Yeah, Toy Story should really have been a total downer that made children slash their own wrists on their way out the theater.


Sheeesh with a capital Shhhh.

Well, the happiest of endings would have Peter Pan flying in to make Andy and his dog young again and reunite his parents. Then, he'd disappear in a cloud of Pixie dust saying, "Bye, kids. There's an old yellow dog out there whose rabies I need to cure."

Seriously, to have the toys dispersed among a bunch of kids, each delighted to get one nice toy, would be by far the happier and more humane ending.

Now, if Toy Story 3 had been made by Spielberg, the toys would emerge at the dump from a line of crowded garbage trucks to stare at the belching chimney in the distance. Then, you'd cut to Andy and all the other college kids home from break saying, "Hey, ma, where are my toys?" And ma would reply, "Your toys, are they gone? I hadn't really noticed. I probably gave them away." And Andy would think about that for a minute, think about saying something, decide against it, and then go enjoy his break.

It did make me think that there were tons of toys at that dump with missing limbs, parts wandering around forever. And, even after they're melted, who's to say that they won't be conscious when they get made into something else or get put in a landfill.

Strangler, you are missing the entire point of the series that the Toys are not inanimate pieces of plastic. They are friends who want to stay together. So your proposed ending would have been happy for some random kid characters whom the audience doesn't know from Adam, while devastating the toy characters whom generations of people have come to love. Nice.

I think you underestimate the toys' strength of character.

In case anyone's intersted, tickets just went on sale for several different Oscar week events at the Academy.

The prices range from Free to $5.

The shorts (animated and live action) are hosted by Kenneth Branagh.

:eek:

And...the shorts are sold out. :(

The Animated Feature symposium is still available, though I'd be less likely to pull off the weeknight thing for that.

I think this is the first time I've ever seen all the Best Picture nominees by the time the nominations were announced (and 18 of the 20 acting nominations).

I'll be making unusually informed picks this year.

Still need to see (from the non-ghetto categories):
Biutiful - Best Actor
Animal Kingdom - Best Supporting Actress
The Illusionist - Feature Animation
I Am Love - Costume Design
The Tempest - Costume Design
Barney's Version - Makeup
The Way Back - Makeup
Country Strong - Original Song
Another Year - Original Screenplay

From the ghetto categories:
Gasland - Feature Documentary
Inside Job - Feature Documentary
Waste Land - Feature Documentary
All 10 shorts
All 5 foreign picture noms

Does this mean the shorts will not be released on a DVD to be projected fuzzily at a crappy local theater, and that our wonderful swanking tradition must die?

Friday the 25th at The Egyptian.