Film File - Toy Story 3

The gang are back, and just in time to brighten up an increasingly damp summer. 'Toy Story 3' welcomes once again Woody (voice of Tom Hanks), Buzz (voice of Tim Allen) and the whole gang back to the big screen as Andy, a kid no longer, prepares to depart for college, leaving his loyal toys to fend for themselves in a tiny tots daycare centre. And those untamed tots with their sticky little fingers do not play nice, so it's all for one and one for all as plans for the great escape get underway. More than a few new faces - some plastic, some plush - join the adventure, including iconic swinging bachelor and Barbie's counterpart, Ken (voice of Michael Keaton); a lederhosen-wearing thespian hedgehog named Mr Pricklepants (voice of Timothy Dalton), and a pink, strawberry-scented teddy bear called Lots-O-Huggin' Bear (voice of Ned Beatty). Once again, the film continues the Pixar tradition of blending fun with themes of characters facing major changes and how they deal with them. Woody and the other toys are forced to confront the monumental fact that Andy has outgrown them and is facing his own challenges of becoming an adult and heading off to college. And Andy's mom is facing the fact that her son has grown up and is heading out into the world. The story begins at this pivotal moments in all the characters' lives. The stellar vocal cast reunites Hanks and Allen with Joan Cusack as Jessie, Don Rickles as Mr Potato Head, Wallace Shawn as Rex, John Ratzenberger as Hamm and Estelle Harris as Mrs Potato Head, while featuring the debuts of Beatty, Keaton and Dalton, as well as Bonnie Hunt and Whoopi Goldberg. John Morris, who has provided the voice of Andy since the first film, returns to voice the college-bound teen. The original 'Toy Story' made motion picture history in 1995 when it became the first full-length animated feature to be created entirely by artists using CG technology, and represented a major milestone in the art of filmmaking. In effect, 'Toy Story' set the bar for every film that followed through its 77 minutes of breathtaking animation, 1,561 shots and a cast of 76 characters that included humans, toys and a dog which were meticulously hand-designed, built and animated in the computer. It became the highest-grossing film of 1995, and was the first animated feature in motion picture history to ever get an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. Tackling serious themes of mortality and moral values, the new film's 103 minutes have painstakingly delivered a film brimming with action, joy and sorrow - and always with a quick joke to puncture the ego around every turn. Woody's address to the other toys about the reality of being moved to the attic and forgotten is a wonderful piece of scripting as powerful a treatise on the human condition as you'll find in any library. We are all of us toys of sorts, awaiting our inevitable obsolescence, but hoping to greet that spectre with grace and good humour. With the same technical aplomb that marked the two previous films, 'Toy Story 3' is a cracking escape movie with as much gusto as anything you'll encounter this summer in the daredvil department. Michael Keaton as Ken is a wonder - a perfect creation of the bling years with his one huge personal weakness - vanity. This is a wonderful film, mixing morals and madness in a beguiling stew that can't but please the most demanding tot, whether teen or adult.