Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is the eleventh Disney/Pixar feature film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. The film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Lee Unkrich, who edited the previous films, and co-directed the second, took over as director. In his place, Ken Schretzmann is the editor.

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf all reprised their voice-over roles from the previous films. Jim Varney, who played Slinky Dog in the first two movies, and Joe Ranft, who portrayed Wheezy and Lenny, died before production began on the third film. The role of Slinky was taken over by Blake Clark, while Ranft's characters and various others were written out of the story (Wheezy and Bo Peep, for example, are mentioned in the beginning as having been sold). New characters include voice-overs by Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton, Bonnie Hunt, Whoopi Goldberg and Michael Keaton.

Toy Story 3 was released worldwide during June and July. The feature broke the record of Shrek the Third as the biggest single day North American (aka 'domestic') gross for an animated film unadjusted for inflation, and the second-highest grossing opening weekend of animated film behind only Shrek the Third, with an unadjusted gross of $110,307,189. It is also the highest grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film, as well as the highest grossing opening weekend for a film to have opened in the month of June. Toy Story 3 is currently the highest-grossing film of 2010 in the United States and Canada, and the second highest grossing film of 2010 worldwide. It is now the highest grossing animated film of all time, surpassing Shrek 2, which held the record for 6 years.

Plot
The film opens with a Western style action sequence in which Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, (acting as One-Eyed Bart and One-Eyed Betty) are committing a train robbery until Woody appears to stop the crime. Woody is knocked off the train by One-Eyed Betty, only to be caught by Jessie, riding Bullseye. Then, Bart and Betty set off explosives that destroys a bridge and make their escape in their car driven by the Aliens (Jeff Pidgeon). Woody tries to save the orphans (troll dolls), but the train keeps going and falls off the bridge. However the orphans and Woody are saved by Buzz Lightyear catching the whole train before disintegrating the One-Eyed's getaway car with his laser. This leads to a standoff between Woody, Buzz and Jessie against the One-Eyed's and the aliens, made more fierce when One-Eyed Bart releases Slinky (known as "The Attack Dog With A Built-In Force Field) and Woody responds by releasing Rex (known as "The Dinosaur Who Eats Force Field Dogs"). Suddenly, Hamm (acting as Evil Dr. Porkchop), flies into view in his airship and he picks up the One-Eyed's and their associates and presses a button labeled "Death By Monkeys". A huge barrel of monkeys is released and they quickly sworn and bring down Rex before capturing Woody, Buzz and Jessie. Just as Bart is about to press the "Death" button, the sequence ends and goes into Andy's room, revealing to the viewer that was all just an imagination of a child. A series a home video clips of Andy is then screened.

The film then arrives in its present setting, roughly about 10 years since the events of the previous film. Andy is now a 17-year old teenager, having graduated from high school and is now just three days away from heading off to college. Several of his old toys (notably mentioned are Wheezy, Etch and Bo Peep) have been "yard saled" in that time and now just Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Bullseye, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Rex, Hamm, Slinky, the Magic 8-Ball, some Aliens, Sarge and two other Green Army Men and remain. The toys are reluctant but commit to Woody's idea of them being stored in the attic, though the Army men quickly abandon them, believing they will get thrown away into the trash instead. Andy however plans to take Woody to college and put the others in the attic, but after helping his sister Molly with a box of toys (which includes her Barbie doll) to be donated away, he leaves the bag containing his toys in the hallway and his slightly aged mother accidentally takes them to the curb.

Woody goes to save his friends (trying to have Buster help, but he is too old to help), but it turns out that the toys escaped and are hiding in the back of the Davis' car, thinking Andy has thrown them away. Jessie soon finds the box of Molly's toys to be donated to Sunnyside Daycare Center and convinces them to be donated there, Woody finds them attempts to explain to the toys that they were accidentally thrown away but before he can finish the explanation, Andy's mom closes the back door and drives to Sunnyside.

The gang arrives at Sunnyside just as the children leave for recess. The Sunnyside toys welcome Andy's toys with open arms, including the leader of the daycare, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear (a.k.a. "Lotso"), Big Baby and a smooth-talking Ken doll, who instantly falls in love with Barbie. The toys are keen on starting a new life at the daycare, except for Woody, who has suspicions about the daycare because of the Chatter Telephone and also thinks that the toys shouldn't turn their back on Andy so quickly.

The toys think Woody should stay with them at Sunnyside, but Woody reluctantly leaves to find Andy. He escapes from Sunnyside using a hang glider, but ends up losing his hat and getting stuck on the branch of a tree. Woody is soon taken home by a sweet little girl from Sunnyside named Bonnie who takes him to meet her own toys, including Trixie the triceratops, Mr. Pricklepants the hedgehog, Dolly, Chuckles the Clown, Buttercup the unicorn and Totoro. As Woody tries to recuperate himself and continue his search for Andy, Chuckles explains to Woody the dangers of Sunnyside.

Chuckles tells Woody that himself, Lotso, and Big Baby were once owned by a loving girl named Daisy. However, one day, during a family trip, Daisy fell asleep and her parents took her home, accidentally leaving the toys in the countryside. They returned to Daisy's house to find that Daisy's parents bought a new Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear for her, leaving Lotso feeling betrayed and confused. The toys set out on their own (by riding the Pizza Planet truck), and were bumped off over at Sunnyside where Lotso and Big Baby quickly rose to power, transforming the daycare into a toy prison, along with Chuckles before he got broken and escaped and was found by Bonnie. Woody quickly realizes that he must save his friends and get back to Andy before he leaves.

Meanwhile, the rest of the toys are placed in the Caterpillar Room at the daycare, which is full of young toddlers who have no sense of good behavior. Buzz goes to talk to Lotso about transferring them to the Butterfly Room with the more sensible, older children. However, Lotso only offers a transfer for Buzz himself and so Buzz is unable to accept. Lotso and his associates therefore resort to manipulation to get Buzz to accept the transfer and this involves in resetting Buzz into his original, deluded space ranger character, after revealing that they have a library full of toy instruction manuals.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Potato Head, through one of her eyes at Andy's house, discovers that Andy is actively searching for the toys and did not mean to throw them away. Before they leave, they are captured and imprisoned by Lotso and his associates, including the reset Buzz. Lotso then gives the toys Woody's hat that had been left behind and leaves.

The following morning, Woody returns to Sunnyside through Bonnie's backpack. He sneakily reaches his friends and tells them that he's sorry for leaving them. They quickly formulate an escape plan to find Andy with the help of the Chatter Telephone. That night, Woody and Slinky sneak through Sunnyside to the main office, where Chatter informed them that a cymbal-banging monkey known as "The Monkey" monitors the security system throughout the entire daycare to prevent toys from escaping. A brief fight ensues, ending with the Monkey wrapped in sell-o-tape and locked in a filing cabinet by Slinky. Slinky signals to the other toys, still locked up by Lotso, and while Mr. Potato head provides a diversion, they make their escape. During the escape, the reset Buzz is captured and held down by the toys. They attempt to fix him, but accidentally reset him into a deluded Spanish mode, though he does rejoin their side.

They make their way out onto the playground, and after several close-calls (not helped that Buzz continually tries to charm Jessie romantically), manage to reach the garbage chute. Here, Chatter tells them, is where broken toys are sent, and is the only way out of Sunnyside. As the toys prepare to leap to freedom, however, they are confronted by Lotso, who had "broken" Chatter into informing him of the escape plan, along with several of his henchmen. Woody, having been informed of Lotso's past, brings up the subject of Daisy, causing Big Baby (and by extent the other Sunnyside toys) to turn against him. A brief scuffle follows, resulting Lotso and all of Andy's toys (except Barbie, who be stopped by Ken) falling into the dumpster at the bottom of the chute just as the garbage truck arrives. Having been thrown into the rear of the truck, a small TV falls on Buzz, resetting him to his normal self.

The toys find themselves at the Tri-County Waste Plant, where the aliens notice a large crane in the distance, reciting one of their catchphrases, "the claw...," and proceed to venture off toward it. The rest of the toys, meanwhile, are dumped onto a long conveyor belt of garbage heading towards a set of shredders. They manage to avoid the shredders, including Lotso, who is helped to safety by Woody and Buzz. The conveyor belt then moves upwards, however, sending them toward the central incinerator. Lotso notices an emergency shutoff switch at the top of a ladder, and with Woody's and Buzz's help, manages to reach it. Rather than shutting off the belt, however, he walks away. The remaining toys are dropped into a large chamber, where the shredded garbage is falling in an enormous bowl toward the central incinerator. The toys seem resigned to their fate, and join hands as they accept their inevitable death. Just then, however, the aliens use the crane's claw to pull them to safety.

Lotso, in the meantime, finds himself strapped to the front of another truck by a garbage man, who'd owned a Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear when he was a kid. The toys manage to return to Andy's room undetected (riding Sid (Erik von Detten)'s garbage truck), where they pack themselves into a box labeled "Attic." Woody, meanwhile, prepares to journey with Andy to college, when an idea strikes. Andy discovers the box, and finds a note Woody left on the top.

He drives the toys to Bonnie's house, where he pulls them from the box and passes them on to her one by one, explaining their names, personalities, and other traits. Finally, Bonnie looks into the bottom of the box and sees Woody, who had jumped into the box before leaving the note and leaving Andy confused about how he'd gotten in there. Andy picks Woody up before Bonnie can, but then sees the surprised look on her face, as well as all of his other old toys lined up together with her. In one last symbolic gesture, he gives Woody to Bonnie, telling her that they've been through a lot together and he means a lot to him, so she's got to take good care of him. Bonnie gladly accepts, and Andy joins her in playing with what are now her toys one last time. Soon, it's time for Andy to leave, and as he sits in his car and prepares to pull away, he looks back to see Bonnie waving Woody's hand at him. He smiles, thanks his toys for a great life together and accelerates down the road.

The end credits show Andy's toys getting used to life at Bonnie's, while Sunnyside is now a happy place for new arrivals as well as old toys, co-managed by Barbie and Ken. Emperor Zurg and the Army men are also seen landing in Sunnyside after jumping out of the window earlier in the movie, and the last scene is with Jessie and Buzz dancing to the Spanish version of You've Got a Friend in Me.

Development
According to the terms of Pixar's revised deal with Disney, all characters created by Pixar for their films were owned by Disney. Furthermore, Disney retains the rights to make sequels to any Pixar film, though Pixar retained the right of first refusal to work on these sequels. But in 2004, when the contentious negotiations between the two companies made a split appear likely, Disney Chairman at the time Michael Eisner put in motion plans to produce Toy Story 3 at a new Disney studio, Circle 7 Animation. Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz Lightyear, indicated a willingness to return even if Pixar was not on board.

Jim Herzfeld wrote a script for Circle 7's version of the film. It focused on the other toys shipping a malfunctioning Buzz to Taiwan, where he was built, believing that he will be fixed there. While searching on the Internet, they find out that many more Buzz Lightyear toys are malfunctioning around the world and the company has issued a massive recall. Fearing Buzz's destruction, a group of Andy's toys (Woody, Rex, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Jessie, and Bullseye) venture to rescue Buzz. At the same time Buzz meets other toys from around the world that were once loved but have now been recalled.

In January 2006, Disney bought Pixar in a deal that put Pixar chiefs Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter in charge of all Disney Animation. Shortly thereafter, Circle 7 Animation was shut down and its version of Toy Story 3 was shelved. The following month, Disney CEO Robert Iger confirmed that Disney was in the process of transferring the production to Pixar. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Lee Unkrich visited the house where they first pitched Toy Story and came up with the story for the film over a weekend. Stanton then wrote a treatment. On February 8, 2007, Catmull announced Toy Story 2's co-director, Lee Unkrich, as the sole director of the film instead of John Lasseter, and Michael Arndt as Screenwriter. The release date was moved to 2010.

When the people behind the film sat down to look at their work from the original Toy Story during the early development stages, they found they could open the old files, but they could not edit the 3D models and had to recreate everything from scratch.

Instead of sending Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and John Ratzenberger scripts for their consideration in reprising their roles, a complete story reel of the film was shown to the actors in a theater. The reel was made up of moving storyboards with pre-recorded voices, sound effects, and music. At the conclusion of the preview, the actors signed on to the film.

Dolby Laboratories announced that Toy Story 3 would be the first film that will feature theatrical 7.1 surround audio.

Voice cast

 * Tom Hanks: Woody
 * Tim Allen: Buzz Lightyear
 * Joan Cusack: Jessie
 * Don Rickles: Mr. Potato Head
 * Estelle Harris: Mrs. Potato Head
 * Wallace Shawn: Rex
 * John Ratzenberger: Hamm
 * Blake Clark: Slinky Dog
 * Jodi Benson: Barbie
 * Jeff Pidgeon: Aliens
 * R. Lee Ermey: Sarge
 * John Morris: Andy
 * Beatrice Miller: Molly
 * Laurie Metcalf: Andy's Mom
 * Emily Hahn: Bonnie
 * Lori Alan: Bonnie's Mom
 * Ned Beatty: Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear
 * Michael Keaton: Ken
 * John Cygan: Twitch
 * Jack Angel: Chunk
 * Jan Rabson: Sparks
 * Whoopi Goldberg: Stretch
 * Richard Kind: Bookworm
 * Teddy Newton: Chatter Telephone
 * Timothy Dalton: Mr. Pricklepants
 * Jeff Garlin: Buttercup
 * Bonnie Hunt: Dolly
 * Kristen Schaal: Trixie
 * Charlie Bright: Peaty / Young Andy
 * Amber Kroner: Peatrice
 * Brianna Maiwand: Peanelope
 * Bud Luckey: Chuckles the Clown
 * Jack Willis: Frog
 * Erik von Detten: Sid (Garbageman)
 * Lee Unkrich: Jack-in-the-Box / Additional voices (uncredited)
 * Bob Peterson: Janitor

Non-speaking characters include Bullseye, Big Baby, Totoro, and the Monkey. Emperor Zurg, Buzz's arch-nemesis, makes an appearance in the credits with a non-speaking role as well.

Several other characters were written out of the story by being either sold or thrown away after Toy Story 2 (they returned in this film only via archive footage as background characters).

The character of Slinky appeared to be in limbo after the death of his original voice actor Jim Varney in 2000, shortly after Toy Story 2 came out. Stand-up comedian-turned-actor Blake Clark was chosen for the part. After Clark was cast to play Slinky Dog, the producers later discovered that Clark and Varney had coincidentally been close friends, making the transition a lot easier.

Marketing
The film's first teaser trailer was released with the Disney Digital 3-D version of the film Up on May 29, 2009. On October 2, 2009 Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were re-released as a double feature in Disney Digital 3-D. The first full-length trailer was attached as an exclusive sneak peek and a first footage to the Toy Story double feature, on October 12, 2009. A second teaser was released on February 10, 2010, followed by a second full-length trailer on February 11 and appeared in 3D showings of Alice in Wonderland. On March 23, 2010, Toy Story was released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack which included a small feature of "The Story of Toy Story 3". Also, Toy Story 2 was released on that day in the same format which had a small feature on the "Characters of Toy Story 3". On May 11, 2010, both films had a DVD-only re-release which contained the features.

Mattel Thinkway Toys and Lego are among those who will make toys to promote the film. Disney Interactive Studios has also produced a video game based on the film which was released on June 15, 2010.

Toy Story 3 was featured in Apple's iPhone OS 4 Event on April 8, 2010, with Steve Jobs demonstrating a Toy Story 3 themed iAd written in HTML5.

Pixar designed a commercial for a toy, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, and formatted it to look like it came from an old VCR recording. The recording was altered with distorted sound, noise along the bottom of the screen, and flickering video, all designed to make it look like a converted recording from around 1983. A Japanese version of the commercial was also released online.

On Dancing with the Stars' May 11, 2010 episode, the Gipsy Kings performed a Spanish-language version of the song "You've Got a Friend in Me". It also featured a paso doble dance which was choreographed by Cheryl Burke and Tony Dovolani. Both the song and dance are featured in the film.

Sneak peeks of the film are shown on Disney Channel. One sneak peek was shown on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 10, 2010.

Reception
The reception of the film was extremely positive. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 99% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 235 reviews, with an average score of 8.8/10. The critical consensus is: "Deftly blending comedy, adventure, and honest emotion, Toy Story 3 is a rare second sequel that really works." Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 100% based on 34 reviews. Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 92 based on 39 reviews.

A. O. Scott from The New York Times states: "This film -- this whole three-part, 15-year epic -- about the adventures of a bunch of silly plastic junk turns out also to be a long, melancholy meditation on loss, impermanence and that noble, stubborn, foolish thing called love." Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A, saying: "Even with the bar raised high, Toy Story 3 enchanted and moved me so deeply I was flabbergasted that a digitally animated comedy about plastic playthings could have this effect." Gleiberman also wrote in the next issue that he, along with many other grown men, cried at the end of the film. Michael Rechtshaffen from The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, saying: "Woody, Buzz and playmates make a thoroughly engaging, emotionally satisfying return." Mark Kermode of the BBC gave the film, and the series, a glowing review, stating that Toy Story is now "the best movie trilogy of all time". Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, while praising the film with 3 out of 4 stars, wrote that it is "a jolly, slapstick comedy, lacking the almost eerie humanity that infused the earlier Toy Story sagas, and happier with action and jokes than with characters and emotions". Writing her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig gave the film a complete 4 star rating writing "This installment, the best of the three, is everything a movie should be: hilarious, touching, exciting and clever." Lou Lumenick, film critic of The New York Post, wrote "Toy Story 3 (which is pointlessly being shown in 3-D at most locations) may not be a masterpiece, but it still had me in tears at the end." Michael Phillips gave the film 3/4 stars writing that "Compared with the riches of all kinds in recent Pixar masterworks such as Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up, Toy Story 3 looks and plays like an exceptionally slick and confident product, as opposed to a magical blend of commerce and popular art." Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore who gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars wrote "Dazzling, scary and sentimental, Toy Story 3 is a dark and emotional conclusion to the film series that made Pixar famous." David Roark of Relevant Magazine called it mildly accomplished but, in the end, gratuitous.

Box office
Toy Story 3 made a strong debut, grossing $41,148,961 on its opening day at the box office from 4,028 theaters and was set to be the biggest opening weekend for a Pixar film, surpassing The Incredibles's $70,467,623. In addition, Toy Story 3 had the single-highest opening day gross for an animated film on record, beating Shrek the Third's $38 million. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $110,307,189, ranking it #1 for the weekend. The film had the second-highest opening for an animated film behind Shrek the Third's $121,629,270 and also had the third best opening for a film in 2010 behind Iron Man 2 and Alice in Wonderland, which grossed $128,122,480 and $116,101,023 respectively. With this, Toy Story 3 also became the highest opening weekend film in June at the box office, beating Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Toy Story 3 also became the biggest opening G-rated film, the tenth biggest opening weekend of all-time, and the eighth top summer opening weekend of all-time. On its second weekend, Toy Story 3 lost 46.2% grossing $59,337,669, and remaining the #1 spot for two weeks defeating the new releases Grown Ups and Knight and Day. As of July 25, 2010, Toy Story 3 has grossed $379,529,000 in the United States and Canada and $351,000,000 in other countries which totals up to $730,624,000 worldwide. Toy Story 3 is the thirty-seventh highest-grossing film of all time worldwide, and the twelfth highest grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada.

It has already eclipsed the previous two Toy Story films as the highest grossing in the series. On the weekend lasting from July 9 - 11, 2010 Toy Story 3 surpassed Alice in Wonderland to become the highest-grossing film of 2010 in the United States and Canada, and then out-grossed Finding Nemo on July 12, 2010 to become Pixar's highest-grossing film in the United States and Canada.

As of August 27, 2010, Toy Story reached its $1 billion mark, making it the first animated movie to do so. Although, the popularity of the film is criticized due to inflation statistics. In other words, movie tickets are getting more pricey.

Future
According to an article on NOLA.com, director Lee Unkrich has confirmed that Toy Story 4 is not planned. "Well, we don't have any plans for Toy Story 4, Unkrich said. "I'm flattered that people ask about it -- it reminds me how much people love the characters. (But) it was really important to me with this film that we not just create another sequel, that it not just be another appendage coming off of the other two." However, he did say, "Now, that being said, there may be opportunities for Woody and Buzz in the future, but we don't have any plans for anything right now". Unkrich further says in an interview on MSN.com, "We have announced we're going to do a short film in front of Cars 2 that uses the Toy Story characters. We're going to keep them alive; they're not going away forever." Also, Buzz's voice actor Tim Allen has stated that he would want to reprise his role in a Toy Story 4.

Attached short film
The theatrical release of Toy Story 3 includes the short film Day & Night, which focuses on what happens when an animated personification of daytime (Day) meets his opposite, nighttime (Night) and the resulting growth for both.

Soundtrack

 * Main article: Toy Story 3 Soundtrack