Breathe a sigh of relief, TOY STORY 3 is going to be great

Breathe a sigh of relief, TOY STORY 3 is going to be great

Mar 23

The 3^rd and presumably final chapter in the Toy Story trilogy isn’t set to hit our theatres till June, however those who were lucky enough to attend the Showest Film Festival in Las Vegas don’t have to wait any longer.
Director Lee Unkrich was at the festival to screen a still-in-development version of the film.  A lot of the animation was not finished and the score was still temp music. The basics of the film were there though;  the story, the editing and the voice acting.
So what did people think of it then?  Well, I’m happy to see that pretty much everyone came out with extremely positive things to say.  Here are a few early impressions that appeared immediately after the screening:

slashfilm
Toy Story 3 was great, last 30 minutes were pure brillance.

elguapo1
Toy Story 3 was fantastic. People were crying at the end.

firstshowing
Toy Story 3 was wonderful, so much fun and heartwarming, too! Totoro is in it a few times as well. Pixar at their best as always.

colliderfrosty
Toy story 3 continues pixars streak of brilliance. Last 20 or 30 minutes wrecked me

A couple more in depth thoughts via slashfilm and latinoreview:

Peter Sciretta at slashfilm.com
The story is a fun ride to places unknown, and takes some twists and turns you might not expect. The conclusion is a fitting end to the series, and will probably leave you in tears. The last 20-30 minutes are pure brilliance. I can’t wait to see the film again when it’s completed and in 3D.

George ‘El Guapo’ Roush at latinoreview.com
Like I said I can’t talk about the plot but the story about how we outgrow the things we grew up with seemed to hit a lot of people in the theater. The last act had some around me crying, probably thinking back to when they had favorite toys of their own growing up. The voicework was great. Jim Varney is still missed as Slinky Dog but Blake Clark was so dead-on you couldn’t tell the difference. It was also cool to hear a now grown up John Morris play Andy once again.

I was super pleased to read that the ending packs an emotional punch, as Pixar have been building upon the emotional core of their films with each release (like the beautifully constructed montage at the beginning of Up).  While the Toy Story films are perhaps the most comedic of all Pixar’s releases, it’s nice to see that they’re continuing to carry on that old Walt Disney mantra “For every laugh there should be a tear”.
The general consensus seems to be that this will be the last Toy Story film (unless Disney put an extreme amount of pressure on Pixar I guess).

The major theme in the 2^nd film put the toys in an almost paternal position as they came to terms with Andy growing up and dealing with the eventuality that he’ll stop playing with them.

Toy Story 3 seems to continue this trend, presenting us with the future that Woody in particular was so afraid of.  Judging from the comments that the last 20-30 minutes are quite upsetting, I’m guessing that Woody has one final moment with Andy before he has to move on forever.  Kind of makes me sad just thinking about it!

The 24th of June can’t come quickly enough.  It’ll be bittersweet enjoying one last adventure with this group of characters, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world!