It represented a bold, broad stroke, a security in storytelling (and violation of kid vid tone) that only an amazingly talented entity could pull off. Last year, the brilliant Up offered a silent, ten-minute montage which followed the romantic life and eventual end of lead misanthrope Carl Fredricksen’s fairytale marriage to childhood sweetheart Ellie.

It’s a beautiful sequence, another stellar example of the boundaries Pixar keeps pushing. Seeing their reaction, their brave calm and sense of sacrifice, the cowboy that started the entire storyline two decades’ prior grabs their mold formed hands, and waits…

Eventually, faces serene if still slightly afraid, they look to their ersatz leader, Woody, for the final link in their chain of fate. Eventually, they realize the hopelessness of their cause and commit an act so selfless, so instinctual of what we’ve felt for these characters, that is stops your heart beat, if only for a moment.įirst Buzz and Jessie (if only accidentally), then Bullseye the horse and the Potato Heads. While Woody flails about manically, trying to uncover the possible exit, the rest of his companions are less certain. In the case of the last act realization that they might end up inside a fiery inferno, the action of the titular toys is so moving, so incredibly simple that it shows how effective less can be at expressing the most important of emotions.Īs with many action sequences, the last-minute getaway seems imminent. With their record currently at 11 – 0, the company has yet to create a certified bomb and, for many, have only made masterpieces (both minor and major). Again, instead of reviewing the film itself, which requires the acknowledged repetition of sentiments expressed endlessly over the last few days, we will focus on a single sequence - call it the “incinerator stand-off”– and use it as a means of explaining Pixar’s enduring power within the art form. Thus, we come to our major SPOILER warning. Before long, they find themselves in the very same dangerous dilemma they were hoping to avoid in the first place. Desperate to break out, our familiar friends escape through the only available way out: the garbage chute. If you survive, and aren’t eventually thrown out, you might get to live out your days in the serene fun of the older kids’ Butterfly area. Leader toy Lotso Hugs the Bear (Ned Beatty) runs the place like a prison, putting the new “recruits” in the Caterpillar Room along with the rambunctious, destructive toddlers. There, they discover a surreal situational pecking order. His bag is mistaken for trash, but our plastic heroes avoid the landfill by hiding out in another box intended for a local daycare. Pushed to do something with the trinkets remaining, Andy decides to put them in the attic. Andy is now a 17-year-old colleg- bound teen, and his collection of playthings are feeling the sting of neglect and possible disposal. Toy Story 3 begins several years after the first sequel. We are talking, of course, about the incinerator showdown, a moment which finds Buzz, Woody, and the gang relying on the wrong plaything to aid in their escape, a massive machine hurtling them ever closer to their doom, and a single moment of resolve that stands as one of the most emotional and heartfelt finales ever in the history of film - live action or animated.įirst, a little plot perspective. Instead of offering an in-depth review of Toy Story 3 let’s instead focus on a seminal sequence in the stellar Pixar trequel, a moment that will have many in tears and have more than a few covering their faces in fear. It certainly comes from one of the year’s best films (though at least three Rotten Tomatoes registered critics disagree with that assessment) and while it may seem too soon to suggest, there’s no doub few will match it come July and/or August. Though it’s barely two months old, it is time to declare a best scene of Summer 2010.

Toy story 3 incinerator reaction