Toy Story 3 (2010)

I was seven years old when I saw Toy Story (1995) and twelve years old when I saw Toy Story 2 (1999). 10 years later and at age 21, I went to see the long awaited TOY STORY 3, and like the first two, I LOVED IT! In this chapter, Andy (voiced by John Morris) is 17 years old, heading off to college and has outgrown his favorite toys: Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), and the rest of the gang: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head (Don Rickles and Estelle Harris), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Slinky Dog (Blake Clark), the three eyed Pizza Planet aliens (Jeff Pidgeon), and Barbie (Jodi Benson). Worried about their uncertain future, the toys are accidently donated to a daycare center called Sunnyside. Upon their arrival, they receive a warm welcome, led by a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear name Lotso the Lots-O’-Huggin Bear (voiced by Ned Beatty), and began to think their troubles are over when they are initially overjoyed to be played once again. Sadly, it gets worse when they get put into a classroom that’s surrounded by younger children and are innocently abused and tortured. After making a big mistake and finding out that Andy is looking for them, the toys plan a daring escape from the daycare center and try to get back home before Andy departs for college. It was kind of weird watching this movie because the way it was made was a lot different than what the first 2 films were, but I didn’t care and I really loved it. I also loved how this film featured references from the first two. It was wonderful seeing our favorite toys again and being introduced to new toys like Buttercup the Unicorn (voiced by Jeff Garlin), Stretch the purple rubber Octopus (voiced by Whoopi Goldberg), Dolly the soft dress-up ragdoll (voiced by Bonnie Hunt), Trixie the blue Triceratops (voiced by Kristen Schaal), and the smooth talking Ken doll (voiced by Michael Keaton). But my favorite new toy will have to be the English, lederhosen-wearing stuffed hedgehog Mr. Pricklepants, who thinks he’s a thespian and was voiced by former James Bond actor Timothy Dalton (The Living Daylights, License to Kill). When this movie was getting made, I was curious about who was gonna take over the voice of Slinky Dog. Blake Clark, who we all see him in movies with Adam Sandler and were great friends with the original voice actor Jim Varney (1949-2000), did an amazing job as southern Dachshund with a metal slinky in the middle. No matter how old you are, You’ll go to Infinity and Beyond with TOY STORY 3 as Lee Unkrich, who helped make TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2, make it become one of the greatest animated movies I’ve ever seen and it’s one of the best movies of 2010 I’ve ever seen.