carrying over the pristine look and feel of the 2D version. There are several examples of great 3D action, so much that I literally moved my head to avoid being “hit.” Colors are as strong, bold and vibrant as ever so no matter which version of the film you prefer, you’ll get a good-looking picture. If all 3D movies looked like this, I feel there’d be more 3D films out there.
