the end of an era - toy story 3

 My childhood basically consisted of climbing trees, forcing my little sister to cooperate in my role-playing adventures, waging water-balloon war on the other neighbourhood kids, drawing demented little pictures and watching movies on VHS at our next door neighbour's house (they were, as my naive little self discovered, richer than us and therefore infinitely cooler).
They had at least 50 videos, but the one we'd watch the most often was Toy Story. So naturally, I basically ran to the cinema yesterday to see the final installment, Toy Story 3. 

The original Toy Story came out in 1995, when I was 5 - in the midst of my snotty, bare-bottomed childhood. Then the sequel was released in '99, towards the end of my more innocent days (i'd found a copy of Playboy in my older brother's closet). And now the final chapter has come at the very tail-end of my teen years - a fitting denouement. It was funny, suspenseful and at times gut-wrenchingly emotional - a nice little analogy of my own childhood and adolescence.

It was like I was 8 years old again. How in God's name did Pixar manage to make me so emotionally engaged with a bunch of talking toys? However they did it - they did it bloody well. Unlike other family movie franchises (let's not even get started about the flogged and bloodied cash-cow that is Shrek), Pixar have really dug in their creative heels and stayed true to a really strong vision.

"What's wrong?"

"I... I... just saw Toy Story 3, doctor"

There was one particular scene towards the end, where disaster looks imminent (I don't want to give out any spoilers). I can honestly say that I had tears welling up in my eyes. For a moment I forgot I was watching a film, I was so deeply emotionally involved - something that hasn't happened at the cinema for a long, long time.

Pixar seem to be so adept at doing this - making us laugh, cry and gasp at what are really just fancy cartoons. So please, please, please never stop making films Pixar.