George Santayana famously once wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
I’m relatively certain he WASN’T talking about cinema when he put that statement to paper, but it’s one that aptly applies to the film world and one that echoed in my head during the entire 142 minutes of Toy Story 3.
From the very first frame, Toy Story 3 seems intent (or content, rather) to remind you of the two other films that preceded it. In fact, if I boiled the plot of this film down to the absolute basics, the themes, to a mere sentence or two, you might think I was talking about Toy Story 2. Or even the very FIRST Toy Story.
A general guideline when it comes to sequels is, give the audience the exact same experience they had with the first film, only make it bigger. I can think of no set of films that does this with such exact precision as this franchise. They seem to have taken the “nothing new under the sun” idiom, not only to heart, but as some sort of warped motto.
So, the question remains, why the heck do I love these films so much?
By all accounts, this is a movie that shouldn’t really work, at least not on the level it does. Sure, it was destined to be a box office giant, but to have become such a critical darling? I suppose early reactions to it were bound to be positive, Pixar, as a studio, seems to just ooze good press, but after buzz dies down for any film like this, here come the detractors. Even watching it now, I’m baffled as to WHY everyone, especially me, loves it so much.
Not that it didn’t get ANY negative reviews. I liked it and I spent the first few paragraphs of this discussion pointing out exactly what’s WRONG with the movie, but itseems not only to deflect them, but there’s an army of loyals waiting in the wings to shout down the negatives. You might say it has it’s very own attack dog, with a built in force field.
As with any Pixar film, the animation is impeccable, the humour is equal parts broad and subtle and the characters exude more humanity than almost any other of their celluloid brethren. It elusively tackles adult themes like racism, death, love, abandonment, and to a lesser, more hilarious degree, metro-sexuality. But, none of that answers my question.
Why does a film that so blatantly panders to its audience, one that uses almost every trick in the book to pull on your heart strings, one that rehashes themes it previously beat to death, one that puts a new coat of paint on old walls and passes them off as new; why does a film like that work?
Watching Toy Story 3 is the cinematic equivalent of reuniting with old friends, your best friends, but ones you see only every few years. Sure, Woody dreams too much about the past, Buzz has become far too complacent, Mr. Potato Head gripes incessantly about his wife; Rex is an idiot man-child, Hamm’s sarcasm has become his singular method of communication, Slink’s not quite the same and Jessie’s enthusiasm is no longer inspirational, it’s just exhausting. But, they’re your friends; no matter how much you’ve outgrown them, they’ll always have that sway over you. They remind you of how young you once were and how much promise life once had.
One of the movie’s biggest themes is probably that of “Let Go, Move On.” It’s something that mostly conflicts with Santayana’s warning about remembering the past. But, Toy Story 3 ultimately comes to the conclusion that, while we are all destined to repeat the mistakes of our life, we’re also destined to rediscover its glories.
