10 Movies Designed To Give You An Existential Crisis
8. Toy Story 3
There's a strong argument to be made that the Toy Story franchise is Hollywood's greatest work of mainstream existentialist cinema, with Pixar's sequels increasingly leaning into the spiritual plight of both its plastic and human characters.
As gorgeous and entertaining as the films are, they're also backed at almost all times by the melancholic undercurrent that toys exist to be abandoned by their owners and possibly even thrown away.
On a long enough timeline, everyone loses their relevance and decays, and as Toy Story 3 made clear in the most literal of means, we're all moving towards the incinerator on the conveyor-belt of life. To put it another way, the original Toy Story somehow came out a whole 25 years ago.
The genius of these films is that they're near-universally relatable in one way or another.
Perhaps you grew up alongside Andy, or maybe you saw your children leave the nest just as Woody (Tom Hanks) had to say his painful goodbye to Andy, or as in Toy Story 4, maybe you've struggled with your identity and place in the world.
True to form for Pixar, though, the studio ensures that these deeply affecting themes never quite overpower the fun sense of adventure and thoroughly loveable characters.