Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated comedy film, and the third film in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was written by Michael Arndt, while Unkrich wrote the story along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, respectively director and co-writer of the first two films. The film was released worldwide from June through October in the Disney Digital 3-D, RealD, and IMAX 3D formats. Toy Story 3 was the first film to be released theatrically with Dolby Surround 7.1 sound.

The plot focuses on the toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and their friends dealing with an uncertain future as their owner, Andy, prepares to leave for college. The film features an ensemble voice cast with Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Estelle Harris, Jodi Benson, and John Morris reprising their roles from the previous films, and Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Blake Clark, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt, and Jeff Garlin joining the returning cast.

Upon its release, Toy Story 3 was a critical and commercial success garnering numerous accolades, including five Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, with the film winning the latter two. Toy Story 3 grossed over $1 billion worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of 2010â€"both in North America and worldwideâ€"and the fifth-highest-grossing film at the time of its release, as well as the first animated film to generate $1 billion in ticket sales.

A sequel, Toy Story 4, directed by Lasseter and with a separate story from the original trilogy by Unkrich, Stanton, and Pete Docter, is scheduled to be released on June 16, 2017.

Plot

Andy, now 17 years old, is about to leave for college, and his toys have not been played with for years. He intends to take only Woody with him, and puts Buzz Lightyear, Jessie and the other toys in a bag to be stored in the attic. Andy's mother mistakenly takes the bag to the curb for garbage pickup. The toys escape and, believing Andy intended to throw them away, decide to climb in a donation box with Barbie bound for Sunnyside Daycare. Woody follows them and tries to explain the mistake, but they refuse to believe him.

Andy's toys are welcomed by the other toys at Sunnyside, and are given a tour of the seemingly perfect play-setting by Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (simply known as Lotso), Big Baby, and Ken, with whom Barbie falls in love. They find out that that SunnySide Daycare beholds toys, from children over successive generations coming and being replaced for years. All of the toys choose to stay, except Woody, who attempts to return to Andy. Woody is found by Bonnie, one of the Sunnyside junior students. She takes Woody home and plays with him along with her other toys, which are well-treated. Meanwhile, at Sunnyside, a group of toddlers play rough with Andy's toys.

Later, Buzz asks Lotso to have them moved to the older children's room, but is captured. Lotso, who controls Sunnyside ruthlessly at night when the teachers and students are not around, reveals he sends new toys to distract the toddlers to keep him and his henchmen safe, not caring whether the toys are broken in the process. Seeing promise in Buzz, he resets him to his original space ranger persona, resetting his memory. At the same time, Mrs. Potato Head (who accidentally left one of her eyes at Andy's house) sees Andy searching for the toys and convinces the toys that Woody told the truth. However, before they can leave, Andy's toys are imprisoned by Lotso's gang.

At Bonnie's house, before Woody leaves to find Andy, he learns from a toy clown named Chuckles that he, Lotso and Big Baby once had a beloved owner named Daisy. When the toys were accidentally left behind by Daisy's family during a trip, they eventually returned to her house, only to find that Lotso had been replaced with a similar toy, causing Lotso to become embittered and cruel.

Woody returns to Sunnyside and reconciles with Andy's other toys and begins planning a way out of Sunnyside. That night, the toys attempt to escape, and accidentally reset Buzz to Spanish mode instead of his original persona. Buzz allies himself with Woody and falls in love with Jessie. The toys reach a dumpster, but are caught by Lotso and his gang. As a garbage truck approaches, Woody reveals what he learned about Lotso. Lotso says that he now thinks toys are meant to be discarded, leading an enraged Big Baby to throw Lotso into the dumpster. As the toys try to run away, Lotso pulls Woody into the dumpster just as the truck collects the trash. Woody's friends fall into the back of the truck while trying to rescue him, and a falling television lands on Buzz, restoring his memory and normal persona.

The truck deposits the toys at the tri-county landfill, where they find themselves on a conveyor belt leading to an incinerator. Woody and Buzz help Lotso reach an emergency stop button, only for Lotso to abandon them and escape. Thinking that the end is near, the toys accept their fate, but are rescued by the Aliens operating an industrial claw. Lotso is found by a garbage truck driver who straps him to his truck's radiator grill and drives away. Woody and his friends board another garbage truck, driven by a now adult Sid Phillips, back to Andy's house.

In Andy's room, Woody climbs into the box with Andy's college supplies, while the other toys ready themselves for the attic. Woody leaves a note for Andy, who, thinking the note is from his mother, takes the toys to Bonnie's house and introduces her to them. Bonnie recognizes Woody, who, to Andy's surprise, is at the bottom of the box. Though hesitant at first, Andy passes him on to Bonnie, and then plays with her before leaving. Woody and the other toys watch Andy's departure before beginning their new lives with Bonnie.

During the credits, Woody and the other toys learn from a letter that Barbie, Ken and Big Baby have improved the lives of the toys at Sunnyside.

Voice cast

This is the list of the voice cast for the film:

Several other characters (such as Bo Peep, RC, Etch, and Wheezy) are only seen in flashbacks or briefly mentioned. The character of Slinky Dog appeared to be in limbo after the death of his original voice actor Jim Varney on February 10, 2000, three months after Toy Story 2 was released. Varney was replaced by Blake Clark. After Clark was cast to play Slinky Dog, the producers realized that Clark and Varney had coincidentally been close friends since they appeared in the 1989 film Fast Food, making the transition a lot easier.

Production

According to the terms of Pixar's initial seven-film deal with Disney, all characters created by Pixar for their films were owned by Disney. Furthermore, Disney retained the rights to make sequels to any Pixar film, though Pixar retained the right of first refusal to work on these sequels. In 2004, when the contentious negotiations between the two companies made a split appear likely, Michael Eisner, Disney chairman at the time, put plans in motion 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.

Screenwriter 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 out 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 cancelled. The character designs went into the Disney archives. 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 (who was busy directing Cars 2), and Michael Arndt as screenwriter. The release date was moved to 2010. Unkrich said that he felt pressure to avoid creating "the first dud" for Pixar, since (as of 2010) all of Pixar's films had been critical and commercial successes.

During the initial development stages of the film, Pixar revisited their work from the original Toy Story and found that, although they could open the old computer files for the animated 3D models, error messages prevented them from editing the files. This necessitated recreating the models from scratch. To create the chaotic and complex junkyard scene near the film's end, more than a year and a half was invested on research and development to create the simulation systems required for the sequence.

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 sound. Thus, even the Blu-ray version will feature original 7.1 audio, unlike other films which were remixed into 7.1 for Blu-ray.

Release

Toy Story 3 had its worldwide premiere on June 12, 2010, opening at Taormina Film Fest in Italy. In the United States, it premiered on June 13, 2010 at El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California. El Capitan also hosted on June 17, 2010 a Toy Story marathon, showing for the first time all three Toy Story films together. The film went into its wide release on June 18, 2010, along with a release to IMAX 3D theaters.

The film was theatrically accompanied with the Pixar short film Day & Night, which focuses on what happens when an animated personification of Day meets his opposite, Night, and the resulting growth for both.

Marketing

The film's first teaser trailer was released with Up in Disney Digital 3-D, 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 and How to Train Your Dragon. 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". In addition, Toy Story 2 was released on the same day in the same format, which had a small feature on the "Characters of Toy Story 3".

Mattel, Thinkway Toys, and Lego are among companies who produced toys to promote the film. Fisher Price, a Mattel Company, has released Toy Story 3 with twenty-one 3D images for viewing with the View-Master viewer. Disney Interactive Studios also produced a video game based on the film, Toy Story 3: The Video Game, which was released for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS, and PSP on June 15, 2010. A PlayStation 2 version was released on October 30, 2010, as part of a PS2 bundle and separately on November 2, 2010 (the same day Toy Story 3 was released on DVD and Blu-ray). It was also the last Disney/Pixar game to be released on PlayStation 2.

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 the toy, Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear, and formatted it to appear as if 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, with the name "Lots-O'-Huggin Bear" replaced with "Little Hug-Hug Bear" (Japanese:ハグハグベアちゃã‚"/Hagu Hagu Beya-Chan).

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," which featured a paso doble dance choreographed by Cheryl Burke and Tony Dovolani. Both the song and dance are featured in the film. Toy Story 3 was promoted with airings of the first and second film on several channels in the weeks preceding the film's release, including Disney Channel, Disney XD, and ABC Family. Sneak peeks of Toy Story 3 were also revealed, primarily on Disney Channel.

Oscar campaign

Toy Story 3‍ '​s "Not since..." Oscar campaign drew a lot of attention, emphasizing the film's uniqueness and critical acclaim. The campaign consisted of posters featuring characters from the film, comparing Toy Story 3 to previous winners such as The Lord of the Rings, Shakespeare in Love, Titanic and more. Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross explained they were going for the Best Picture win, not just Best Animated film. The Hollywood Reporter gave the campaign a bronze award in Key Art Awards Winners 2011.

Home media

Toy Story 3 was released by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment in North America on November 2, 2010, in a standard DVD edition, two-disc Blu-ray Disc, and in a four-disc Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack. Features include behind the scenes, including a sneak peek teaser for the upcoming Cars 2, the sequel to Cars. A 10-disc Toy Story trilogy Blu-ray box set arrived on store shelves on the same day. A 3D version of the Blu-ray was released in North America on November 1, 2011.

On its first week of release (November 2â€"7, 2010) it sold 3,859,736 units (equal to $73,096,452), ranking No.1 for the week and immediately becoming the best-selling animated film of 2010 in units sold (surpassing How to Train Your Dragon). As of July 18, 2012, it has sold 10,911,701 units ($185,924,247). It has become the best-selling DVD of 2010 in units sold, but it lacks in sales revenue and, therefore, ranks second behind Avatar on that list. It also sold about 4.0 million Blu-ray units, ranking as the fourth best-selling film of 2010.

In the U.K., it broke the record for the largest first day ever for animated feature, both on DVD and Blu-ray, in sales revenue. Additionally, on its first day of release on iTunes, it immediately became the most downloaded Disney film ever.

Reception

Box office

Worldwide

Toy Story 3 earned $415,004,880 in North America, and $648,167,031 in other countries, totaling $1,063,171,911 worldwide, earning more revenue than the previous two films of the series combined. It became the highest-grossing animated film, surpassing the six-year-old record held by Shrek 2 ($919 million), until Walt Disney Animation Studios' Frozen surpassed it in 2014. It is the fifteenth highest-grossing film, the highest-grossing 2010 film, the second highest-grossing animated film (behind Frozen), the highest-grossing film in the Toy Story series, the highest-grossing Pixar film, and the sixth highest-grossing film distributed by Disney. In estimated attendance, though, it still ranks fourth on the list of modern animated films, behind Shrek 2, Finding Nemo and The Lion King. On its first weekend, Toy Story 3 topped the worldwide box office with $145.3 million ($153.7 million with weekday previews), the third-largest opening weekend worldwide for an animated feature. On August 27, 2010, its 73rd day of release, it surpassed the $1 billion mark, becoming the third Disney film, the second Disney-distributed film in 2010 (after Alice in Wonderland), the first animated film and the seventh film in cinematic history to do so.

North America

In North America, Toy Story 3 is the twelfth highest-grossing film, unadjusted for inflation. Adjusted for ticket price inflation though, it ranks 90th on the all-time chart. It is also the highest-grossing 2010 film, the highest-grossing Pixar film, the second-highest-grossing G-rated film, the third-highest-grossing animated film, and the fourth-highest-grossing film distributed by Disney. The film earned $41,148,961 on its opening day (Friday, June 18, 2010) from 4,028 theaters, including $4 million at midnight shows from about 1,500 theaters, setting an opening-day record for an animated film.

During its opening weekend, the film topped the box office with $110,307,189, setting an opening-weekend record among Pixar films, among films released in June, (surpassed by Man of Steel) and among G-rated films. The film also achieved the second-largest opening weekend for an animated film, and the fourth-largest opening weekend for a 2010 film. Its average of $27,385 per venue is the second highest for a G-rated film and the second highest for an animated feature. Its opening-week gross (Friday-through-Thursday) of $167.6 million is the largest among animated films, the largest among 2010 films and the 13th largest of all time. It also achieved the largest 10-day gross among 2010 films. It topped the box office for two consecutive weekends.

Outside North America

Toy Story 3 is the nineteenth highest-grossing film, the fourth highest-grossing animated film, the third highest-grossing film of 2010, the highest-grossing Pixar film, and the seventh highest-grossing Disney film. It topped the box office outside North America three times, on its first ($35.0 million), second, and sixth weekend (which was its largest).

Its highest-grossing market after North America is Japan ($126.7 million), where it is the second highest-grossing U.S. animated feature (behind Finding Nemo), followed by the U.K. & Ireland and Malta (£73.8 million - $116.6 million), where it is the fourth highest-grossing film, and Mexico ($59.4 million), where it is the second highest-grossing film. It set opening weekend records for animated films in Ecuador, Colombia, Mexico, China, Argentina, Hong Kong, Spain and the U.K. It is the highest-grossing animated film of all time in the U.K., Ireland and Malta, in Mexico, in Hong Kong, and in Egypt. It is the highest-grossing 2010 film in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Hong Kong, Mexico, Spain, the U.K., Ireland and Malta.

Critical response

Toy Story 3 received widespread acclaim from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 99% based on reviews from 279 critics, with an average score of 8.9/10. The site's consensus was, "Deftly blending comedy, adventure, and honest emotion, Toy Story 3 is a rare second sequel that really works." Toy Story 3 was the best-reviewed film of 2010 on Rotten Tomatoes. 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. TIME named Toy Story 3 the best film of 2010, as did Quentin Tarantino. In 2011, TIME named it one of "The 25 All-TIME Best Animated Films." Audiences surveyed by Cinemascore gave the film a grade A rating.

A. O. Scott of The New York Times stated, "This filmâ€"this whole three-part, 15-year epicâ€"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 of 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, calling it "the best movie trilogy of all time." In 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 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 of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 out of 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 3½ 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."

Accolades

On January 25, 2011, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that Toy Story 3 was not only nominated for Best Animated Feature, but also for Best Picture. This makes Toy Story 3 not only the first animated sequel in history to be nominated for Best Picture, but also the third animated film to be nominated for Best Picture (following Beauty and the Beast and Up), with Toy Story 3 becoming the second Pixar film to be nominated for both awards. Toy Story 3 also became the first ever Pixar filmâ€"and the first animated feature film since Shrekâ€"to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, though six of Pixar's previous films were nominated for the Best Original Screenplay: Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, and Up. In 2011, it was nominated for a Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Animated Movie, but lost to Despicable Me.

Music

The film score for Toy Story 3 was composed and conducted by Randy Newman, his sixth for Pixar after Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Cars. Initially, Disney released the soundtrack only as digital download. This was the second instance where Disney did not release the award-winning soundtrack of a Pixar film on CD, the first being Up. In January 2012, Intrada released the Toy Story 3 soundtrack on Compact Disc.

All songs written and composed by Randy Newman. 

In addition to the tracks included in the soundtrack album, the film also uses several other tracks such as "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, "Le Freak" by Chic, and Randy Newman's original version of "You've Got a Friend in Me." Furthermore, tracks "Cowboy!" and "Come to Papa" included material from Newman's rejected score to Air Force One. The song "Losing You" from Newman's own album Harps and Angels was also used in the first trailer for the film. The Judas Priest song "Electric Eye" was also used in the film in the temp score for the opening scene of Toy Story 3. The aliens are playing the tune in their sports car. The song was ultimately replaced by another piece of music.

Chart positions

Music awards

Sequel

Lee Unkrich initially stated that a fourth Toy Story film was not being planned. "Well, we don't have any plans for Toy Story 4," Unkrich said. "I'm flattered that people ask about itâ€"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." Unkrich went on to say, "there may be opportunities for Woody and Buzz in the future, but we don't have any plans for anything right now." It has also been reported that Hanks and Allen have signed on for fourth Toy Story film if Pixar ever decides to produce one. In a BBC interview in 2011, Hanks said that he thought Pixar was working on a sequel. Disney denied the rumors saying, "nothing is official."

In November 2014, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that a fourth Toy Story film would be released in 2017 with John Lasseter directing. Lasseter stated "Toy Story 3 ended Woody and Buzz's story with Andy so perfectly that for a long time, we never even talked about doing another Toy Story movie. But when Andrew, Pete, Lee and I came up with this new idea, I just could not stop thinking about it. It was so exciting to me, I knew we had to make this movieâ€"and I wanted to direct it myself." In March 2015, Pixar president Jim Morris stated that this film will not be a continuation of the third film but will instead be a stand-alone sequel.

References

External links

• Official website
• Pixar website
• Toy Story 3 at the Internet Movie Database
• Toy Story 3 at the TCM Movie Database
• Toy Story 3 at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Toy Story 3 at Rotten Tomatoes
• Toy Story 3 at Metacritic
• Toy Story 3 at Box Office Mojo