BEFORE: I suppose I could have gone just about anywhere after "Night at the Museum", like into my historical films, or biopics about world leaders or U.S. generals. But this feels the most right, from mannequins that come to life to toys that do the same.
For linking, both films have giant casts, so there are probably a hundred ways to do this - but the first one I thought of was to go from Clint Howard to Tom Hanks (last seen in "Joe Versus the Volcano") via "Apollo 13".
THE PLOT: The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
AFTER: Feels good to finally get to this one, with everyone in the animation community raving about it, while simultaneously tearing up over it. Oh yeah, and it won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
Gotta concur, it's a winning formula. How can you not feel sympathy for a bunch of toys that are no longer played with? Unless you're a heartless bastard, or a jaded adult, or were never a child who played with toys...
What a perfect, perfect example of Hollywood six-act structure. You can almost set your watch by it, every 13-15 minutes they go to a new set-up, or there's a turn-around in the situation. And despite their best efforts, the toys keep getting further from home, and the outlook gets worse and worse, until it reaches near-impossibility, the "darkest before the dawn". It's almost too perfect, if that's possible, because I was keenly aware of the turning points. But hey, at least they were there.
If you're like me, and one of the few people who hadn't seen this yet, the toys from the previous films that we've come to know and love realize that their owner has grown too old, they haven't been played with in years, and end up, partly by accident and partly by choice, at a day-care center. It's a double-edged sword - the toys get played with, but it's not necessarily the type of attention that they wanted.
The brilliance comes when the movie references films like "The Great Escape" and "Cool Hand Luke", as the toys realize that their new home might be something akin to a prison, and an incredibly complex escape scheme is hatched. Jeez, I'm a fan of prison-break films, and I found the plan a little hard to follow. But still, wildly inventive.
And, pursuant to last night's point, the toys KNOW they are toys, and they act according to a set of rules. Not allowed to move when humans are looking, for example. Oh, the cowboy may act like a cowboy, and the army men act like soldiers, but in this world when Buzz Lightyear forgets he is a toy, and starts acting like a "real" spaceman, there's an inherent wrongness to the situation, and it's a problem that needs to be fixed. Way to maintain the rules.
There's almost a danger in adding more characters to an already large line-up of toys. But some of them were used sparingly, and the Barbie and Ken stuff was just great - there's so much comedy to be mined out of those two.
And no phony blooper reel at the end! Hurray!
Also starring the voices of Tim Allen, Joan Cusack (last seen in "Looney Tunes: Back in Action"), Ned Beatty (last seen in "Rudy"), Michael Keaton (last seen in "Out of Sight"), Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn (last seen in "Furry Vengeance"), John Ratzenberger (last heard in "A Bug's Life"), Richard Kind (ditto), Estelle Harris (last heard in "Queer Duck: The Movie"), Laurie Metcalf, Timothy Dalton, Whoopi Goldberg (last heard in "The Lion King"), Bonnie Hunt, Jeff Garlin, Kristen Schaal, R. Lee Ermey.
RATING: 8 out of 10 lunchboxes
No comments:
Post a Comment