TOY STORY 3 early ShoWest reviews; another Pixar tearjerker...
Toy Story 3, in unfinished 2-D form (temp score, animation not quite there - said to be 85% done) premiered at ShoWest yesterday in L.A; the very first outside of Disney/Pixar screening held anywhere in the world. A handful of embargo-friendly musings (i.e. general reactions but nothing in-depth that could bring about a lawsuit) have begun popping up all over the place and the general consensus is that the movie is excellent and Disney have a massive hit on their hands. As with all of these occasions though, we should be reminded to wait until the giddy excitement has settled down before truly weighing up the facts. But positive word of mouth is good and after the incredible run of Wall*E and Up, two movies that damn well left me in tears, it sure sounds like Pixar are working their magic once again. From the sounds of things, there's not a dry eye in the house.Jim Hill Media (The ultimate Disney authoritarian) called the film "terrific" and said;
So what can I tell you about Toy Story 3 without revealing any significant surprises? Er Um Well, for starters, you should bring Kleenex. Lots & lots of Kleenex. Because I can guarantee you that youre going to spend a good portion of the last 30 minutes of this film in tears... I mean, I sat in that hall today surrounded by hardened industry professionals. Exhibitors who care more about how much popcorn & soda theyre selling than the movies theyre currently showing at their multiplexes. And these jaded theater owners as Toy Story 3 entered the home stretch were openly weeping. Tears streaming down hundreds of faces as the ultimate fate of Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the whole Andys Room gang was decided.
Steve Weintraub of Collider and Peter Sciretta of Slash Film both tweeted about those final 30 minutes; @colliderfrosty "Toy Story 3 continues pixars streak of brilliance. Last 20 or 30 minutes wrecked me." @slashfilm "Toy Story 3 was great, last 30 minutes were pure brillance ." Reading all the non-reviews, it seems pretty clear that A) The opening scene featuring some kind of western/train get-up for Woody (think the video game Buzz Lightyear opening of Toy Story 2) is different to the usual scenes in the Toy Story universe and is incredible B) The movie ends on a definite finale note for the characters and C) The movie is good, very good but just not quite up to the level of the other two. Of course, that's me reading between the lines but you can pretty much weave that truth out of these reports... Latino Review; it's a great, great addition to the Toy Story films....just as funny, sweet, adventurous, sad and goofy as the previous Toy Story movies. Lee Unkrich put his co-directing gigs behind him and gave us a fantastic end to the series. All of the toys were present (except for a few, which is explained in the film) and the movie looked great. the story about how we outgrow the things we grew up with seemed to hit a lot of people in the theater. The last act had some around me crying, probably thinking back to when they had favorite toys of their own growing up.Alex Billington at First Showing;
it is a very wild ride. It's actually a great story that has a few twists and turns and deviates from the norm quite a bit, but it's still as great as any other movie from Pixar. I did really enjoy it and have a fun time watching it, but that's really all there was, nothing more to make it extraordinary. It's a bit hard to say, because I love Pixar so much, but it felt like this lacked the same magic of Pixar movies of past (at least up until the ending). But if you love the Toy Story movies, you're going to love this one, too.Screen Crave;
this was a good film, a great animation, and I liked it quite a bit but it did not quite have the wow quality that I have come to expect from Disney/Pixar. Dont get me wrong, this is a solid film, filled with all the heart-break, life lessons and joy of any of the other Toy Story films and as always they had a number of surprises youll never see coming, but it was by no means my favorite of the series. In some ways it just seemed to deliver the basic goods that we want from the movie without really going above and beyond. The short that they played before the film, Day and Night, actually impressed me more than the film.Toy Story 3 opens in three months hence.