Tonight I’m going to see Toy Story 3. I’m hoping that the theater I go to isn’t overrun by children, but I’m not sure what recourse I have. Even the late showings of Pixar movies I’ve been to had lots of younguns. So, I’ve accepted the fate that I’ll have to deal with some kids. Still, movies like Pixar movies are best enjoyed in an audience setting.
I’ve always appreciated Toy Story for several reasons. The first movie because of its obvious ground breaking, but also because it’s a great example of artists working with and against the limitations of their medium to come up with excellent filmmaking. As an artist, I can appreciate when someone has a limitation that they have to beat to succeed. Instead of moaning about what they couldn’t do, they set out to tell a fine story and did everything in their power to do so. They took what they couldn’t do and improved on it tenfold in the sequel.
Now, eleven years has passed and the technology of computer animation has completely blown past what was possible even with, say, Monsters Inc. With technical limitations starting to fade away, can these guys still produce without their backs against the wall? Given that even the “worst” of their movies are still pretty good, I’d say yes. Given that the movie is still 100% fresh after well over 100 reviews on RT, it’ll have the first distinction of being the only trilogy to score 100% over all three movies. It couldn’t happen to a better bunch of artists. Bravo, Pixar.
