Video: Are Children Still Interested in Toy Story?

Only 31 days left until Toy Story 3 premieres in a theater near you!

The Toy Story 3 cliffhanger edition college tour (which I mentioned way back in my first entry) showed us that Pixar knows it has many older fans. Much of the hype about Toy Story 3 on the Internet is coming from older, mostly college aged people. But are young kids still interested in Toy Story? It's been 11 years since Toy Story 2 came out and today's kids have been exposed to hundreds of computer -animated films since then. So do the original Toy Story films still compare? Are the college-aged kids only interested because of the sense of nostalgia they have connected to the Toy Story franchise?

When I heard that my girlfriend's little brother had never seen a Toy Story film I decided to take the opportunity to try to answer those questions. I made this short video with the built in iSight on my MacBook and a Flip-cam. I did all the editing in iMovie and I took the screen-caps from the first Toy Story film and the three trailers for the third film .

The video tells the story of how Toy Story and Pixar influenced my generation and me. It also tells the story of one kid's first exposure to the franchise.

I decided to upload this video with Blogger video, but if you'd prefer it is still available to watch on Youtube here.

Thanks to Dominic and my girlfriend Megan for their cooperation with making this video.

Buttercup

Buttercup is one of the new characters I am most excited for, mostly because he is voiced by one of my favorite comedic actors, Jeff Garlin. Jeff Garlin was the voice of the captain in Wall-E, another Pixar film, but I know him best as Larry David's manager on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Garlin is quite a large man with a relatively deep voice, so his voice coming out of this cute little unicorn may come as a bit of a shock. The fact that Buttercup is a character with an adorable appearance but a sketchy voice leads me to believe that he is going to be on the sinister side of things at Sunnyside Daycare. With this character and Lotso, who smells like strawberries, it seems like Pixar might be going for a "don't judge a book by its cover" moral in Toy Story 3.

I hope you enjoyed reading my blog and I hope it kept you informed. I really had fun writing it and I learned more than I could ever imagine about Toy Story while trying to keep it as chock full of information as I could. I hope that after the hype for Toy Story 3 has dissolved this blog can function as a time capsule of information. I may continue to update as important pieces of news come to my attention. In the meantime thank you so much for reading "The Toy Story Buzz" and thank you for sharing in my excitement for the third chapter in the story of all our favorite toys.

As always, please leave a comment.

Big Surprise: Film Rated G

Only 35 days left until opening night! That's slightly over a month! Okay, Okay calm down.

Yesterday Lee Unkrich posted a link to his Formspring on his Twitter (hey, two social networks in one sentence). He invites his fan to ask him a question and if you're lucky he just might answer it. Even if he doesn't answer your question it can still be fun to read the questions he has answered; they provide some interesting inside information on Toy Story 3 and Pixar.

Also announced on Unkrich's Twitter yesterday was the fact that Toy Story 3 has officially been rated G (for general audiences) by the MPAA. This shouldn't come as a huge surprise to anyone, seeing as the previous films in the series have also been rated G. In fact only two Pixar films have ever received a more severe rating than G; The Incredibles and Up were both PG. The G rating indicates that there won't be any excessive violence or overly intense scenes in the film; nothing that might frighten a young child. I doubt any parents were having reservations about taking there kids to see this movie, but in case they were they can rest assured that the United States Government says its okay for your little one to go see Toy Story 3.

Lots-o'-Huggin'-Bear

Here he is, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, or just Lotso. Lotso is arguably the new character of most interest. He is very heavily featured in the trailers and on promotional material for the film. He has inspired a great deal of the speculation surrounding the film's plot and he is the center of one of the film's most intriguing marketing ploys. It is pretty obvious that Lotso is going to play a very important role in the film; but exactly what the role will be is one of the closest guarded secrets of Toy Story 3. See my analysis of trailer #2 for more speculation about Lotso.

Lotso will be voiced Ned Beatty, who has been in tons of movies but is most famous for his appearance in Deliverance.

Were you hoping Toy Story 3 would get an R rating? Got any conspiracy theories about Lotso? Leave a comment.

3-D or not 3-D, that is the question

37 days until June 18th, when Toy Story 3 gets released into theaters.

I already mentioned in a previous post that production on Toy Story 3 has finally been 100% completed. But this weekend, director Lee Unkrich and the rest of the film's crew made it official by throwing the wrap party. Unkrich mentioned the party, which was held on Saturday May 8, on his Twitter. The wrap party is a way for the crew to celebrate the work they did, and the great deal of time that they spent on the film. It is also signals that the film's release is getting even closer, just a bit over a month left.

3D or not 3D?



One of the big draws of Toy Story 3 is that it, like many films nowadays, will be available to watch in both 2-D and 3-D versions. This is going to be the second Pixar film to be available in 3-D, the first was last year's Up. When you go to your theater to see Toy Story 3 you will be asked if you want to see the regular 2-D version, or pay 3 or 4 extra dollars to see the 3-D version. So is it worth the extra 4 bucks?

Some films that are released in 3-D today are not real 3-D; that is they were not filmed with two cameras and from two perspectives (for some great information on the difference between "real 3-D" and "fake 3-D" check out this Gizmodo article). The 3-D Pixar films though, are in fact real 3D, the fact that the film was going to be released in 3-D was on the creators' minds throughout the whole process; it wasn't just tacked on at the end to make a little extra money at the box office. Keep that in mind when deciding which version of the film you'd like to see. If anyone has seen the 3-D version of Avatar (and who hasn't) they will know what real 3-D looks like. The double feature re-release of Toy Story 1 and 2 that came out last year was also redone to be in real 3-D.


With all that being said I must say that I am a traditionalist. When I go see a movie I like to see them the old-fashioned way. I think wearing the glasses in an annoyance and an inconvenience and I don't think the 3D effect is worth it. I did go to see Up in 3-D. At the beginning of the film I was distracted by the 3D and couldn't enjoy the story. As it went on I stopped noticing the 3D, it was still there but it was so subtle that I no longer realized it. Apparently that is a sign of quality 3D, but I don't see the point of paying extra if your not going to notice it for half of the movie anyway. If i only go see the film once I am going to watch the regular 2D version because I am just old-fashioned that way. If I go see it more than once though, I may see it in 3D just to see what it's like. As for what you should do, it all comes down to personal preference, but do bear in mind that it will be a genuine 3D experience, not a cheaply tacked on one.


Ken
Here we go, Ken is one of the most interesting and intriguing new characters. His extensive appearances in the trailers and the fact that there was an entire promotional clip dedicated to him indicate hat he will most play a very significant role in the film. Ken was first introduced exclusively on Ain't It Cool News. Ken is going to be voiced by comedic actor Micheal Keaton. What's interesting is that Ken's unusual outfit is actually modeled after a real Ken doll that was sold in the 80's. Once again this is evidence of Pixar's amazing attention to detail and realism. It makes perfect sense that the Ken doll at a daycare would be one from the 80's that was probably lying around in an attic for years before it was donated. And you shouldn't doubt that Pixar will find a way to make this back-story shape Ken's character. I wouldn't be surprised if being cooped up in an attic, or being stuck in a daycare for years, has made him cruel and bitter.

Just for fun here's an old commercial for the particular Barbie and Ken set that this Ken is based on:

Original Teaser Trailer

We are getting down to the wire now. Only 44 days left until the premiere of Toy Story 3. The college cliffhanger screenings of the film are almost done and soon enough it will be screened for critics. On his Twitter Lee Unkrich warns to be very careful about reading the plot of the movie online because it would spoil the surprise. I will be careful to keep this blog free of spoilers so there is no need to tread lightly around these parts; but if you want to go into the theater fresh now is the time to start being weary of possible spoilers when your surfing the web. You have been warned.

I have already talked about the two full-length trailers in previous posts (Trailer #1 and #2), so now is the time to look back at our first glimpse of Toy Story 3. The teaser was first released a little over a year ago, May 29th, 2009, before screenings of Up. It is one of Pixar's many traditions to create totally original animation for the teaser trailers instead of using unfinished clips from the film. This means that the teaser doesn't give up much information at all about the plot of the film but simply introduces the characters and the idea of the film.

So we're given a nice, fourth wall breaking, glimpse of the characters announcing that there will be a 3rd Toy Story. What stands out the most to me though is the interactions between Woody and Buzz. I mentioned in a previous post that Pixar seems to think that Buzz's character is too bland without adding some kind of "twist," but here an interesting approach is taken. The portrayal of Buzz as a kind of "one upper" to Woody is a good way to spice up his relationship with Woody a bit without altering his character by means of a twist like turning him into spanish version of himself. I would like to see the aspect of the Woody/Buzz relationship explored a little more in the film.

Trixie

Trixie was first revealed officially on Empire Online. She is simply a plastic triceratops. Her official description says that is part of a set that also includes a Tyrannosaurus Rex, Stegosaurus and Velociraptor. This seems to imply that she is from the same line of toys as Rex. Its nice to see another toy like Rex. In the first installment of the series Rex hopes aloud that Andy will get a leaf eater dinosaur for christmas, so it appears as though his wish has finally been fulfilled. Trixie will be voiced by Kristen Schaal of Flight of the Conchords fame.

Please leave a comment about Trixie, the teaser, or just about your excitement for the film.