Saturday, March 03, 2012

1702 - Toy Story

Now that my son is about to turn three we're starting "movie night" in our house.  A day I've been looking forward to with him since… well… I even knew I was having a kid.  The only true way to re-experience a film for the first time is watching it with someone who hasn't seen it - and that goes double when watching it with a kid.  He really really got into this.  He laughed in some really interesting places.  Got emotional and invested in the characters, and when it was done he instantly wanted to watch it again.  It'll be interesting to see what he thinks of it tomorrow, but it was top marks from him tonight.
Now - how did I feel about the film again?  Well, first I forgot that Joss Whedon worked on the script.  So that was fun.  I also noticed some little easter egg things that I never noticed before.  I'm going to say a lot of lovely things in a moment, but I couldn't help but notice a big flaw in the film this time around.  Buzz Lightyear spends the majority of the film believing that he is not a toy, but a real space ranger.  HOWEVER, when Andy comes into his room, he plays dead just like all the other toys.  Why would he do that?  Why would he play along with this boy instead of confronting him like he does all the other "creatures" in the room?  This actually bothered me quite a bit and I might search around to see if Pixar's ever been called on that hole and what their response is…
But other than that it's a really great film.  From a story perspective it's a really great example of escalating conflict.  Things get worse and worse in this film and the planting and paying off is done with a shitload of skill.  If you've missed this film for some reason, it really is a must see.  I can even let the Buzz thing go 'cause the rest of the film is so damn great.  So… it'll be interesting to see how soon he forces us to watch this again!

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