"Toy Story 3" by Lee Unkrich: a review

Toy Story 3 has been referred to as one of the best trilogies of all times. This time the movie is enhanced with 3-D technology. So the viewer is seemingly taken directly into the action with the toys and the characters. The movie is directed by Lee Unkrich and has an all star cast of famous voices. Those would include Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack, Tim Allen, John Morris, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Jodie Benson, Timothy Dalton, Michael Keaton, John Ritzenberger and R. Lee Ermey.

When last we saw Andy Davis he was a youngster, fast forward to where he is now seventeen years old and on his way to college. His toys do not see him as older, he is still their loveable Andy. The toys are a bit concerned because they think they may be discarded in some way when he leaves for college in a day or two.

The toys are assessing how many of them have been lost over the years, they are meeting to voice their concerns. Three of the last of the Army Men, Sarge and two paratroopers are so afraid that they will be tossed in the trash that they jump out the window and go off into the wild blue yonder.

The other toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Bullseye, Mr. and Mrs. Potatohead, Slinky Dog, Rex, Hamm the Piggy Bank and the three Alien Squeak Toys sit and wonder. Some of them think that Sarge may be correct that they all will be thrown into a trash can. Woody refuses to believe that, he thinks that Andy wouldn't treat them that way, that he would store them somewhere safe. But that did not stop the other toys from worrying what their fate would be now that Andy was leaving. What would happen to them?

Andy and his mom come into the room with Molly. His mom wanted them to clean up their rooms and put any excess in the attic, or donate the items to the Sunnyside Day Care Center. Molly tosses her Barbie doll into the box for donations to the center along with a few other toys. Andy starts to place some of his toys into a trash bag but stops when he picks up Woody and Buzz. Woody goes into a box marked college, Buzz is put into a black trash bag. He was very fond of his toys and really did not want to part with them.

Andy left the room to help Molly move the donations box. Andy's mother sees the trash bag and mistakenly takes it to the curb for trash pick-up. Woody jumps out the window to help Buzz who is in the trash bag but Buzz manages to escape the trash bag and the pick-up truck. Jessie looks at the Sunnyside donations box and convinces everyone to jump in the box which is in the van, while Woody is trying to get them not to go. Andy's mother closes the trunk with all of them inside and drives the van to Sunnyside Day Care.

Once there the toys are tormented by a sweet smelling teddy bear named Lotso who became disillusioned when he and his toy friends were accidently left at a rest stop by their owner. He became a tyrant after roaming around, finally winding up at Sunnyside Day Care and taking over command of the other toys,

When the toys along with Barbie arrived at Sunnyside, they initially thought it was great until they met up with Lotso. He subjected them to boot camp treatment, imprisoned them and kept some of them in cages. Barbie was attracted to Ken who was Lotso's assistant and even she got locked up for not going along with Lotso's program. Mr. Potato head was stuffed in the sand box for a time.

The toys went through many harrowing scenarios alone and together at Sunnyside. All of them except Barbie wound up at a trash dump where they were eventually rescued by a giant claw and dumped out like red puppet toys in a magic show. The toys were able to clean themselves up and get back to Andy's house where they jumped into the box marked attic, on which Woody quickly marked the street address of a little girl who he thought would take good care of them.

Andy comes into the room, sees the box and thinks his mom had written the address on the box. He takes the box to the house where the little girl lives and introduces her to all his toys. The little girl was happy as were the toys.

The toys found out that Barbie and Ken had made Sunnyside a better place for the other toys with classic comics everywhere. Lotso had been picked up by a trash truck driver the night they all escaped from the dump and was tied to the front of the truck, as he reminded the driver of a teddy bear he had when he was young. Sarge and the two paratroopers somehow found their way to the house the other toys were hanging out.

After delivering Woody, Buzz and the other toys Andy drove off to see what the future would hold for him wolverine toys as well. It's like they were new organic childrens toys to be shared again. He was satisfied that the little girl who now had his precious toys would take very good care of them as he waved good-bye.