Movie Review: Toy Story 3 and Comments on 3D

Toy Story (Two-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray/DVD Combo w/ Blu-ray Packaging)As alluded to in my brief post yesterday, I took TRC to the movies yesterday to see Toy Story 3. As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the movie is fantastic. Probably the best of the trilogy, although with movies as great as this series, it’s hard to pick a favorite. Of course, when you see a movie like this, sitting next to your six year old son (who brought his stuffed elephant with him to watch the movie) how can you help but love it? My one piece of advice to you all would be to read as few of the reviews as possible. This is one where you should just go in not knowing anything about “great moments” or “the themes.” Enjoy it. Savor it. It’s that good. An easy four stars, and it deserves a nod for best picture this year–at least a nomination.

The thing is, this movie wasn’t a “kid movie.” It also wasn’t an “animated movie.” Shrek fills those shoes, or even How to Train Your Dragon. Those are both good movies–fun movies. Even moving movies, for Dragon, but in the end, they’re movies. They’re fun. You watch them, and then you go on with your life. You don’t find yourself thinking about them later on, pondering different scenes and thinking about the performances of the characters.

Not so with Toy Story 3.

This isn’t a movie–it’s a Film. It’s got meaning, but it’s got it in ways that don’t pound you over the head with Art. It’s the best sort of art–one that is multifaceted, complex, funny, entertaining, sad . . . all at once. It’s like visual Dickens, but done for the modern day. Can I talk this film up enough? No way. You really need to go see it.

Now, that said, let me go on to another point–my comments on 3D. I saw the film in 3D, of course, and . . . I’m no longer as sold on the technology as I was when I watched Avatar. I’m just not sure that it adds enough to the mix to really warrant its existence. What’s my main gripe? Those darn glasses. 3D right now changes the experience you have in a movie theater. It becomes more of an isolated thing. Each time I wanted to look over at my son, I had to take the glasses off to be able to, because otherwise it was too dark. The glasses make the film darker. They get smudged and can blur the picture. The lights of the aisle can make a reflection inside your glasses, reminding you that YOU’RE WEARING GLASSES the whole movie. (Seriously–I’m never sitting on the end of a row in a 3D movie again.)

What do we get in return for this? Slightly more immersion. No more meaning. No more complexity. It adds a cool factor, but it does so at a cost to the rest of the movie. If Toy Story 3 had been in 2D, would I have gone to that version, instead?  Probably not. The 3D is cool.

But it will always feel gimmicky until they can do something about the glasses. The Nintendo 3DS is bringing glasses-free 3D to the masses on a small scale. I look forward to technology that brings it to the movie theater. One day, my friends.

One day.

2 thoughts on “Movie Review: Toy Story 3 and Comments on 3D”

  1. We took our kids to see Toy Story 3 last week, and we all loved the movie, too. I think it’ll be my favorite of the three, and I loved the other ones, too. We saw it in 2D (Chris gets migraines from the 3D ones, and the rest of us don’t like the glasses). We didn’t really feel like we missed anything. I loved how much emotion and suspense they were able to put in, because you really do get invested in their characters.

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