Growing Up Toy Story: A Review

Let's get some perspective here shall we? Toy Story came out in 1995. At the time I was only nine years old. From a young age I was bred to be a quite the fan of all things Disney. Toy Story was a brought to me by Disney. The film also happened to be about a young lad most likely not much younger than myself and his relationship with his collection of play things. The idea that toys have a life of their own wasn't a foreign one to me, even at age nine. My younger brother and I often fantasized about the lives our toys had when we were not present. And toys did we have. We were the kind of kids who amassed such a variety of toys that they filled to the brim a giant wooden toybox. We must also take into consideration that I may or may not be the most sentimental human being alive. So much is my nostalgia to even the most insignificant piece of memorabilia that the majority of my childhood toys still reside somewhere packed away among the boxes and boxes of junk my family has squirreled away over the years. I'm a sentimental packrat.

So what did this all mean to me upon seeing that first delightful film about toys and their lives? Not a thing. If I am honest with myself, I just loved the movie because it was great. There was adventure and a relatable through line. Indeed, Toy Story went on to be one of the most watched VHS tapes my brother and I owned. 'Most watched' isn't an exaggerated term here either. For weeks on end, it was our habit to watch the same movie EVERY night before we went to bed. For those of you who have known me a long time and know my tendency to be late to everything; this was one of the early reasons for my oversleeping. I had the Toy Story toys from Burger King, I had the store bought versions -- I even bought the special cloth version of Woody hoping he'd be something like his movie counterpart. It never was. We played the video game on Genesis to completion and we recreated scenes from the film as best we could using our heroic proxies. The sheer impact of Toy Story on my life is understated but concrete. From that day forth the company Pixar was forever synonymous with Toy Story.

Such was my loyalty to this monumental film that I have not to this day ever seen A Bug's Life. Hearing that the company that produced such a beloved film had betrayed my trust as well as that of Buzz and Woody, I subconsciously decided I would never partake in the blasphemy of it all. And then they won me back with Toy Story 2 in 1999. I was thirteen now and, like Andy, I was starting to outgrow the need to open the toybox or melt Green Army men behind the garage at our apartment complex. Still though, times would call and I'd find myself prone to childlike whimsy. Toy Story 2 was wonderful. It made me feel guilty all over again for the gradual unuse my toys started to see, and for a long while I was terrified that the plight of the toys in the movie echoed that of my own toys. Toy Story 2 was a natural thing in my life as by this time Toy Story had already become ingrained in my subconscious. Seeing it was about as common sense as breathing. The wonderful part about this sequel was that it ended on a note of finality. Woody and Buzz have come to terms with the fact that, indeed, one day Andy will outgrow his use for them as all boys do, but all along the way they will be there for him. It was touching and it was hopeful. I think that on some level I was unaware, this is the very reason I was finally able to accept Pixar's next film Monster's Inc.. The story of Woody, Buzz and the gang was over insofar as it could be, and I could move on. I'll admit I never saw Monster's Inc. or Finding Nemo in theaters as I was still mildly uninterested in any Pixar movie that wasn't a Toy Story film, but with time I have gone back and they are both wonderful favorites of mine.

And then, like Andy undoubtedly did, I grew up. Growing up is never something you do on purpose; especially if you're a boy. You wake up every day and one morning eleven years later you look back and all of those things that were so important to you have been replaced with new things. New interests and new entertainments. High school gave way to college. I got a job. My family moved. The toy box was stored away in a garage. I made friends. I learned to drive. I got in trouble. I made mistakes. I got a job. I moved away from home. I lost friends I wish I hadn't. I started paying bills. I took on responsibilities. And suddenly that little boy who I was sure I still was was gone. This realization gave way to the melancholy that a time in my life had come and gone without me even knowing, and it was time to move on to whatever was next. This last Friday I saw Toy Story 3.

Toy Story 3 finds Andy all grown up and headed for college. Woody, Buzz, and the remnants of a once glorious collection of toys sit solemnly day in and day out inside a toy chest. By all accounts they haven't been given a second glance in years. Confronted with the decision to either throw away his old toys or store them away in an attic, Andy chooses to take Woody along and store away Buzz and the rest. A mix-up causes the attic-bound toys to almost find themselves garbage-bound, when through a daring set of actions instead wind up being donated to a nearby daycare. The story is the least engrossing part of Toy Story 3. This is not to say that it lacks imagination or thrill. The sheer amount of creativity that Pixar puts into every tiny nuance of this film is mind boggling. The places and adventures the toys have in this film trump in scale and in spectacle almost everything the previous two films offered. The humor is strongly in tact throughout, and watching this movie feels just like going home. This is to say nothing in this movie feels like it's forcefully recreating the magic of the first films. Though every viewer will likely have an idea of where the chips will fall by film's end, the story is no less suspenseful or enjoyable for it.

Instead, the treasure of Toy Story 3 lies in its heart. While I know that any mildly well-adjusted child will enjoy the hijinks at play in this film, I can't help shaking the feeling that Toy Story 3 was made for boys like me. The boys who first took that adventure with Woody when they were nine and had become young men in the time since. Obviously, the experiences and growing up Andy has done are not detailed and I believe that's because all of us are Andy now. There is a very specific age group of my peers that grew up with these three movies, and this third in particular speaks to us as we look back on our long lost childhoods one last time. Toy Story 3 is a story about many things. It's a story about how important our childhood is to us. It's about growing up and what that means. It's about loyalty and how you treat those around you. It's about the crushing sadness of having to let go as well as the realization that it's okay to do so because those memories are never gone from us. Toy Story 3 tells the people like me in the audience that we haven't lost that little boy we were. It tells us that somewhere deep inside the experience of childhood guided us to where we are now, and that true friends never really leave us. Through the eyes of the toys we learn about what it means to be loyal and to never give up on those who are closest to us. We learn that friendship will get us through virtually anything, and we learn how to say goodbye.

Toy Story 3 is just a movie, but somehow to me it's meant so much more. The three Toy Story films stand as a mirror of my growing up. Toy Story 3 marks the end of my childhood in a way. It's an acknowledgment of my progress in life and a reminder of all of the new things I have ahead of me without ever compromising the importance of my past. It's hard to explain to some people what a movie like this is for me, and I imagine there is only a limited subset of people who will ever fully grasp this film in a manner similar to my own. I may not have realized it along the way, but the Toy Story franchise has taught me lessons all throughout my life. It was with a certain kind of joyful sadness that I found myself in the theater choked up to the point of tears during the final fifteen minutes of this film as I realized that Toy Story was teaching me my final lesson. I'm all grown up now and Buzz and Woody and all the rest don't mean to me what they once did, but they like the franchise itself will always be a part of me in a way. If this sounds like high praise for a movie; realize that it very much is the highest praise I can give. Toy Story 3 ended up besting even my loftiest expectations and because of that and the unique place it holds in my life it stands as not only the best Pixar film ever released, but one of the best films I have seen in a very long time. Bring a box of tissues, an attitude for a good laugh, and the little kid who's right where you left him... Toy Story 3 is worth every moment.

Fiction is Better than Truth.

The view from the roof of my apartment will be the thing I miss the most about living here. Let it never be said that Milwaukee is not a beautiful city when it wants to be one.

Review: Avatar

Avatar is the new kid on the block. That movie you've all heard about that's supposed to change the way we watch movies, revolutionize cinema, and make you forfeit your religion and worship heathen computer generated gods of film. If you're anything like me, you really want to dislike this movie. The trailers aren't all that impressive, the CG doesn't look that groundbreaking on TV, and for some of you I'd gather that it looks like Dances with Wolves in space. On all three of those points, you'd be absolutely correct and if I were not to preface this review with the fact that I shared these sentiments as I walked into the film I would be committing a great omission. Instead, I believe it is important to acknowledge the decks stacked against Avatar by a large percent of its potential audience because when I state the fact that it almost effortlessly crushes all of these preconceived notions, I want you to realize the gravity of what I am trying to say.

Let's take a moment here to emphasize the absolute NECESSITY of seeing this movie in 3D. Don't be a fool and scoff at the extra three to four dollars you're paying to walk into the theater and put on the silly glasses. I actually hate to admit it, but this movie does things visually that will change your perception of what it is to 'experience' a movie -- and YES, I am perfectly aware of how pretentious that sounds. That's the thing I discovered early in Avatar and it will be a running theme of my review: for all the grand statements of revolutionizing movies and changing your perception of 3D and how horribly stock it all sounds; it's all shockingly and begrudgingly true. Visually at least. Critically this film had already gained some impressive inertia early on, and having read a lot of it I cynically assumed that it was reviewers being reviewers. Of specific note, a particular review boldly told me that there are moments in Avatar that will, regardless of the story, have you shaking your head in amazement at what you're seeing on the screen. This particular point stuck in my head as the movie progressed and even with that in mind there were moments my jaw almost dropped and I had to marvel at the scope that this movie was operating. Assuming you're not extremely jaded, this movie will grip you visually at some point or another. For me, it was early in the film during a nighttime run through the jungles of Pandora which at night apparently becomes lit by phosphorescent plant life and micro organisms. It's during these scenes that you suddenly feel uniquely drawn right into the scene in a way that feels ten times more immersive than any film I can think of in the last half decade. The film continues to impress as the movie bit by bit reveals more and more of the gorgeously lush and magnificent world that the filmmakers have crafted. Like I said before, I actually very much dislike to admit it, but this movie will knock you on your ass a few times.

All of this would be completely distracting if you could not get behind the main characters -- an entirely CG albeit motion captured race of nine foot tall blue aliens called the Na'vi. As a benchmark, I've considered Gollum from the Lord of the Rings trilogy to be the most fully realized computer generated character of all time. Thinking back, I believe his effectiveness relied heavily not only on the skill of the technology, but the degree to which the filmmakers made him feel like he was in the world interacting with other characters and objects. To say the Na'vi have moments in which I had to stop and wonder if there wasn't at least some practical element to their portrayal is the highest praise I can think of. They feel tactile and weighty; their eyes don't seem 'dead' as with most of the Robert Zemeckis mo-capped films recently; and most importantly you start to believe this could be a real race on this planet. The amount of emotion displayed on their faces and the reality of their movements do wonders to immerse you as opposed to pulling you out of the experience (there's that word again).

You may notice at this point that I haven't really mentioned the plot of Avatar, but that's not to say it isn't worth mentioning. In the most sobering terms, the plot of this film is probably it's weakest link but it simultaneously demonstrates director James Cameron's greater strengths. The story itself is one that is pretty standard and it's been told many times over. Any reasonably astute viewer will be able to predict the film from the first moment to the last in the first half an hour, but the thing about good science fiction is taking something conventional and familiar and making it new again. Personally I took the fact that Cameron was able to take a plot I knew before the Na'vi had been properly established and make me genuinely invest and care in its proceedings was one of the more astonishing things happening in an otherwise astonishing film. It's been suggested elsewhere that the plot was knowingly simple in order to fully exploit not only the revolutionary setting constructed around it, but the various emotions intended to be evoked. I have to agree with this idea as its not so much about what is happening on screen, but the sum of everything together. Cameron seemingly takes something that in the hands of pretty much any other director would fall to pieces and mediocrity and handles it with such a degree of mastery and craft that you never stop to break it all down.

Of the few negative things I can assign to Avatar, many of them are minor enough to not detract from the overall experience. Firstly, a small deal of the suspense usually generated from such a huge movie is removed because of the decidedly generic plotline. Some would say Cameron overcame the same hurdle to a degree with his last movie, Titanic. Everyone knows at the end the ship is going to sink and a lot of people are going to die, but it's the 'how' of it all that Cameron proves to be in the most control and this carries over to Avatar as well. The second negative here is that if you're really scrutinizing there are moments when humans are interacting with Pandora at large and the Na'vi in particular where you definitely get the feeling that you're looking at CG elements mixed with green screened humans. It's easy to ignore, yet it's still a problem. Lastly, Avatar suffers from being a bit too heavy handed in it's allegorical elements at times and for those of you like me, this will be a bit tasking from time to time. The Na'vi in particular and their struggle to fight off more powerful usurpers heralds a bit too strongly to Native American archetypes, and obviously the idea of lesser equipped natives overcoming great militaries is as common as Return of the Jedi. The environmental allusions as well add to the moments that it feels like Avatar is trying to force-feed half heartedly veiled messages to you and it grates after a fashion.

All of these things aside, Avatar can be marked largely as a success. While watching the movie and silently reviewing it in my head as I watched (a funny habit I've developed since writing this blog), the word 'spectacle' continued to pop into my head. The movie is so epic in scale and scope that you feel dwarfed by the whole thing. The technology, in 3D of course, is enough to change the way you define the word 'epic' in correlation to movie going experiences and the story is primal enough that it speaks to parts of all of us regardless of how many times we've heard the tale. If you're on the fence about venturing out to give Avatar a try, I would wholeheartedly encourage you to make that venture because even if you go in with a jaded mindset chances are good you will walk out surprised in at least one way. Will this be the next cultural phenomenon some of the ads make it sound like? No, I don't think so. Is Avatar something special? I would like to think it is and worth seeing now so you can remember what it was like when 'epic' took on a new meaning.