(Toy Story 3) Ultimate Pixar Tribute- Movie #11: Toy Story 3 part 1 out of 4

by Nick DeVito

How strange is this? I feel so surreal as I am writing this right now because Toy Story 3 is a completely different matter. It’s not like any other film, or even any other Pixar film I’ve mentioned before. Toy Story 3 is a very different type of movie, but before I get to the actual review, I need to address some things first.

First of all, I could always lie and say that I’ve been a die-hard Pixar fan from Day one (Thanksgiving 1995), but that would not be true. Actually, I never appreciated Pixar as much as I do now, and when I was a small child I simply thought they made good movies. I only paid attention to the comedic aspects of Pixar’s earlier films, and I never fully understood the emotional aspects.

I always liked the emotional aspects, but I never knew why, and even I have to admit I never liked Jessie’s song in Toy Story 2 at first. Several years past and around the time Ratatouille came out I finally realized why Pixar was so special. They were different, they always took risks, they managed to pull on all the audience member's heart-strings, and they stood out from the crowd by putting their characters, stories, and emotions before technical advancements, gimmicks, and jokes.

However, at this time I was in Junior-High and was more worried about my social life then my love for Pixar, so I dismissed the films as being good, but childish in order to prevent embarrassment. Even when Wall•E came out, I thought it would be lame so I never saw it in theatres and when I viewed it on DVD I thought it was Pixar’s worst film because it wasn’t as funny as the rest.

A year passed and I still thought Wall•E was too cutesy for a soon-to-be Freshman and that Pixar was good at best. I was drowning myself in the more mature movies of my taste such as The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I even distinctively remember myself rooting for Slumdog Millionaire at the 2009 Oscars, (a moment I will never forgive myself for), and then suddenly I saw the first trailers for Up.

It looked interesting, but I was still in my pre-hardcore Pixar fan stages and decided that I wasn’t determined to rush into theatres to see it. That summer I went to America for vacation and (unsurprisingly) noticed that Up was being praised by critics, so I eventually decided to go see it. Once again I liked the film, but I wasn’t crazy about it like I am now, so I once again dismissed it as being funny but cutesy.

Several months past and I was in a very confusing stage for my life. I was a Freshman in High School and had found a new love for movies. I even managed to see over 40 new films released in 2009 during the entirety of the year. To this day I have no idea when or how I fell in love with Pixar as deeply as I do now, but when it happened it would change my life forever.

It all started when I realized Wall•E was my favorite film ever. It was all so surreal because the day before I had only seen the film once, dismissed it as being too cute for me, and thought it was Pixar’s worst film. Then one day out of nowhere I said to myself that I wanted to see the film again. I did just that on a local movie TV channel, and instantly realized that this was my favorite movie ever.

One of the many messages in Wall•E was that it only takes a moment to fall in love with something (as symbolized in the usage of the Hello, Dolly! song), and that’s what happened to me. I realized that the message didn’t mean that you instantly fall in love with things you like, but that even if it takes a long time for you to realize it and even if you’ve never felt the same way about it before, at any instant you can fall in love with anything, and it only takes a moment for it to work.

I’m still mystified by how I came to love Wall•E like I do now, but I realized that if it worked for it, then maybe it could work for other Pixar films. I watched several Pixar films and, with my newly-found appreciation, managed to enjoy them even more now than when I was a child.

I reflected on my viewing of Up several months ago, and thought that perhaps I could love that film too. I tricked myself into believing that Up was a greater movie than I originally thought it was, and when it arrived on DVD I immediately bought it. Before the movie started I noticed a small teaser trailer for Toy Story 3, but I was so caught up with being able to watch Up again with a now improved love for Pixar that I ignored it.

I watched Up many times and found that my prediction was not only correct, but an understatement! Up became my favorite movie ever until I couldn’t handle it anymore and found a lone DVD copy of Wall•E covered under several other family films that I would be able to buy and watch as many times as I pleased. However it was a cool little experiment that I pulled and it resulted in outstanding success.

Shortly after, I became obsessed with Pixar more so than ever, I was no longer embarrassed by liking the films that I labeled as being too childish only months ago, I did lots of research on the company and was able to absorb tons of information about Pixar I never knew before, and I started to write this tribute. Things were going great until I realized that Toy Story 3 was coming really soon.

Instead of being excited I became nervous. Would I be able to enjoy this film instantly now that I had discovered a love for Pixar? How would I be able to cope with the closing film of the trilogy that, arguably, affected my childhood more than anything else? How would I be able to repay Pixar for all they had done for me?

Toy Story 3 would be the first Pixar film I would see since I became a hardcore fan, and it would also be the end of Toy Story for me. I was born the same year Toy Story came out and was too young when the sequel arrived, so I didn’t see both films until much later, but when I did I knew they were two special movies. I watched them numerous times and became, as far as I remember,two of my favorite films during my early years.

However they introduced me to Pixar, and when I was complete with my little experiment several years later, I realized the truth about the two Toy Story films. It was an incredible feeling, like I was being shot with a needle full of liquid nostalgia that was being delivered through to every point of my body.

All the nostalgia of slightly older kids who grew up with Toy Story when it first came out transcended onto me in a matter of minutes. I realized that I was a late bloomer. I was fourteen years old and now a mature teenager who would soon be a Sophomore in High School. My childhood should’ve ended years ago, but now I realized that it would always live on, until the day I saw Toy Story 3. That was the great mystery about my connection with Pixar.

Pixar had helped to build my childhood, and as all the other things who helped me grew old, Pixar never moved. I was a confused see-saw of emotions, moving up and down on the boundary of whether or not I loved Pixar or if I thought their movies were too childish for me. The little experiment I ran with Wall•E, Up, and my childhood as a whole gave me a sliver of hope that I could set my mind straight and finally be able to pick the option I wanted to believe most, that I loved Pixar and always would.

Once I saw Toy Story 3 for the first time, no matter what I thought of the film, my childhood would be complete and I would never be able to live it exactly as I had again. Once I saw it I would be able to hold on to Pixar and appreciate it just like I do now for the rest of my life. So with all this in mind, I got in the car with my family and drove to the American movie theatre at Naples in preparation of seeing Toy Story 3, on the night of July 3, 2010.

Part 2...The Movie: