(Can you identify the new toys in this latest sequel of the Toy Story series? There are evil ones in the bunch now. Poster source: Wikipedia)
When Toy Story 3 was first mentioned on TV, one of the very first people to take note of it was my son.
He asked me to mark the release date down and since then he has been shopping for Toy Story related colouring books, stickers and “Where is Wally?” kind of books.
He reminds me to buy tickets for the movie on an almost daily basis. And I knew that whenever a much-anticipated movie is released in Malaysia, one can rest assured that the tickets would be fully booked at least for the first week.
But with my son checking on the calendar on the release date, I was not that keen to “postpone” the viewing to a later date (when there will be fewer people and we can get good seats). We did not want to disappoint the big boss. I asked my wife whether she can take him to watch on weekdays when most of the parents are at work.
She was free but something came up and we had to cancel the plan to take the “big boss” to watch Toy Story 3 on weekdays. We then decided to watch it on Sunday (don’t ask how we got to Sunday) where we definitely need to tussle with other parents for the available tickets.
We reached the cinema quite early (about 11 in the morning) and were shocked to see a long queue. “What the….” statement ran in our minds when we saw the queue. At this juncture, you might want to ask me about online reservations but you see, I don’t trust GSC’s level of security for their online ticket reservation – for why, read here and here
We then noticed that most of the people queuing up were Indians and then we realised that Mani Ratnam‘s Raavanan was also being released on the same week. Things were looking more promising – perhaps there was enough distraction to keep those people away from Toy Story 3 tickets but we were wrong.
We queued up but when we reached the counter, we realised that the 11.45 am and 2.45 pm show was almost sold out. We did not want to sit too near to the screen so I decided to buy tickets for the 5.00 pm show. Although we could not get seats at the back for the 5.00 pm show (most of it was on reserve), we managed to get good seats at the front (not too near to the screen).
The show was at 5.00 pm but for now, it was still morning – so we decided to head back to the house. My son was not happy about it – he was worried that the movie may start any time and he was worried that we may not be around for it. He gave his usual sad, cute face but we did not fall into his demands.
There was no way we were going to loiter around the cinema lobby for 5 hours! Besides, the boss needs to take a haircut before the start of school and we suddenly had plenty of time for it.
After a haircut and a good lunch, we came back at about 4.30 pm and at 5.00 pm, were allowed to enter. The show started late (at almost 5.15 pm) and those who reserved the large number of seats at the back, in the end, did not turn up. We decided not to move up to those empty seats to watch the show as our current seats were enough to provide comfortable viewing.
So, you may ask – how was Toy Story 3?
Basically, it was a well-made sequel – another “escape from somewhere back to Andy” storyline but with better CGIs and funnier punch lines (special effects just getting better and better).
There are new toys as well in the movie – new toys mean new villains (just like Stinky Pete in Toy Story 2). In the end, as Andy has grown up and it is unlikely he will be playing with the kiddie’s toys anymore, Andy’s toys end up as Bonnie’s toys (probably opening a whole new variation for future sequels).
Oh, p.s. – there is an opening animation titled “Day & Night” before the main story starts – it was good.
Final say
The plus points: Brilliantly made sequel
The negative points: Nothing major (boring re-use the same “toys need to go back to Andy” plot, maybe)
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