Toy Story 3 - in 3D

By way of follow-up on an earlier post regarding Hollywood's mad rush toward 3D ubiquity, I saw Toy Story 3 in 3D on Saturday afternoon. And I have to say, Roger Ebert got it right. He and I hate 3D for the same reasons. Okay, hate might be putting too fine a point on it. But as I sat there, wearing a pair of disposable 3D glasses over my glasses I realised that the picture looked kind of dark - the brilliant colours I had come to expect from the previous Toy Story movies were muted by the 3D lenses. Not a big deal, I guess. Then, about half-an-hour in, I realized that I wasn't getting that initial "Wow!" anymore. I had gotten used to the effect of being pulled into the screen, or having things leap out at me, and it basically became what amounted to a normal viewing experience. Except I was still wearing a cheap pair of sunglasses over my glasses.

Having said all that, I loved Toy Story 3. It's a wonderful, whimsical adventure story that explores relationships, the meaning of friendship, the journey of growing up and growing old. It's surprisingly profound for a cartoon, and was an outright joy to experience. Mostly because it's a good story, well told.

It was, incidentally, our little Birdy's first feature film in a theatre. At two-hours it was a bit long, loud and overwhelming for her, and she suffered a mini-breakdown in the parkade afterwards. But by the next morning she was already excitedly recounting her highlights.

Also worth mentioning is the time-honoured Pixar tradition of playing an animated short before the feature presentation. For Toy Story 3 it's Day & Night which would have been worth the price of admission all on its own.