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.