Our first family movie-going experience went so very well. The kids were riveted, and there was only minor squirrelyness from Petey. One of us had to wipe away some tears, but I won’t reveal that gentle soul’s identity to you. Here’s what the kids thought:
(There are some very minor spoilerish statements below.)
Poppy: “It was great. It was awesome. It was a great movie. My favorite part was when Woody and Slink stopped the monkey.”
Pete: “My favorite part was ‘Toy Story 3.’ ”
I enjoyed it, too, but I still think the original was the best one. I did find the similarities between “Toy Story 3” and the “Lost” finale interesting — the live together, die alone theme was there, as was the echoing of the movie’s/series’s opening sequence.
Because this was a movie, Rockford had the most to say. I asked him to keep it to five sentences. He wasn’t able to be quite that succinct, but he did pretty well:
It’s a bittersweet send-off meant for the people who were 6 years old when the first movie came out rather than the people who are 6 years old now. The characters have gotten older. They’ve seen toys come and go, and they’re all a little world-weary. This might be the most well-directed of the three movies; of all of them, it’s the hardest thematically. It has some of the darkest moments of the trilogy, but it also has some of the best examples of the friendship and camaraderie between these “people.” I would watch the movie again just to see the Chuckles the Clown scene, which used the convention of film noir. And you found yourself laughing at the reference, but it was also really well done. I give it four out of four stars.
waiting for her.*