Ultimate Pixar Tribute: Toy Story 3 part 3 out of 4

by Nick DeVito

Continuing with my talks about Toy Story 3, the movie continues to evaluate on Lotso’s character. I knew right from the start that he was going to be the villain, but this is a bear nobody wants to mess with. By the film’s thrilling climax he had become my favorite Pixar villain; even beating Hopper.

It’s such a huge leap yet again for Pixar because the story is very dark and calls for a lot of emotions to be portrayed. Toy Story 3 is hilarious, thrilling, and clever in its writing, but it’s also disturbing, scary, and quite personal. Yes, I just said that. Toy Story 3, at some moments, is scary.

At this moment I’d also like to address that the score is, once again, brilliant, but more so now than in Wall•E and up because while those were amazing scores they were all original. The score here for Toy Story 3 realizes that it can’t be consistently amazing if it is entirely original, so while some tracks are still fresh (and really stand out above the rest) the other pieces are served as nostalgic homage to the old Randy Newman score from previous Pixar films.

Like I said, the original scores here stand out as being the best. “Cowboy!” is the piece that opens up the film and is a perfect blend of being original and nostalgic. It starts off by being similar to the other Toy Story scores, and then turns into an epic showdown by combining the best work of Randy Newman into one amazing track. It feels like an epic most people would expect form a Lord of the Rings film.

The exact opposite, “You Got Lucky” is the piece that plays when Chuckles the Clown is telling Woody the story of Lotso’s origin. It is a sad piece that sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it, and because of this piece alone I believe Toy Story 3 will get a Best Original Score nomination at next year’s Oscars.

As the piece continues it accompanies the scene where Woody and the gang are planning to escape and here it takes more of a smooth inspiration from James Bond movies. “So Long” is another emotional piece, but I like it mainly because of the scene instead of the actual music.

However, my favorite score by far is “The Claw” which is the score that plays during the infamous incinerator scene. Oh boy, I knew I’d have to talk about this sooner or later, but the incinerator scene may be the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in a Pixar film or any film in general.

If you don’t know why everybody who has seen Toy Story 3 is going through an insane “incinerator-scene-haze”, the incinerator scene is the climax of the movie where Lotso abandons the toys to endure a fiery death in the trash incinerator pit. I’ve already briefly discussed this in the plot section, but it’s impossible to imagine how the scene really plays out just by reading a summary of it.

First of all we see Lotso leave and for a brief moment there’s a chance that he might come back. It’d be like:

Lotso- "Where’s your kid now, Sheriff?"
Woody- "No! Nooooooo!"
Buzz- "Lotso!"
Lotso- "Just kidding; let me help you cowboy."
Woody- "What a relief! I thought you were going to be a complete jerk and leave us to die in this horrible incinerator by ourselves with no chance of escape."
Lotso- "Err, yah I’d never do that."

However instead he doesn’t return and we clearly see all the toys fall into the pit which is slowly being led to the flaming center. At this point we are tricked into believing that this film will be just like its previous hour and that the toys will use their teamwork to find a way to escape, but when Jessie asks the same question I just did to Buzz, he replies by holding his hand out to her.

What? I mean I knew this film was dark, but Buzz Lightyear giving up and accepting his death? Then as the score continues we see all the other toys accept their fates and hold hands with each other forming a large circle. They figure that they’ll at least die together.

Last is Woody who is still struggling to find a way for escaping. We can see the gears shifting in his head and as he struggles the audience struggles, because the last thing we want to see are the characters we all grew up with as kids die such a horrible death as this. Suddenly he gives up like all his friends and joins in the circle, completing it as he does. The scene continues as the music swells.

It’s very difficult to watch because the scene seems to go on forever and the longer it drags the lesser chance the toys have of surviving. I’m serious here, because all Pixar had to do was have the scene go for a few seconds and it would be perfect, but instead it goes on for several painful minutes.

Then they get rescued, but the point is that Pixar put the entire audience in silence for a few minutes that seemed like an eternity and managed to surprise everybody in an unbelievable way.

If you know anybody who said that the ending was predictable then they are lying. Not one person in the world knew that was coming, and even when the scene ended the damage had already been done and the entire audience was now left in tears. You’d think that then Toy Story 3 would bring us a happy scene probably with a few jokes to cheer up everybody, but you’d be dead wrong. The scene that immediately follows is where the toys make it home to Andy and all but Woody (who is going to college) get into the attic-box.


Woody runs into the box at the last moment, unbeknownst to the audience or the other characters, and tells Andy to deliver the toys to Bonnie. As Andy introduces each toy to her, he is saying good bye to each one, but in a very subtle way even some audience members wouldn’t get. Plus, each toy Andy gives away represents the audience saying farewell to each toy.

Then when he gets to Woody he prepares a longer speech that sums up all we feel about the character. Then as they play for the last time we as an audience and as Toy Story fans feel as if we are playing with them for the last time too.

It takes great filmmaking techniques to have the audience believe something is real (even if it’s animated) and in this case it’s not even a cheap special effect or a performance but one powerful emotion. Nonetheless, Pixar definitely pulled it off. There’s a great shot of some of the toys standing perfectly still and lifeless while Andy and Bonnie are playing in the background. The toys aren’t portraying the slightest piece of evidence that they are showing any signs of life, but we can tell exactly what they are saying. They are exclaiming a happiness they have never felt in their entire lives before.

Sure it was great to be played with, but now that they are being played with by the one they love most after nearly a decade of silence, and for the last time, it is amplified to unbelievable levels.

If you get down to it, it would seem sort of embarrassing for Andy to be making a fool of his young-adult self by playing with his toys and giving introductions to them in character, but at the moment this scene occurs nobody is thinking about that as this is the true Andy we’ve seen in the previous two Toy Story movie: a kid who loves to play; it’s as simple as that.

As Andy leaves he swears he could see Woody waving, but quickly dismisses it as Bonnie waving the hand for him. Before the audience even had the chance to wipe their eyes from the tears they’ve shed during the incinerator scene, they’re doing it again for the final scene. It isn’t necessarily as sad as Up, but the impact is far greater and the movie as a whole is Pixar’s most emotional hit yet.

The best way to describe the score is like a warped combination of Monsters, Inc. and Schindler’s List. Both of these two film are completely different with completely different scores, but combined you get a never-ending feeling of suspense balancing on the line between action and tragedy.

So you get it, Toy Story 3 is sad, but did I mention that it’s also hilarious? Ken is awesome in every scene he’s in, although I was a bit disappointed from all the Ken-hype and expected him to either have a more important role or be in the film more. The toys at Bonnie’s house are the characters that universally made me laugh the most.

Everyone from Pricklepants to Buttercup is entertaining (although I was also disappointed with Dolly), but the character I love most is Chuckles. While he seems like a rather shallow character who only appears briefly to deliver Lotso’s exposition, he left a memorable impression on me.

The first time you see him he has a sinister frown that nobody can help but laugh at, but as he continues to talk the smiles on the audience’s faces disappear. The scene and the score accompanying it are great, but the icing on the cake is Bud Luckey’s narration.

Bud Luckey is the same man who directed and starred in the short Boundin’, and while I didn’t love the short like I do with most other ones from Pixar, the thing I liked most about it was the voice of Bud Luckey playing all the characters. He has a very dark and strong voice that can make anything sound dramatic (which is required when you’re trying to convince the audience that a strawberry scented pink teddy bear is an evil dictator-like tyrant).

During the end credits we see him one more time and he notices that Bonnie has drawn a single picture of him, and very slowly he draws a smile; the first one he’s had since Lotso was his companion several years ago. By that moment I knew he was my favorite character in the movie, and possibly in the whole Toy Story franchise.

My favorite line is hard to decide on, but in the end nothing summed up my feelings of the film like Woody’s last words before the credits: “So long…partner”, and with that, my childhood is finally complete.

Click here for Part 4: Final Thoughts...