Main Image: 

Published: 15 July 2010
by DAN CARRIER

TOY Story made history in 1995 when it became the first fully CGI-animated film. 

Now computer animation is old hat – and there is, I sense, even a vogue of going back to the good old days. 

The nostalgia for stop-animation was loud and clear when Clash of the Titans came out in the spring, and you only have to consider the enduring charm of such films as Wallace and Gromit to be able to bore with a mantra that “fings ain’t what they used to be”.

Thankfully, with Toy Story 3, things are what they used to be. In fact, they are exactly the same. The same cast are there: Tom Hanks is the voice of Woody, while Tim Allen brings alive Buzz Lightyear. They are joined by Whoopi Goldberg and Timothy Dalton, so allied with the superb animation, the policy of making every scene have both a visual and oral joke, and distinguished Hollywood names – it’s a sure-fire winner.  

The one factor that’s missing is that you can’t say this is original fare now. The fact is the story is pretty much the same as the first. 

The formula is that toys just want to be played with and loved by their owner Andy. The problem is he is now a fully operational teen, about to go to college.

But Andy decides to take Woody and Buzz to college with him, while the other characters, such as Rex, the Potato Heads, and the Slinky Dog, are looking forward to a warm rest in the attic.

But things go wrong when they get thrown out: the disaster of being scrunched up in the back of a garbage truck is narrowly avoided, but instead they get taken to Sunnyside Day Care centre, a playschool. 

At first things seem idyllic – but the nursery soon becomes a prison camp with a bear whose life took a very, very wrong turn ruling the place with an iron fist. 

The appearance of a Fisher Price telephone will prompt deep-rooted childhood memories.

They have also included a pre-film cartoon called Day and Night – a charming tale of two sides who at first seem utterly differ­ent finding common ground.

The generation who loved Woody and Buzz the first time round are 15 years older and won’t be going to catch this film. A new generation of nippers will – and they can’t fail to be as charmed by the best friend alliance of a cowboy doll and a toy astronaut as their predecessors were.