Toy Story, the franchise that made Pixar a household name will be back in theatres for two weeks starting October 2.  Toy Story 1 and 2 will be presented in 3-D and shown as a double feature.  I had the opportunity to watch both movies at D23 and they were still great.

Toy Story plot from IMDB:

A cowboy toy is profoundly threatened and jealous when a fancy spaceman toy supplants him as top toy in a boy’s room.

Review:

Released in 95 as the first full length CG flick, Toy Story became a phenomenom.  It was adorned by critics and movie goers alike and earned close to $360 million at the box office .  While a lot of movies don’t live up to the hype, Toy Story surpassed expectations.  For its time, the movie had amazing computer animation.  What’s even better was the story told through the eyes of our favorite toys (Mr. Potato Head, Army Men, action figures).  Woody’s transformation from a jealous toy to a loving friend was inspiring and plenty of lessons are learned throughout the adventure.  The creativity from director John Lasseter is pure genius, especially the last 15 minutes when the toys use their “distinct” features to help each other out.

Watching it in 3-D, the movie looked good but there wasn’t much pop to it.  Some scenes had great 3-D effects (the intro, Buzz and Woody “falling with style”) but overall I forgot that I was watching it in 3-D.

Grade: A-

Toy Story 2 plot from IMDB:

When Woody is stolen by a toy collector, Buzz and his friends vow to rescue him, but Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting.

Review:
After Disney planned to release Toy Story 2 as a straight to video sequel, director John Lasseter stepped up and convinced the studio to release it in movie theatres.  What we got was a better movie than the original. First thing I noticed was the animation, the movement was more fluid and organic.  The animation can rival today’s best CG movies.  What I loved about the sequel was the depth behind the story.  It just wasn’t your typical “rescue” movie, betrayals happen and tough choices are made.  Through the toys’ adventures, they meet more toys, one of the highlights was the toy store where we meet Barbies’ and more Buzz Lightyears’.  The addition of the new characters were perfect and it didn’t feel like it was tacked on so it can be a “bigger” movie than the original.  Out of all the new characters, Jessie the cowgirl was my favorite because she had a backstory that we all can relate to.

Being a toy collector myself, I loved one of the subtle messages: toys are to be played with.  So many collectors today keep their toys unopened because it might be an expensive item in the future. But that defeats the purpose of buying them in the first place.  You should buy toys because you like it, not for investment purposes.

Toy Story 2 stood out more in 3-D.  I was really amazed with the depth of field.  The background and foreground really popped.  I’m not a big fan of 3-D movies but this one really impressed me and I’m excited to watch more movies with this effect.  The sound was also better than I can remember, especially the street crossing scene.  Very distinct sounds came from the vehicles and the bass was pretty heavy.

Grade: A

Conclusion:

I highly reccomend the Toy Story 3-D double feature to anybody who enjoys movies .  You pay for 1 ticket and you get to see 2 Disney classics. You can’t beat that!

There’s a 10 minute intermission between the two movies and the combined runtime is  around 3 hours.  So the time flies by really quick.  But if you only have time for one movie, then check out Toy Story 2.  The 3-D on that is great.

Overall Rating: A

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