Saturday, July 17, 2010

You'll Laugh, You'll Cry, You'll Kiss Your Childhood Goodbye

Toy Story 3. You don't need me to tell you how good it is. Big time movie critics are calling it a masterpiece. That guy down at the store said he's already seen it twice. And a bunch of people you follow in Twitter said that they cried at the ending. So if you haven't seen it yet, you should go already.

And you probably already know why it is so good. It's not just the animation, which is dazzling. It's the well written characters and story. It doesn't take long before these cartoon toys are people you know and care about. There's adventure, there's comedy, there's good guys, bad guys, character development, joy, sadness, and redemption. Yeah, all that in a cartoon about toys.

It shouldn't be too much of a surprise. This is Pixar after all. But what's all this about grown-up people crying at the end? What's with all the men pretending they've got something in their eye? Well, not to give anything away, but what the grown-ups are weeping for is the passing of their own childhood and for the memory of that passage to adulthood. It is hard, after all, to put away our childish things.

Sometimes it is good to revisit them. Thank you Pixar. It's nice to be reminded.

Oh, by the way, I happened to see it in 3-D. I have no idea why it was produced in this format. The animators didn't use the capabilities of the process at all. See it in 2-D. It's just as good and you won't have to wear the funny glasses.

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