Toy Story 3

Love the jacket!

There has been a lot o fuss surrounding Toy Story 3 Oscar nomination for best picture - can, and more importantly, should, an animated movie be nominated for the ultimate category?

For those of you with short memory problems, this is a third: in 1991 Disney's Beauty and the Beast was the first animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture (it lost to The Silence of the Lambs). Disney-Pixar's Up (2009) was nominated for Best Picture at the 82nd Academy Awards. It lost to The Hurt Locker.

In 2009, the number of films nominated in the Best Picture award category increased from five to ten, which IMHO is why Up managed to be nominated. Don't get me wrong, this is a great movie, but its nomination reflects a blockbuster success rather than some fine acting/writing/directing.

Truth be said, I didn't watch Toy Story 3's 3D version which will, most likely, influence the final rating - i did, however, watch the Bluray 1080p version, on a 50'' screen and a 5.1 surround sound system - the experience was, overall, pretty awesome!

In Toy Story 3, the bar was set so high (after the immense success of the first two prequels) that one naturally expects something amazing. This can be a problem if the movie fails to meet your expectation - fortunately, it didn't.

Voice acting is beyond reproach (as you would expect considering the cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack) and with truly inspired jokes from the very first minute until the closing seconds during the credits, this is easily one of the funniest movies of the year. However, Toy Story 3 manages to reach both children and adults in very different ways, as it is not only about cute and funny characters, it also takes a turn into deeper issues, like mortality, which makes it at times the darker, and best, movie of the series.

Such a carefully managed mix of emotions make this title one of the best out there - it does, in fact, deserve it's place among the top ten. If you still manage to catch it in theaters, don't forget the popcorns for this one!

Name: Toy Story 3
Genre: Animation
Date of Release: 2010
Director:  Lee Unkrich
Actors: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack

Rating: 8/10