Toy Story 3 Movie Review - Spoilers near the bottom

This evening we went to see Toy Story 3 at the theaters. We opted for the non 3D showing since we did not think my 4.5 year old would last for 2 hours with the 3D glasses. I am not sure if this was the right call because as we walked out, she said to her aunt "I thought it was supposed to be in 3D". Although she did say she would not have wanted to wear the glasses for 2 hours.

We really enjoyed the movie. There are enough nods to the previous movie and toys of old to appeal to the adults (and a few jokes that are subtle enough to go over the kids heads). The kids love the action, the familiar characters and the crazy situations.

We knew the story line going in since we had bought the Toy Story 3 Little Golden Book to add to our collection of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. This did not detract from our enjoyment of the book at all. My daughter did comment about story points that were not in the book that she really enjoyed.

There are some notable toys from the previous movies who do not make an appearance and are missed. They do reference some of these toys and refer that they have been lost on the way. We did miss Bo Peep, Etch-a-Sketch, Mr. Spell, RC Car, and Wheezy the Penguin. Also missing is a reference to Al's Toy Barn which was a major element of the second movie and has a passing reference in the first.

However, the new characters fill in quite nicely. Barbie and Ken are lots of perky fun.

Spoilers below the break




They don't take the happy, cheery way out with the villain (Lotso Huggin' Bear). They have the opportunity to have him redeem himself by saving Woody, Buzz, Jesse, the Potato Heads, and Rex, but he continues his evil ways. Of course, he is fittingly dispatched by the end of the movie, much as Prospector Pete was at the end of Toy Story 2.

I loved how the little green aliens' obsession with "The Claw" ended up being what saved their friends. It was neat to see Buzz Lightyear reset to demo mode where he really believes himself to be a space ranger and the personality change in his Spanish mode is amusing. I also loved seeing a few classic toys like the Chatter Telephone and the Fisher Price Corn Popper.

Unlike many animated movie series, the quality of the films and story has stayed consistently high. While there are references made to events of the prior movies, it could stand on its own as well. Maybe the secret is spacing the movies far apart (5 and 10 year gaps). They have set themselves up to continue the series with Bonnie instead of Andy. If they decide to do another sequel, I hope they take the time to develop a story and treat it with the care they have with the other films.

Lego Family Creation Challenge - Playdate Review

Today we went to the Lego Family Creation Challenge at our local Toys R Us. The intent of the play date was to promote interest in the new Lego Games line, particularly Creationary. They had two tables set up, one where children were given a sheet of Lego Games stickers and could build any Lego creation they wanted from plain bricks. They were able to take their creation and the stickers home. The other table was setup for a chance to stump their parent by building an object they were shown a picture of. For example, my daughter was shown a picture of a Lego snake and after one look she had to build the snake and I had to guess what she had built.

My daughter had a lot of fun at the event. She loved getting to put stickers on her creation. She insisted on waiting in line for the creation challenge. I did feel that they could have been setup for higher capacity. They had 6 slots for the Family Creation challenge & 5 for the make it/take it. We arrived a little before noon & shopped for a while. A couple of minutes before noon we saw a line had formed, so we got in line. We were able to be the first group to do the free form creation, but then had to wait in line for the creation challenge.

The Lego Games do look interesting, but are mostly geared for older children. Most had a minimum age of 7 or 8. I have told my daughter that I will make our own version of this game by giving her pictures of things to build (a boat, a bench, a snake, etc). Considering that we already have a fair number of plain pieces, this is a much more economical way to make a game.

Of course, we did not walk out of Toys R Us empty-handed. They had a bin of sale Lego items. We found a Castle Building Set, a Pirate Building Set, and a Fire Fighter Building Set each marked down from $11.99 to $5.99. She has already built her Fire Fighter set. This set is really cool in that it comes with a little fire flame and a jet of water for the fire hose. Each set also includes a mini-figure which is one of her favorite things to play with.

Tonight...Cloudy with a Chance of Pizza?

Our anniversary is tomorrow night, however we celebrated last night. Our gift to ourselves was a Blu Ray player. With her grandmother's help, our 4 year old selected Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs on Blu Ray to give us. According to my mom, she was quite insistent on selecting this movie. This surprised me because she did not really like the movie when we saw it in the theater. However, she told Grandma that she was getting it so that we could watch it on Family Movie Night.

Since our weekend was too busy for movie night, we decided to do movie night tonight. We ordered a pizza and had a picnic dinner in front of the TV in the basement. I spread a table cloth on the floor in front of the sofa, and we sat on the floor to eat. It has been a while since we had a basement picnic. I need to keep that in mind for hot summer days since our basement is usually nice and cool.

She has enjoyed the movie much more on this second viewing than when we originally saw it. She remembered a few key scenes from having seen it at the theater.