I meant to do a stitching update today, as you can see, that didn't happen, so I'll try to do it either tomorrow or Monday instead. However, after an aborted attempt at going to see the A-Team (can you believe out local cinema already stopped playing it?) we went to see Toy Story instead, so I thought I'd do a review on that instead.
It has most of the cast that we'd expect from the old films, Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Jessie, Rex etc but also introduces some new characters, such as Lotso and Ken.
Andy has now grown up and is going away to college, consequently he's packing up his room and the toys are terrified of being thrown away. Woody is put in a box to go to college with Andy (you can't help thinking that this will eventually result in some Grade A bullying) and the other toys are put in a bag to be put in the attic, but there is a mix up and they end up on the pavement waiting for the bin men to come and collect them. Woody, sees the mistake and goes to rescue them, but they won't believe that it was a mistake and think that Andy was deliberately throwing them away and so stow away in a box for a day care centre. The toys excitedly watch children playing with the other toys and can't wait until it is their turn, this is a new chance for them to be played with again and the day care centre seems like a haven, but all is not as it seems.
We know the vocal talent is going to be good on this, Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack and Tim Allen reprise their roles as the heroes, along with all the original cast, except Jim Varney as Slinky Dog who sadly died in 2000 and has been replaced by Blake Clark. We also see (hear?) Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton and Whoopi Goldberg take on new characters and roles in this film. The plot as you can see from the summary isn't exactly complicated, but then I'm a 25 year old sat in a cinema where the average age is about 15 years younger than me, so I possibly shouldn't be surprised by that (the guy selling us the tickets actually mocked us, but that's by the by). But it's enough of a plot to hold the film together, it doesn't just feel like it's tying several set pieces together.
For me personally it took a long time for the humour to kick in (if I'm honest I thought the funniest bits were all in the last half hour), but those around me, including my other half were laughing all the way through, so I'm willing to accept that that was possibly just me. And there are some good moments, Mr Potato Head in different guises is very good. This is also, in places, actually quite creepy, look out for the screaming monkey, it wouldn't surpirse me at all if I had nightmares about that monkey tonight. And there are some sad bits, there's a real tear jerker towards the end of the film, there was definite sobbing and nose blowing behind me, and I'll admit that I had a lump in my throat, and the final scene before the credits, I actually thought was even sadder, but there was less sobbing during that.
It's nice to see the film grow up with it's audience. I was about 11 when the first film came out, so it's not that long since I had to go through my old toys and decide what I was going to do with them (and yes, I still have a lot of my teddies), so it's kinda cool to see the little boy I remember when I was a kid going through the same things himself. To the adults this is a story about growing up and leaving your childhood behind you, to the kids it's a good adventure with some funny bits. Either way it is a good film and I did enjoy it thoroughly, I probably won't bother to buy it when it comes out, but then I don't own the first two, so that's probably not surprising. It made me laugh, it made me feel sad and it creeped me out in a major way, not bad for a kids film.
And I'd just like to finish by saying 'The Claaaawwww'
Well, they always were my favourite character!
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