to infinity

[falulatonks]

Toy Story 3 was wonderful. I'll try to break this reaction down, because it would be a mess otherwise (it's still a mess, because I'm a mess, and I ramble a lot):

Quick thoughts:

1. Loved the short! Day & Night is pretty simple but I loved it for that simplicity and the execution.


2. The opening sequence was brilliant. How much do I love that they did something like that - letting us see this from a boy's imagination? Perfect.


3. KEN IS NOT A GIRL'S TOY! I loved it. Also, way to go, Barbie. You may have redeemed all the Barbies I hated so much in the past (I chewed all their hands).


4. Lotso was so not cool. Five-year-old me would totally chew your head off, you jerk.


5. Spanish!Buzz was a surprise and a delight.


6. Was Sid (the bad kid in Toy Story) the garbage man?! I think he had the same t-shirt on. NICE.)


7. Trixie and Rex! Trixie and Rex! I LOVE THEM VERY MUCH. I love that Bonnie's toys are so sweet, right down to Mr Prickle Pants, but TRIXIE! I want more Trixie and Rex scenes! Dinosaurssssssss.

A little less quick:

1. The noir!telephone was perfect, and everything about it - how it was used, how it was animated - is everything I love about this trilogy (maybe even the studio) - it's so creative. It's so intelligent and so unique and so imaginative. It's just like the toys' Great Escape from the daycare - everything is established, the characters and their uses and the layout of the place, and used perfectly, in this smart, incredibly imaginative way, which I adore.


2. This movie got a little dark at times, didn't it? The first TS3 review online mentioned that the first movie was about friendship, the second about growing up, and the third about mortality and maturity, and there were moments in this that really proved that. Maybe it's why it struck a chord in me - this idea of moving on from things.


3. This movie was very deliberately a send-off, especially that last scene with Andy and Bonnie, and I liked that. I don't really like when I can see the intention of something clearly (hi, Glee) but this scene felt sort of like it meant something to the creators, too, which was lovely.


4. What a great blend of everything you could ever want in a movie - humour, characters you want to root for, genuine heartbreak, even excellently choreographed action. I think they did this better here than they did even in Up. What I'm saying, basically, is: hello, perfect movie. AND YOU'RE A SEQUEL! (I haven't thought about where I would put this with all the other Pixar movies yet.)

Feeeeeelings:

1. I am a sap. I'm not very showy with these sappy feelings, but I'm a sap. When I was a kid I had a blanket, and it got old, but I didn't want to throw it away, so when my mum threw it in a bag with other old things, I cut off a tiny piece of it and put it in a box. When I was a little bit older, I had this wonderful book of fairytales and nursery rhymes with gorgeous illustrations and colourings, and I lent it to a friend and she never gave it back and I've never really forgiven her for that (YOU'D BETTER HAVE TAKEN CARE OF IT, BITCH).
   
   Toy Story was the first movie I remember watching at the cinema, and Toy Story 2 may be my most-watched movie ever. This trilogy is a big deal to me because I am a sap, and I'm ecstatic and incredibly relieved that it lived up. I kind of knew it would, because it's Pixar, but I also really didn't know it would, because I'm always a little terrified the day a Pixar movie gets released (how long will they be this good?). So that was good.


2. Oh, Pixar! The best thing about this company as movie-makers (i.e. not just animators) is how closely they seem to pay attention to keeping things genuine. I can genuinely believe these relationships and these feelings and the decisions they make, despite how large-scale and unbelievable the situations they make, and that may be their greatest strength. I can't think of many movies (i.e. not just animated movies) that get that right. I enjoy feeling for these fictional characters - understanding why decisions that everyone makes may be difficult, why Woody was torn between his friends and his Andy. (It's why I tear up in The Incredibles every time Bob/Mr Incredible says he's not strong enough - that emotion would be cheesy or not entirely believable in other movies, but relationships and characters and feelings and even the stakes were built up here to a point where I totally fell for every bit of it.)


3. It's also why: Woody and Buzz! Everyone else! Best friends! Family! TEARS. I always get gooey when they stick up for one another unconditionally (fuck, you guys, I'm talking about toys), but that scene in the incinerator...I only teared up slightly there, but ohh. Everyone reaching for each other. HANDS. AGHH. I love these friendships so much.
   
   It's actually scary, though! I love that it truly feels like things were going to go terribly wrong, and that they wouldn't be able to get out it, just for that scene. I can't imagine it ever getting this dark in other Pixar movies.


4. I feel very strongly about keeping things of your childhood and feeling torn about what to do with that past and maybe that's why I cried through the last fifteen minutes. I started when Andy started taking out all his toys, and when he pulled Woody back I may have let out a little whimper and started all-out bawling. HE LOVES HIM.
   
   I glanced to the little girl sitting next to me and she looked a little bit worried for me, but at the end she wiped her face, so I guess she cried, too. (which is awesome.) It's so hard, growing up. This movie gets the point across even further by never talking about it explicitly - subtle and beautiful and something everyone understands.


5. Woody was going to maybe be alone at college, which killed me. Woody is my favourite, maybe because I always love the captains. I never really cared for Bo Peep, but when everyone in that incinerator reached for someone and Woody just stared ahead for a second (JUST TOYS.) before he looked at Buzz, it killed me.
   
   (I bugged my sister while waiting in line to buy popcorn to get the TS3 combo, which came with a cup with a toy of a character attached to the lid and she said no. (She's younger than me.) I really only wanted the Woody or the Rex one, anyway.)


6. Thank goodness they had a five-minute "extras" sort of reel during the credits, because if I'd walked out right after it ended people would've seen the mess that was my face.


7. I love Andy and I love that he values all these things that he owns, which the young 'uns these days (e.g. Molly, his sister) seem to lack - what do you buy that you truly care for? People live off of cellphones and iPods and virtual space and it feels like less people care about keeping tangible things to love. There are things I have that I couldn't bear to give away. I hope people feel the same about the things they have, too. That's what I carried away with me once this movie ended.

Technical details:

1. What I love about animated movies in general is that every single frame has to be created. There's consideration behind everything that is shown: the framing of a shot, the random car zooming past in the background even though no one's really paying attention to it. I'm not entirely sure Dreamworks gets that the way Pixar does - I loved How to Train Your Dragon, but I don't see the precision that Pixar has in making it look like a movie's been filmed.
   
   I'm geeking out here and being an over-the-top fan, but really: I love the camera angles in this movie, the things that draws your attention - they even have the focus technique (bringing things to focus and blurring things further in the background, then switching it) that live action movies have, but it's done very neatly. I only even noticed how much Pixar movies look like they've been filmed because of something I heard on the Creative Screenwriting podcast for Wall-E last year (Andrew Stanton! I found it fascinating, so go look it up!), but it's so interesting to pay attention to.


2. It's kind of obvious how much the quality of animation has improved since TS2, and I loved it very much. The colouring, the textures, even the filming-style. It's gorgeous. (Love you, Pixar.)


3. This script was great and very tightly-structured - everything was purposefully introduced and I liked how clearly everything fit together. Plus it was hilarious, which is good (and what I mean by that is thank goodness I had reason to laugh, too).


4. I didn't watch this in 3D (and I will never watch anything in 3D, which my dad is annoyed about), but it's sometimes obvious what things are done to make a non-3D movie a 3D movie. I am very impressed, therefore, that at no point in this movie did I think "oh, that was done just so it could look good in 3D" - nothing in your face (literally), not even the action sequences. Great restraint, Pixar!


5. The voice cast was fabulous. I just want to talk about Woody again - he's sarcastic and goofy and kind of a jerk sometimes, but he's their captain, and I love him and how he brings everyone together. And I don't think he would have that effect on me if he hadn't been Tom Hanks, because he's just perfect. I love the voice cast in all - the telephone, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, the pig, even Lotso - but Woody is just perfect.

If you read all of that, A+. I didn't even get in half the things I was thinking. Maybe I'll leave it for my many rewatches when this comes out on DVD.

I love you, Pixar. (And I want to work with you, please.)

-- rachu

Comments

[falulatonks]

I tried geeking about it with my sister while coming home from the movie and she literally zoned out. I am so glad I have the internet right now, I don't care how lame that sounds.

- That imaginary universe made my life. It's so wonderful to have something that captures the craziness of imagination so vividly. And the scale of that scene, with all the big spaces and the moving trains! And the colouring! I loved it. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

- I just remembered how Toy Story ended and now I'm amused he even managed to become this garbage man! Poor traumatised evil boy.

- Yay! Character histories and the way they influence what they do and who they are are the kind of thing I like thinking about so to know there are entire classes like that is exciting.

- I feel like everyone who didn't react to the idea of keeping or letting the past go are either very young or don't see the point of it, which really makes me sad. I'm terrible about getting used to big changes, too, which may be why I cried so much - I love that this movie ends with telling you to move on, but to not be afraid of looking back. Or something. (yes, I have been thinking about this too much.)

- I still wish I'd been able to watch the first two movies in full before watching this one, but I really did love how much about it's changed.

Please keep going! I honestly feel like I could talk about this movie for a long time now.

(Also, are you going to post these TS icons anywhere? Because I want some and you've got so many for Woody and Woody-Jessie and those are all relevant to my interests!)

[runawayblue.livejournal.com]

I geeked about it three separate times with my mother, but my brother called me crazy when I told him I cried at it a second time (Uh, I had to get a cam version really quickly, okay? But I want to go again so badly!!) My brother may be heartless.

- Yes! I'm so serious when I say I want there to be a whole film based purely on Andy's imaginary adventures. Because that scene was absolutely brilliant from the score to the visuals. The colours were especially beautiful to me. In fact, the colouring of the entire film is killing me right now. The colourscript is so amazing, I'm dying over it.

- I know! I wonder if Sid spent a whole bunch of time afraid to go near any toy. I also kind of wonder what happened to his sister. I think about these things!

- Yes! I loved that class a lot, actually -- initially I was scared of it (it also included performances, but that actually turned out awesomely for me.) We also spent a lot of time on The Iron Giant. My teacher must have loved Brad Bird, actually.

- Yes. I feel like younger people aren't going to understand why so many people got emotional over it. But it's like-- There's a certain age bracket (17-23 or so) who the film hits just right because we're in a stage of having to move on and it scares us. I'm also terrible at dealing with change, haha (We're very alike, you and I!), and I don't really believe in letting go of my childhood fully, it always has a place in my heart. So it struck a chord with me. But I like what you've said about moving on, but not being afraid to look back. That describes it perfectly!

I could talk about this for a long time too, so it's all good, hee. I have been obsessing like mad. Listening to the soundtracks on youtube and loving them. Dropped $50 on the art book. Am drawing fanart and making icons. I'm going all-out, here.

(I plan to soon, but feel free to take them from my icons if you want right now! It's fine with me, I'll be posting soon, hopefully. )

[falulatonks]

I was this close to getting a cam version, then decided I couldn't bear watching it in lower quality, because I'm stupid like that (and now I really, really want to watch it again anyway). I showed my sister the line in TS2 that made me tear up, and she just looked skeptical. No one understaaaandsss.

- Rewatching that scene where Sid was ambushed by his already scary toys, I get the feeling he was afraid to go near toys for the rest of his life. He probably doesn't want to drive that garbage truck with the toys sewn onto the front!

- The Iron Giant is wonderful. Are you a Ratatouille fan, by the way? Other than how gorgeous the food looks, how much I loved how they animated the rats and Linguini, and how gorgeous the food looks (that scene where Remy makes the soup, mmm), I don't really get how much love it gets.

- because we're in a stage of having to move on and it scares us
That's probably exactly it. I don't think it affects older people the same way, either - maybe they've already been able to get over it.

My obsessiveness seems to centre around thinking about the writing of everything thoroughly. This is fun! It's a relief that someone's been thinking about it like I have!

(I took a couple, yay, thank you! :D)

[runawayblue.livejournal.com]

I felt the same, but I wanted to test myself to see if I would cry at the last scene again, and I did. But I want to go back to the theatre again, ahh.

- That's what I figure, too. It's weird, though, because I'm sure that he comes across a lot of toys while working as a garbageman.

- The Iron Giant is so fantastic, definitely one of my top films. And regarding Ratatouille, I am of course a fan of Ratatouille, but I see what you mean. I actually forget that it exists a lot when I list off all of the Pixar films. I'm not sure why. But I do love it (I think it's Wall-e that I don't love as much as other people. I love it, but it's a different sort of love.)

- I know it affected my mother, but that's probably because she feels the same way I do about childhood and all that. I'm sure Andy's mother tearing up over Andy's empty room got her, too.

I obsess over almost all aspects of films, hehe. Animation, design, music, writing -- everything! It's all nice. But I definitely have, aaah.

[falulatonks]

- Maybe he just respects all of them to ridiculous amounts or doesn't dare throw them away or something!

- I love the first hour or so of Wall-E, but that may be because it came out around the time that I really, really started paying attention to movies in general, so just the idea of animating that robot to be such an endearing character is exciting. I love it for the romance of it - the "Save the Earth!" stuff, not so much, but I can forgive it for what that first half is. (The Pixar film I tend to forget is Monsters Inc., but maybe that's because I haven't seen it in years.)

- Aw, Andy's mother. I kind of love her even though we see so little of her.

[runawayblue.livejournal.com]

- Maybe he collects them for a creepy cult-like shrine in his basement. I'm just joking, hehe!

- I like WALL-E, he's a really cute character and he's animated in such a way that even without the ability to speak, you know exactly what he's thinking. But at the same time, I love good script-writing -- things like Toy Story and The Incredibles and their witty exchanges stick with me a little bit more than WALL-E. Also, yeah, it was a little preachy after the first half. (I rewatched Monsters Inc. last night and still do love it. You should watch. I guarantee you'll tear up at the very last shot, c'mon.)

- I agree. Except for when she comes into Andy's room and takes his stuff for that 25cent box in TS2. Who does that!? Don't sell your kid's stuff while he's away at camp, woman!

- Oh, I'm curious as to what you think of the idea of Woody being a hand me down from Andy's father, which is something I heard in a video with Lasseter a little earlier. If that was the case, though, why does Woody not understand the whole concept of Andy growing up and moving on? Because if he belonged to Andy's father, surely he went through that stuff. I'm a little confused about that -- might just be a little plot hole (I don't usually care about plot holes). I'm still thinking way too much! Heh.