Toy Story 3

[Jerry Peterson]

Did you love Toy Story, that terrific Pixar movie of 15 years ago? Then you’re going to love Toy Story 3 now out in 3-D.

It’s the story of what happens to Woody and Buzz and the other toys now that Andy is 17 and going off to college. The adventures and misadventures are bigger and badder. For the audience, it’s an emotional roller coaster, if you’ll forgive the cliche.

Toy Story 3 has brought in more than $500 million since its release last month, making it the fourth highest grossing movie of the year.

The film is out in IMAX, and wouldn’t you like to see that?

The critics have loved Toy Story 3 as much as the audience. Said the critic for Flixster, “Deftly blending comedy, adventure, and honest emotion, Toy Story 3 is a rare second sequel that really works.”

Chicago Sun Times critic Roger Ebert prefers the earlier Toy Stories. He said Toy Story 3 was “a jolly, slapstick comedy, lacking the almost eerie humanity that infused the earlier Toy Story sagas, and happier with action and jokes than with characters and emotions.”

Nonetheless, he gave it three of four stars.

Will there be a Toy Story 4, say in 10 years when Andy has children of his own? No, say the executives at Pixar, now owned by Disney. But with Disney, it could happen . . . if someone comes up with a good script.

Sift out all of the great things that have made the Toy Story movies so enjoyable and the number one thing for me is Randy Newman’s music, led off with his “You’ve Got A Friend In Me”.

Sweet, sentimental, clever . . . and his other music in the show, rollicking good fun. You go out of the theater singing “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” . . . at least I did, singing it to myself.

One last thing. Remember the Pink Panther movies? The credits ran in front of the film, and director Blake Edwards mixed a Pink Panther cartoon in and among the credits to keep us watching.

Toy Story 3 director Lee Unkrich ran the credits at the end, and he put another Toy Story movie in the credits to keep us watching.

Clever!

Tomorrow: Meet our new poet laureate