Review: Toy Story 3 (10/10) - 2010: To Infinite And Beyond!

The moment Toy Story 3 was announced, I was both extremely excited and extremely skeptical. The first in the trilogy is in my opinion still the best animation to date. Of course many people will go "but the graphics weren't great," or "UP was SO much better," or "Avatar destroys it in graphics field." No I disagree on this point on a multitude of levels. UP was a phenomenal film don't get me wrong. The talking dog was possibly the best part of the film (primarily as my dog is an uncanny replica to it), and the graphics were very similar in a way to Toy Story 1. Avatar in my opinion shouldn't really be described as an animation as it was too lifelike to the point that you were immersed in Pandora, thus eliminating the animated feel to the film. The whole magic of Toy Story was the realistic, plastic feel of the toys, despite the unrealistic human characters. Besides, you can read my review on exactly what I thought of Avatar, but for now let's concentrate on Toy Story.

The second installment in the film was extremely disappointing, and clearly a lucrative marketing opportunity just four years after the first in 1995. It's hard to imagine that I was just eight years old when the first one came out, so I'm sure you can imagine my emotional ties with the film. People say that you taste changes when you get older, but when I heard that Odeon were going to screen the first one again in 3D, I jumped at the chance with numerous other housemates and friends. I hadn't seen the film in a number of years, but wasn't disappointed. It was exactly how I remembered, allowing me to appreciate the film even more since I've been studying film and television.

The second film for me was a failure for a number of reasons. Firstly, I hated the new characters. Jessie is a terrible addition to the already perfect squad. Secondly, the storyline was very average. Sure it was nice to introduce the Evil Emperor Zurg, but the character didn't fit my childlike imagination. He looked more like a cross between The Devil, Snow White and Rita from the Power Rangers. It was just ridiculous really. Anyway, along with I'm fairly sure the majority of people I know, I thought it was rubbish, so in order to even contend with the first, Toy Story 3 had a lot of making up to do.

Toy Story 3 brings back the same old characters we know and love (minus Bo Peep, Etch & Wheezy, yet annoyingly keeps Jessie). Without giving away too much of the story, Andy (John Morris), is all grown up and getting ready to go to College. His mum asks him to sort out the toys to be donated to charity, and those to be placed in the attic. However, a mix-up occurs and all of the toys (bar Woody who is the only one chosen to go to College) are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center right before Andy leaves for college. As Woody was the only chosen one who could see everything at the time, it is up to him to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and that they should return home to their rightful owner.

The following is the trailer for this phenomenal film:



All I can say, is that Disney's Pixar simply hit the nail on the head with this 103-minute film. It was absolutely spectacular. It took them 10 years to develop and complete this film, and the time and dedication completely pays off. The soundtrack takes me back to when I was eight years old, and brings back that innocence we all once had. I guess a lot of people will think that I'm talking absolute rubbish, but it's a truly emotional film. The intro is possibly THE most intelligent introduction to a sequel I have ever seen, and I sat there in awe as it played out. If only more sequels took a leaf out of Pixar's book.

Originally, a sequel was planned when it seemed that Disney and PIXAR would split over creative differences in 2004-2005. Disney started up an animation division titled 'Circle 7,' which would have been in charge of churning out sequels for PIXAR films that would not involve the original creators at PIXAR. Entertainment Weekly published an article that said the original plot for Toy Story 3 was going to be about Buzz Lightyear having a defect. Buzz would then be shipped to Taiwan to be fixed, but the other toys find out that the toy company is just replacing the broken Buzz toys with new ones, so they ship themselves to Taiwan to rescue him. This script had to be canned when PIXAR and Disney made amends. Part of their agreement was not to further develop projects that had been planned during their fallout (IMDB).

I'm glad this didn't happen as this version is much more intricate. The soothing voice combination of Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) brings back the memories in an adventure of epic proportions. I cannot explain just how cleverly crafted this film is, with points in the film where you think "are they actually going to do this? Is this it?!" There are a magnitude of new characters in this installment, and I believe that unlike the 2nd film, they actually got them right this time. Ken was a brilliant addition to the group (and one that would have benefited in "fixing" the second film), but nonetheless, there were so many hilarious moments, both new and reminders of the past films. This is also the first animated film to make one billion dollars at the worldwide box office, achieving this on August 27th, 2010.

Is it better than Toy Story 1? Surely it must be for 10/10 you must think? My verdict is that it isn't as good as the first, but only marginally. I sat at the end of the film with my group of friends (all of whom kept their 3D glasses on even after the film, (we all did it) for obvious reasons. I contemplated the possibility that this may pip the title for my favourite ever animation. It was perfect in every way, from story, to content, to ending. I believe that the only reason this film didn't beat the first, was the recognisably of new characters. Arguably, the reason that Toy Story 1 was so successful, was because the majority of the toys (aside from Woody(?) and Buzz Lightyear were toys that my generation, and those before me genuinely grew up playing with.

There is a scene with an old toy phone in the 3rd film which I felt I associated more with than the other new characters, simply because I will have played with it at a nursery in my childhood, or a friend will have owned one, etc. I believe that seeing as the toys were in a day care centre through donation, surely they would be old-fashioned, disused toys we would have played with, compared to newly created ones? In any case, the story was still phenomenal, but I felt it was important to add my two cents on why I still think the first is the best of the trilogy. I believe that anyone who had an emotional connection to the first film so many years ago will adore this film. So go and watch it, 3D or not, because it is simply out of this world.

An Introduction To James

Welcome to my first blog. There has been a lot of going's on in and around the Internet the past few years regarding blogging and its effect on everyday life. Everyone seems to be so totally consumed in blogging that until now, I held my own and limited my postings to Facebook and my views on movies between friends. As times change and progress, so must I.

Why "Grenglish Productions" you may ask yourself? A long story short, I am an English national who moved to the island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea when I was very young, and grew up in a Greek-Cypriot environment (One that I love). On a daily basis internationals and locals alike will use a combination of Greek and English in a single sentence, for almost every conversation, also known as "Grenglish". This more or less covers my English roots and Greek lifestyle in a single word, so decided it would be most appropriate, regardless if it's easily understandable to those who have not heard it before.

As with advertising, the film industry is a popular job (understatement of the century), with everyone under the sun wanting to be the next Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp and Paris Hilton (well maybe not that one...but still!), and will do anything to gain a bit of fame.

I have always loved film but decided to study Advertising and Marketing Communications for my undergraduate degree. Adverts for me have always been miniature movies, so MA Producing Film and Television was the next logical step for me.. I always envisaged producing spectacular advertisements such as the Nike football first-person camera and Smirnoff Purified advertisements (see below), to name a couple..





I just never believed that I could succeed in a tight-knit industry without any contacts or previous experience, but after doing my highly-competitive Advertising and Marketing course, I've realised that anything is possible. Advertising is the other dream-job that everyone seems to think they would enjoy for a change of scenery. The sad thing is, some agencies take on students with law degrees over actual advertising degrees. While this may be seen as a moulding technique by some agencies to produce their perfect employees from different backgrounds, it would be far more profitable and less time consuming to employ those who have trained over three years to produce the best results. (Hint: Choose Bournemouth University Students.. We know what we're doing!)

From a young age, I have always enjoyed watching movies and have been fascinated at their production from an acting and cinematographical point of views. I relished tasks during English class between 12-15 years old that included group amateur movie-making, where I often wrote the scripts, filmed, directed and edited the final movies on VHS tape. Whilst this was an amateur attempt at film producing, I believed that this would be a fantastic career choice at some point in my life, which led me to the world of advertising as explained earlier.

Unlike most of my friends, since the invention of the DVD with its vast memory capacity capabilities, I always watch the “Making Of” and “Behind-the-Scenes” in every DVD extra that is available on the films that I own. I also took part in countless school plays, with my first speaking role arriving at aged four. Whilst still in Junior School, I was even lucky enough to play a lead role by the age of ten in the Senior School production of the Water Babies. In my mid-teens, other roles included Mr. Bumble in Oliver, and two roles in The Wiz, thus establishing the acting and production industry in my life from a very young age. I believe that television and film is a natural step up from this process and participating in a few student films during my undergraduate years intensified my love for the course at Bournemouth and the industry in general.

This blog will include links I find interesting and hope you do as well, in addition to my personal views on various blockbusters and lesser-known indie films I come across. It will also include a diary-like progress report on my own film shorts for my course and hopefully generate discussion amongst you, my subscribers.

I've only got one chance to attempt to break into the film industry and hopefully by reading this blog you will get to know a bit about my character (almost impossible from text alone) and how I plan to "make it" and become a house-hold name (here's hoping... after all; what's the point if there's no ambition eh?).

Cheers,

James