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: TOY STORY 2 Two comfort zones and a home

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

Where you truly belong only lies in where your heart is.

We had all missed Sheriff Woody (Tom Hanks), and Pixar had answered our prayers with Toy Story 2 (1999, directed by John Lasseter and Ash Brannon), following a sequel to Toy Story (1995) after four years. And this time, Woody was in for one of the biggest decisions he had to make in his life.

After harshly making Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) realize who he really was, Woody now had to help the RoundUp gang--especially Jessie (Joan Cusack)--realize who they truly are for. But Pixar twisted it up a little and put our sherrif hero to a test, with a decision he had to make between two homes: his life with Andy or with the RoundUp gang he'd originally come from.

As we munched on our salty popcorn we witnessed a whole new side of Woody, as Al (Wayne Knight), the greedy toy collector stole him one day at yard sale, and finally reunited him with the gang to sell the epic collection to a Japanese client.

Now Woody had to choose: whether he would come home to Andy (John Morris) or join the gang to achieve immortality behind the glass, preserved in a museum.

It must've been one of those days of confusion, when we had felt we really belonged to this kind of life and family, and then finding out they were simply temporary havens, surrogates, strangers who adopted us and took us to live like them. But with them we truly felt we're home.

And so the tables are turned and it's time for Buzz and Andy's toys to rescue and make the sheriff realize "what a toy is all about"--to make a child happy and not to aim for eternity as a toy only to be found behind glass; and for Woody to pass it on to Jessie.

I remember Jessie's tragic story (infused in a dramatic musical narration) about being replaced and getting thrown away, as she developed severe trauma and anger towards kids. Somehow, it was also a lesson Pixar wanted to share that in life, there will always be heartbreaks, rejections and goodbyes. And we couldn't possibly outwit these forces or else we wouldn't survive this world. After all, every end always begins with a new journey.

Where is home anyway? In the end, we can only find it when we have decided where we truly belong.

TOY STORY 2 Fact Sheet

1. The Pixar artists had considered the making of Toy Story 2 as "revisiting old friends", and with the advanced technology for better speed and sophistication, the makers were able to focus more on character performances.

2. Hiemlich (Joe Ranft, also voiced Wheezy) from A Bug's Life appeared in a scene when Buzz was chopping off the bushes to access the road and find Woody. For more "inside jokes" Pixar had inserted in the movie as tribute to the past Pixar projects, click here.

3. It took two years for the technical artists to imitate the 1950's black-and-white atmosphere in the Woody's RoundUp TV series. 

Courtesy of Pixar pictures

4. Toy Story 2 became the highest grossing feature film of 1999, collecting $483M in worldwide box office receipts. It also garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture for Musical or Comedy, and two Grammy Awards for Best Song and Best Musical Album for Children. 

"I love it when a plan comes together"

We better hit our stupid books--they don't hit back. But does it also mean we better give up our old toys (when puberty says hello), because they won't give up on us?

Mr. Potatohead and Jessie definitely won't agree--at first. After all, toys are for playtime, and all they "live" for is to be played with forever. We cannot blame them when Andy won't play with them anymore.


Obviously, from a "humanities" point of view, Toy Story 3 talks about loyalty. In real life it is somewhat parallel to the concept of true friendship among people. Even Albert Einstein said something about being a true friend, when he's rarely there but definitely on the worst days of his friend's life.

I also personally admire how Woody's (and even Buzz's) plan came together in Toy Story 3. I would always remember Mr. Potatohead dropping off his parts and sticking them into a plato wrap dough, then I would reminisce on how a lot of things I planned either turned out worse or didn't happen at all.


But then I've also learned plans will always go wrong at one point, and that's when we need to IMPROVISE (like how Woody, the space aliens, and Bullseye made another route to avoid the patrol trucks, and how they hid in a bucket when Big Baby almost caught them).

My sister Ate Nadine claimed it was laudable for Pixar not to make a Toy Story 4, after leaving Woody with Bonnie and not taking him to college with Andy. They were not greedy enough to franchise another movie, as Toy Story 3's ending definitely left a teary, dramatic goodbye all of us children who once had toys will remember forever.

"You guarantee it, huh?"

The makers consequently donated Woody's lessons on never giving up, and equally when to give up.

"Did you fix Buzz?"

And I just love Jessie and Buzz's Spanish dance!

Toy Story in MY HOUSE

"TO INFINITY, AND BEYOND!!!"
Who would not remember this line? Being an avid follower of the movie series Toy Story, I also got wild after I heard news Lee Unkrich generously extended every toy's exposure in the big screen (maybe even in the 3D one!) the third time. Which led me to feature my OWN Toy Story, my personal collection of my own toys (particularly my stuffed toys) I have since I was about 6 years old.

 I also had a collection of barbie dolls once, and there are two certain reasons why I haven't taken them a shot her: 1. I have lost most of them; 2. some of them already have distorted faces and incomplete dresses.

But proudly enough, I still believe my toys (the stuffed ones) talk or walk around our room everytime I'm away or asleep. Haha.

 As we all know, Toy Story 3 would paint a contemporary picture of a college-evolved Andy, where naturally, he would acquire nostalgic episodes towards his old (really old) toys, leading him to dump them in a day-care center. But just like sociable people, Woody and his company first loved their new surroundings with a whole new bunch of toys. In the course of time, they also experienced nostalgia and as a final resolution, they would want to find their way home with Andy, as the matured boy also realized he would always carry them in his heart.

For latest news, it was recently reported (about 5 hours ago) that Jeremy Mansfield, a well-known radio personality of the 94.7 Highveld Stereo in Johannesburg, South Africa, would contribute his voice in one of the new characters of Toy Story 3. Also being a fan of the Toy Story movies, he would voice Lifer, a Chatter telephone who has spent his life in a toy box at a children's nursery school.

 Toy Story 3 would shoot in the theaters coming June 18, 2010, and again, I would not want to miss the movie that always make me feel younger again.