For those who grew up watching the Toy Story films, there was arguably no moment more harrowing than the one that saw the entire cast of delightful, CG-animated characters potentially going to their deaths at the hands of a giant, flaming incinerator thing at the end of the third - and potentially greatest - movie in the Toy Story franchise. After escaping the clutches of a terrifying prison camp masquerading as a day care centre, Woody and company are mistaken for garbage and end up on a conveying belt heading for death at a garbage processing plant. It's at this moment that the geniuses over at Pixar unleashed what still resonates as a horrific moment that threatened to destroy everything we know about "childhood nostalgia." As the toys try to escape from their imminent deaths, moving towards a fiery pit of death, they suddenly realise that resistance is futile: instead of scrambling for their lives, as characters in any other animated movie might have done, they look sadly at one another and... well, just accept their deaths. Luckily they're saved moments after, but geez - c'mon, Pixar!
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
