Tag: Pixar

Toy Story 3 (with added D)

The final (probably) installation in PIXAR‘s initial franchise closes the lid on the adventures of Buzz and Woody.

Toy Story 3

“The claaaaaaaw!”

I’m assuming anyone reading this is familiar with the first two films and therefore the characters. Some have vanished over time – Andy is after all now 17 years old and about to go to college. He has to choose what to do with his toys – throw them, chuck them in the attic or donate them to a day care centre.

And thus the adventure begins. As usual, Woody is the leader and knows the situation – but the others don’t believe him. This plot line is getting a little thin. You’d have thought the rest of the group would have figured out that he’s on the ball by now.

Visually, the film’s superb. It also has a decent story which really picks up towards the end with some scenes that are really tense as the toys face near certain doom. By tense, I mean near-horrific. Seriously, it’ll scare the youngest kids.

There are some nice harks back to the original film and the cast are on form as ever. John Lasseter has been replaced as director by Lee Unkrich who edited the previous two instalments and he’s done an admirable job.

Still, given the choice, I’d recommend Shrek Forever After over this. Cartoons are meant to be funny and the big green ogre’s final shout has far more laughs than TS3.

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Up

Just a quick mid-week film review as I caught Disney Pixar‘s Up tonight with Tracey in Bradford.

Plot-in-a-nutshell: grumpy old man decides to get away from it all by inflating a bazillion balloons and floating his house to South America. A young “wilderness scout” accidentally tags along. Adventure ensues.

I won’t wax lyrical about the visuals. Typically of Pixar they’re simply superb with every tiny detail adding to the depth of the film – moreso if you watch it in 3D, I assume. To give you a level of the attention to detail, watch the bad guy’s eye twitch when Russel slides past his airship.

What makes Up stand out from other Pixar movies is the depth of information about the characters, and how emotionally involved the storyline is. If you thought that Nemo being torn away from his father was tear-jerking, just you wait till Russell tries to explain about his father. Or when “grumpy” Carl rewards hi mat the end.

Topping the bill, though, is a 5-minute introduction to Carl Fredricksen. The movie opens with a sequence lasting a couple of minutes with Carl as a young boy and then moves onto what could be a short film in itself. This absolutely enchanting five-or-so minutes is played purely to music and takes us through Carl’s life up until the point where the film proper starts. And if your eyes don’t moisten by the end of it, you’re a cruel monster.

I’d not rank Up as being quite as entertaining as the likes of Cars or Monsters Inc. However, as an actual film is beats anything else they’ve done hands down, purely due to the emotional involvement.

Great as that is, however, the kids will still be asking for Finding Nemo to be shoved on repeat on the DVD player rather than this one come the middle of next year.

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