Much like the toys themselves, the Toy Story franchise is starting to feel played out. As Viking teenagers romp with dragons in super-extra 3-D and their original audience has now fallen for heartthrob vampires, Hamm, Jessie and the gang are left on the metroplex shelf. In Toy Story 3, even human protagonist Andy has outgrown his pirate chest of playthings, calling them "junk" and regulating them to a life in the attic. The regular plotlines ensue, with Woody and Buzz saving Rex and friends time and time and time again.
Director Lee Unkrich, Pixar co-founder John Lasseter and co-screenwriter Andrew Stanton jazz up these mini-adventures with the introduction of hundreds of new toys and some rather adult situations. When Andy has to decide which childhood toys he'll take to college, he chooses Woody, and the remaining toys are accidentally thrown away; Woody escapes to save them, and the whole gang haphazardly ends up at Sunnyside Daycare. At Sunnyside, the old toys meet some new toys. Big huggable bear Lotso (Ned Beatty) runs the day care, and it's here where Barbie (Jodi Benson) meets Ken (Michael Keaton). Keaton is brilliant as the well-coiffed Ken, and they both prattle on like Heidi and Spencer, even if the script takes one too many potshots at Ken's ambiguous sexuality. Meanwhile, Woody, while trying to escape (again) to be reunited with Andy, goes home with Bonnie, a toddler who attends the center. Bonnie owns her own batch of new toys, the most genius of which is Mr. Pricklepants, a hedgehog-cum-thespian voiced brilliantly by Timothy Dalton.
4:59 AM
Keziah
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