Toy Story 3 Review

On Saturday we took Mr. Serious to Toy Story 3 in 3D. We usually watch the first two Toy Stories at least once a week and even though I’ve seen them 20 times, I still love them dearly. They’re great movies, pretty to look at, funny for adults and have great voice acting and music. What more could you ask for in a kid’s movie?

Mr. Serious is about 2 and 3/4 and this was his first movie-going experience. He was great all through the previews and probably the first 30 minutes of the movie. He had no problem keeping his glasses on and kept comparing what the screen looked like with and without them, so I think he understood what they did. After the 30 minute mark, which was about 45 minutes of sitting in the theater, he got antsy and remained that way until it was over. Mark, my mom and I all took turns taking him out of the theater to walk around and go to the potty. I took him to the potty twice and each time his pull up was dry and he actually went potty! I think he must like public toilets and have joked that we just need to drive him around to all the nearby stores and restaurants to use their restroom if we ever want him to be fully potty trained.

The Movie

What I saw of the movie, I loved and I cannot wait for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it all the way through. I’ve heard several people mention how dark and scary it is and it is definitely much darker than the first two movies. Andy has grown up and is leaving for college in a week. He must decide what to do with his old toys and he gathers all but Woody (whom he packs for college) to be placed in the attic, but then he gets distracted and leaves the bag sitting in the hallway. His mom thought it was trash, so she placed the bag on the curb! Luckily, the toys escaped, but they did not believe Woody when he told them it was an accident they were thrown out. The group of toys decide to donate themselves to Sunnyside Daycare, which is ruled by a mentally cracked stuffed bear called Lots-O-Huggin Bear and his posse.

I won’t sugar coat it – Lots-O is deranged. He does and says some horrible things to the toys. Lots-O is worse than Sid from the original, who at least liked to play with his toys, just in strange ways. There is true toy torture, both mental and physical, going on at the daycare. From what I saw, I didn’t find any one particular scene to be scary and Mr. Serious wasn’t scared by any of it and never asked to leave the theater because of what was happening on the screen. I wouldn’t mind taking a child of any age to see this movie, but I’d definitely be prepared to talk them through Lots-O’s motives (even he can be pitied) after the movie ended.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see more than 20 seconds of the ending, but that was enough to make me cry. It is a wonderful trilogy in its own right, but must be the best animated trilogy ever created. The overall story arc was much better than Shrek (the only other animated trilogy I can think of at the moment) and a musical theme tied all the movies together.

The Pixar Digital Short: Night and Day

True to all Pixar films, there was a wonderful digital short before the movie started. It was called Night and Day and looked awesome in 3D! It was about two little guys with see-through bodies. In one, you could see the night scene and in the other, you could see the day scene. It’s a hard concept to describe, but I promise it was really cute. Here’s a fun little “making of” video which explains the concept and has a clip from the short.

By the way, on ABC Family about a month or two ago they played a special called Pixar Digital Shorts with all the digital shorts from all the Pixar movies so far! We recorded it and watched it a good five or six times, but then our DVR ate it to make room for other stuff. If you ever see it coming on, I highly recommend watching or recording it. Pixar does some great stuff!

The Golden Book

That night at bedtime, I finally read Mr. Serious the Toy Story 3 Golden Book my mom had given to him a while back. I’ve been holding off because I heard that the movie was completely “spoiled” by the book, but I didn’t have too much to worry about. Yes, it does go through the whole movie’s plot, but there is nothing surprising about how Toy Story 3 ends and it’s still an enjoyable movie even if you do know that everyone lives happily ever after. (Okay, well… most everyone.)

What really bothered me about the Toy Story 3 book was the absence of Mr. Potato Head. He was in the Toy Story 2 Golden Book and both he and Mrs. Potato Head were major characters in the movie. They are the only toys of Andy that were not included in the book and I just have to wonder why. Would it have been that difficult to add their illustrations and names to a few pages?

The Conclusion

This was a fun experience and I think Mr. Serious had a great time overall. He did really well in the theater, even if he was completely antsy and didn’t want to sit in his seat at all for the last 20 minutes of the film. I don’t think we’re going to take Mr. Serious to another movie any time soon, but the only reason we took him to see this is because he’s in love with Toy Story. If you do plan on taking toddlers to the movies, here are my recommendations:

• Take at least 3 adults so you can all take turns walking around with the toddler outside of the theater if necessary. Be prepared to get up and leave the theater. Don’t let your child scream and run all over the place because you don’t want to miss the movie. Make sure you hold onto your ticket stub(s) in case you have any trouble getting back into the theater.
• Please, for the love of God, go to a children’s movie! We just saw Iron Man 2 in the theater and I was saddened to see the number of toddlers and babies in attendance.
• Go in the afternoon, not the evening. First of all, I’ve never known a toddler who wasn’t cranky past their bedtime. Add the stimulation of a new, loud place and you might have some melt-downs on your hands. Also, and I know this from experience, adults tend to go to evening kids movies specifically to avoid the kids. So please opt for the noon movie over the 8:00 movie.

Have you seen Toy Story 3? What did you think? Have you ever tried taking a toddler to the movies before and how did that go? Do you have any tips to add to my list above?