PIXAR @25: Toy Story 3 "The art of goodbyes"

When our loved ones leave we don't really lose them.

Absence. Less talks. Less visits. Silence.

At times when life drives too slowly and the day's too dull it would suddenly hit me hard how much I miss the people I used to see and listen to everyday. At first it's not that really hard to say goodbye, thinking fate will never fail to find a day I would bump into them along the way. It'll only be months after it will finally sink into me how much I long to see them again.

Goodbye is never about giving up, but about moving on while we always reassure ourselves they'll always be in us. What deeply touched me in Pixar's Toy Story 3 (2010, directed by Lee Unkrich) was Woody finally grasping the fact that he'll always be with Andy--even without him by his side--for infinity and beyond.

This should be the second time Woody's (Tom Hanks) friends didn't believe him, and the second time as well Slinky said, "So Woody was telling the truth!" With Sunny Side Daycare Center disguised as a childish mansion, Andy's toys got trapped this time, fueled by bad circumstances, false interpretation and anger.

Almost all the characters symbolized vital moral lessons for modern youth: Jessie (Joan Cusack), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) and Hamm (John Ratzenberger) portrayed our drawback in analyzing situations because we're blinded by anger, pessimism, and selfishness. Rex (Wallace Shawn), all throughout the Toy Story series, represented the innocently comedy character who always either agreed with others or refused to take sides. Slinky (Blake Clark) always stayed in the "play safe" zone, although he always knew what's right but chose to follow the majority.

Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) portrayed an emotionally-vulnerable character torn between two galactic principles: the importance of staying together and the job of being there for Andy (John Morris). And Woody's moral fiber became the most challenging for us: having the guts to be the outcast. Somehow, it should'nt even take guts for us to be different; it's never a problem if we strongly believe in something the majority doesn't. Woody believed they should never replace Andy with some temporary haven.

While new characters like Lotso Huggin' Bear (Ned Beatty) also shared the sad reality about traumatic pasts and crooked systems and a stranger's deceitful smile, the art of goodbyes took the movie to the real world where everyone can say, "Goodbye is just another word for 'See you later.'"

What's best about them, I believe, is how they always make us look back, and equally move on while we say, "It's still a small world out there."

After all, anyone who became a part of us will always stay with us.

PIXAR @25: Finding Nemo The shark bait

Curiosity is a booby trap we kids will always fall into.

My royal dream of exploring the ocean even without a swimming lesson finally came true with Pixar's legendary film Finding Nemo (2003, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich). Feeling the ocean waves from its deepest harbors and witnessing the realistic and colorful water creatures in the movie once made me think, "Hey I don't even need an oxygen tank to behold ocean's beauty!"

The Great Barrier Reef

What came with the package tour was an equally memorable lesson for us juvenile kids: that a father's overprotection is never an exaggeration.

We're represented by Nemo (Alexander Gould), a clown fish we and all other naïve fishes have thought of as funny because he's a clown fish. He's part of our club who's hypnotized by peer pressure, trapped by curiosity and imprisoned by his young and vulnerable mind, all preventing him to understand his father Marlin (Albert Brooks).

While the movie gave the final verdict of finding us all guilty, its theme focused more on the father's venture to the ends of the Pacific Ocean just to find his son. We saw how Marlin was too afraid to even leave the Great Barrier Reef, but when he helplessly saw his son pocketed by a diver, he left all his doubt behind and faced the sharks, the dangerous currents, the jellyfish clan, the whales, and the carnivorous birds.

Just like Nemo we'd tried to stow away from home not analyzing enough what we're doing. And when we got into trouble, it would be the only time when we'd miss them terribly and wished we could hide under mom's dress. Even if we'd only locked up in our room we'd hear our parents crying in the other room as well, realizing how they must hurt more whenever we close the door on them.

Finding Nemo taught me well how to understand and love my parents more, even at times when I think they worrry too much. 

I would always remember the forgetful but optimistic Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the character my mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol always equates herself to, and the scenes when Marlin and Dory were asking for directions from an amazing school of fish.

Somehow, it must be an incurable disease for us kids to always think we're Superheroes who can do everything and anything, but we'll only fall into booby traps all day long if we don't accept the truth that we're not.

FINDING NEMO Fact Sheet

1. A "wave" of personal experiences from director Andrew Stanton patched up the movie story. It was from his childhood memories of visiting his dentist with an aquarium, the ocean as his front yard and his parenting challenges that made Finding Nemo alive.

2. Nemo's Lucky Fin, according to Stanton, represents our limitations as kids that always make our parents worry too much about our safety.

The legendary Pixar Pinoy Animator: Nelson Bohol

3. The legendary tankscape of the aquarium raised the Filipino pride with lay-out artist Nelson Bohol, Pixar's Pinoy Animator and Supervising Production Artist. He also contributed his exceptional talent in the making of Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E.

4. Finding Nemo became the highest grossing animated film of all time, collecting over $850M in worldwide box office receipts.

5. It garnered an Oscar for Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing.