Toy Story 3

**** stars

I was 7 years old when the original Toy Story came out in 1995.

Therefore, I was 11 when the sequel came out in 1999.

I am now 21 years old, having just graduated college exactly one month ago, and just experienced Toy Story 3 for the first time.

And I will forever say this: Toy Story 3 is more than genius. It is more than a movie. It is a return to your childhood for infinity and beyond, all within a smooth running time of 109 minutes. Call me premature, overemotional, or even illogical, but Pixar’s Toy Story 3 is one of the greatest sequels of all time, one of the greatest animated movies of all time, and far and away the best film so far this year.

Not only does the third chapter in one of the greatest of all franchises match (and perhaps exceed) its predecessors, it has even changed my views on sequels. Some work, some don’t. But Toy Story 3 is the nail in the coffin in the debate that as long as you have a captivating story with characters an audience cares about, sequels can forever work.

So too bad for you Iron Man 2, you can go to hell Sex and the City 2, and no one cares about you anymore Shrek Forever After, as we have reached the movie that has saved the year of 2010.

Pixar makes the most important decision of its life by sticking to its roots. They know that Toy Story was their first baby and to only justify it would be to stick to that audience. Therefore, we see Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), and the rest of Andy’s toys struggling with the idea that Andy is moving off to college and that the day they’ve been worrying about for so long has been finally bestowed upon them: their play days appear to be over forever. So when they are mistakenly thrown into the garbage instead of the attic by Andy’s mom, the toys think they’re ditched and decide to find a new life for themselves.

The exception is Woody (who Andy wants to take to college with him) who decides to first save his friends from extinction before making the big move. After being saved from the dump, the toys find themselves donated to Sunnyside, a day care that looks like toy heaven at first glance, but behind the curtain it is an evil dictatorship ruled by Lotso (meaning Lots-o’-Huggin’) a pink and evil toy. After experiencing toy hell, the toys learn that Andy’s attic may not be so bad after all.

So leave it to Pixar to save the day once again. Leave it to Pixar to return true movie magic to the big screen on an annual basis. Leave it to Pixar to remind adults of their childhood (and for this, I am eternally grateful). Toy Story 3 mixes all the right emotions to create a nostalgic, natural high even time travel cannot provide. When all is said and done, you will be reminded of the message these movies have successfully conveyed to all of us:

You’ve got a friend in me.