Yay yay YAY.
This movie met and exceeded even my high expectations. How they do it I'll never know.
Nearly everything was perfect. It was way scary and heartbreaking and that's what made it so moving. Plenty of it will go way over children's heads and more of it would give them nightmares, and I leave it up to each parent to figure out if their kid would enjoy it. Just the idea of losing a toy might cause fits for some, never mind the idea of losing a toy which causes it to become evil!
Speaking of which, I thought they were going to bring up the point that if you're a toy that gets replaced with the exact same toy, that's proof that you were SO loved that the child couldn't live without you.
SL, if you can't feel for a toy that has its head bashed into hard surfaces and limbs torn off as opposed to being played with by gentle hands, then yeah, you're not going to get the film. Sorry.
I love all the old toys. I had so many of them. The Fisher Price phone, the Farmer Says spinner, all the toys in the background of the daycare...I kept gasping and gasping. It does make it hard to watch the film, but so rewarding to keep your eyes wandering.
All the new stuff was great - Lotso's story was just as rich as any of the other characters' prior history, Ken was a great character and not just fluff, etc, and yet the old characters were extremely well done by too. That balance is so important in a sequel.
The Big Baby was so completely disturbing yet had my complete empathy throughout, which was almost mentally exhausting. Baby's major emotional moments, when Lotso rips off the necklace and when the necklace is returned and crushed, were right up there with the imminent death by furnace scene in intensity and tears. Fvck, I'm crying right now just typing this.
It got me pondering the weirdness of baby dolls to begin with. Here is a child as "mommy", quite often loving her baby so much that it becomes damaged and a hideous version of itself as it is loved to death. I know this is the case for all toys but with a baby it's much more bizarre.
It is SO weird being a parent.
Speaking of which, Andy's whole college thing and his mom's moment of reaction were also perfectly handled and strong emotional beats. How do you get a parent of a 6 month old to ponder what it will be like to send her child to college? Like that.
Funny how that lame movie reviewer said this was full of product placement - the only new characters in this film were either old toys no longer available, generalized toys, or fictional toys. I do think that the film is an ad in one way - it is a celebration of toys, and as such it's somewhat of a celebration of consumerist childhood, which I do not feel is a bad thing. It's who we are, it's where we're from. Even as such it celebrates the creative side of play with toys, which always could use encouragement. I found myself thinking of Theo's future toys and that I want to remember to encourage such thoughtful play.
Movie was great. All hail Pixar.
