Film review: Magically imaginative, 'Toy story 3'

Film: Toy story 3 (3D)
Director: Lee Unkrich
Cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton
Rating: ****1/2

Toy Story’s universe has been keeping pace with the changing times. Andy is 17, ready to go off to college and his mom wants him to clear out his room. He packs up all his favorite toys to put them into the attic, but mistakenly they get transported to Sunnyside Daycare.

Buzz, Rex, Hamm, Potato Head and the rest are now forced to face a future without their master. Add-ons like Barbie, Ken, Pricklepants, Hugging Bear, etc, add spice to the adventure.

Andy’s toys are left out at the curbside, carried in a garbage truck and dumped into a landfill and then escape away only to be donated once again to a kid who loves playing with toys.

The first six minutes of the runtime is devoted to Teddy Newton’s ‘Day and Night’ — an excellent blend of CG and hand drawn animation that stuns. We also get to see the toys in past-forward mode, a kind of home-video engagement that tells you of what transpired in the prequels.

The visuals are brilliantly created, the standard is meticulously consistent. The script by Michael Arndt from a story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and the director Unkrich himself, is quite a treasure trove of gags interspersed into an engaging plot. The animation is brilliant and the emotions generated appear to be genuine and heartfelt. What more could you ask for?