It's heady stuff for a kids' movie-hell, these days, for any studio movie. But it's also a story about what happens when passion fades and old lovers drill deep in search of reserves of affection that time has buried. Yes, this is a story about a talking doll who shouts, "There's a snake in my boot!" when you pull his string. But what makes "Toy Story 3" cartoon canon fodder is its emotional core. You'll be fine.") When they don't, they conjure that sense of "magic" that all commercial art aimed at children strives for but is most often overshot. (Plunked down in a group of actorly toys, Woody is assured by a stuffed unicorn, "We do a lot of improv here. The best, funniest moments-in a script penned by four Pixar veterans, including studio chief John Lasseter-come often from an adult's sensibility. ![]() The pop-culture references are clever enough to feel fresh, even when they tread on well-worn turf ("Star Wars," Ken and Barbie). There is a lot in "Toy Story 3" that entertains. Heartbroken, they steal away to a nearby daycare center that seems, at first, like a paradise of constant affection compared to the cooling relationship they left back at home. He hasn't played with his toys in years and even refers to them once as "junk." When Andy's mother mistakes an attic-bound garbage bag for rubbish, the toys' faith in their beloved owner is shaken. Only in "Toy Story 3," Andy is 17 and about to head to college. Woody (voiced once again by Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and their anthropomorphic toy friends are separated by mishap from young Andy, their owner, and must make their way back to him. Pixar's almost speed bump–free track record (sorry, "Cars") dates back to its first picture: 1995's "Toy Story." The third-and presumably final-installment in the studio's signature franchise is driven by the same basic plot element that guided the first two. They also make money by the crateful-defying the conventional, cynical wisdom that the best a film driven by a strong artistic vision can achieve in the marketplace is niche success. Its films are better-written, more visually stunning, more emotionally moving, more thought provoking, more socially aware than 99 percent of the rest of what Hollywood insists on offering the public-and what the public, if this year's box office is to be believed, insists on sending back to the kitchen. "Hopefully, eventually people will just vote with their heart and if they truly think that a film moved them the most or excited them the most and it happens to be animated, that someday an animated film could win Best Picture.Pixar makes the best movies of any American studio. I think we have a ways to go, but I think the fact that we made it into that category twice now, we have accomplished something. I think the fact that two years running now we have had animated films that have made it and received Best Picture nominations show that the walls between live action and animation are becoming a bit more permeable. ![]() When asked if the Best Picture nominations for "Toy Story 3" (and last year's for "Up") meant the Academy was becoming more accepting of animation, Unkrich said, "I do. And does this mean we did? I guess, finally!" Not only were we having to make the next Pixar film which is a huge responsibility in and of itself, but to make a third, when third films are always terrible, right? They're never, ever good! And somehow I guess we're masochistic we thought we could somehow pull it off. "I like to call it 'fear-based filmmaking,' because each and every day we kind of lived in fear of messing it up, and then it was up to us to make the best movie that we possibly could. After accepting the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, Lee Unkrich told reporters that directing the film felt like "a huge, crushing responsibility" after the success of the first two "Toy Story" films.
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