Toy Story 3 (Reviewed by Chuck)

4/4 Stars

Unlike many I've heard talk about their low & reserved Toy Story 3 expectations, I didn't expect Toy Story 3 to be a bad or less than par chapter in the Toy Story franchise. Deservedly so, many are generally right when it comes to multiple installments being less than impressive than it's predecessors - generally speaking of any franchise. Toy Story 3 definitely did more than most any other "3" movie has ever been able to do, and that is to be able to leave audiences grateful that hard earned money spent didn't leave you feeling robbed of 2 hours of your time. In fact this Toy Story left me glad we forked out the cash to cover the whole family, especially where everyone loved the movie.

We have Andy, who is getting ready to go to college. He's told to pack things for college or the attic and the rest ends up in the trash. In a tough decision he decides to take Woody to school and pack up the rest of the beloved toys to the attic. Which he proceeds with, until he's distracted and leaves the toys (in a garbage bag) that were on their way to the attic - next to the attic staircase. Mom finds the bag of "garbage" and proceeds to take the toys to the curb. Woody witnesses this, panics because his friends have just been tossed, then - to make matters worse - the garbage truck is a few houses away.

The toys are able to set them selves free and decide to hop in a day care donation box in the open trunk of the family car because they realize that they have a chance to get played with by doing so. Upon arrival everything looks grand, even the kids that are going to play with them, as set up by the toy who is the "administrative director" of all the toys "Lottso" (Ned Beatty) and his "right-hand man" Ken (Michael Keaton) - from the Barbie toy line. Lottso assigns them to the room with younger children (about 2-3 years old) that nobody saw, when everyone arrived. These kids are reckless, destructive and have no care or concern for how they play with any toys. This obviously puts the toys in distress and are looking to get re-assigned to the older children's room.

The Toy Story group decides to send Buzz out to find Lottso and he discovers Lottso's posse - bad-mouthing Buzz and his friends - then capture Buzz. Buzz requests they be moved to more mature children and Lottso refuses, because the toys in the older children's room have already paid their dues and new guys need to do the same. Then in order to ensure the new guys don't create an uprising they turn Buzz into their security guard, turning the movie into a prison parody. Eventually the toys we're routing for capture Buzz and accidentally reset him to a Spanish-language Space Ranger and complete their orchestrated prison break.

In the final 3rd act there were a couple of moments that were close to tissue-worthy. Pixar could definitely end the franchise here, but left it open to make a 4th movie, if they wanted to. And to be honest I would love another Toy Story. I'm not getting tired of these toys.