June 23, 2010

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.

7 Comments:

Blogger Jeremy said...

"...a wonderful, whimsical adventure story that explores relationships, the meaning of friendship, the journey of growing up and growing old."
You don't usually hear these phrases used to describe a sequel, never mind a #3. Sounds fantastic.

June 24, 2010 7:20 AM  
Blogger Angelo said...

I'm an unabashed Toy Story fan, having seen all three in the theatre. But yeah, it's good. A.O. Scott's NYTimes revie is worth a read.

http://movies.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/movies/18toy.html

'In providing sheer moviegoing satisfaction — plot, characters, verbal wit and visual delight, cheap laughs and honest sentiment — “Toy Story 3” is wondrously generous and inventive. It is also, by the time it reaches a quiet denouement that balances its noisy beginning, moving in the way that parts of “Up” were. That is, 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. We all know money can’t buy it, except sometimes, for the price of a plastic figurine or a movie ticket.'

June 25, 2010 9:18 AM  
Blogger dee said...

We took the girls to see it on Monday night :) They both loved it and actually sat and watched the entire film. It was fantastic. We made sure to take them to the showing that wasn't 3D just cause we have the same feelings towards 3D as you..... good to hear that you both had fun too!

June 25, 2010 12:12 PM  
Blogger Angelo said...

Dee - truth be told, we intended to see it in 2D as well, but arrived a few minutes too late. The decision was: wait 2 hours, or wait 20 minutes and see it in 3D. And since Birdy and her best little buddy where literally bouncing with anticipation, we chose the latter.

June 25, 2010 3:58 PM  
Blogger dee said...

I would have done the same thing!!!

June 25, 2010 11:25 PM  
Blogger The Squirrel Hunter said...

It's too good for kids. Most of the excellence of this film went over our dude's head. Of course, any cartoon is a good cartoon, so it's not like he was complaining. And watching him introduce himself and his family was worth the price of admission anyways.

Price of admission is what it's all about. An extra few bucks a ticket.

We went 2D. Expecting our jackrabbit kid to keep those welding goggles on his head for 2 hours was unlikely.

Maybe it's time for some young go-getter to sell some "Hey Hollywood, 3-D Sucks" Tshirts on his blog.

I'll decide when people my age are no longer considered young.
plett

July 06, 2010 3:50 PM  
Blogger Jeremy said...

I found out last week that this was not only out on DVD already, but that we owned it. So I finally got to see it, and agreed...very entertaining.

April 26, 2011 6:43 PM  

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