As most of us know, Toy Story 3 is going to have its first birthday this Saturday June 18 (accidentally this Saturday will also be the premiere of Cars 2)
Everybody get ready for the celebration!!!
Crazy how fast it has gone.
Still more suprised Wall E is approaching 3 years old, geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!
It’s been that long already? Man, time flies. Soon we’ll be looking back at Toy Story 3 with nostalgia like we are with the originals…
I can’t believe it’s tomorrow! I made some genuinely fond memories with this movie…
By this time in the afternoon on June 18th, I was watching a review from Gary CoGill on WFAA on my channel 8. He lauded the film, claiming it to be the best part three in history, and one of the best sequels ever. “I am in awe of the sheer talent that went into this movie.”
Wow, what a night. By this time, I was sitting in the theatre with my family and at least one friend somewhere else in the audience. We bought our sodas from the gas station and sneaked them in, and we arrived at the theatre about 7:00 in the evening. We waited in a line, sitting down, to be let into the theatre, and we got in - we were the second group in after a group of rowdy college kids. I watched the first Toy Story on my iPod Nano as preparation, and I was about ten minutes into Toy Story 2 before the lights dimmed for the trailers.
During the long wait for the movie to begin, the IMAX theatre we were in was being PACKED by people, standing room only. I spotted my voluptuous and quite lovely friend Sonya in the audience, and I waved to her, but I was determined to see Toy Story 3 with the people I’d known all my life, my family. And of course, my mother, who had watched the first two Toy Story’s non-stop everyday as a child. A person was dressed as Woody, and was greeted by applause. Also, a person showed up as Rex, more applause. The audience, by the way, was made up not only of college-age kids, but adults, older adults, and like two or so little kids, besides my younger brother and sister. I was sitting next to my cousin Andrew, who is probably my favorite cousin.
A person comes in adverstising AMC’s newest indepenent film starring Michael Clarke Duncan, and the theatre people say to not skip seats, sit together, since we’re all seeing the same movie. “Shout out to the college guys here and the little family in the middle rows!” We sat in the middle because that’s where all the IMAX stuff hits you, the sound, everything. Some of the commercials that came on were for Samsung’s 3D TV’s with “Hey Soul Sister” by Train playing; a Sprite commercial; the Dr. Dre Android commercial with the silent, sexy girl; the Interrupted by movie Guy commercial parodying High School Musical, Star Wars, and Lethal Weapon, and others.
Finally, the trailers begin. I don’t really remember any trailers besides MegaMind and Despicable Me. But when Day and Night begins, I panic, and think, “This is it!” But I was embarassed I thought the short was Toy Story 3. Great short, very cool to look at, had the audience and me laughing at the bikini girls gag.
And finally, it was here. HUGE audience cheering, then a collective, “SHHHHHHHHHHush!!!” HUGE chills down my body when the opening logos roll. Then a smile comes wide on my face at “Walt Disney Pictures Presents… A Pixar Animation Studios Production… TOY STORY. 3.” HUGE applause. I was surprised to see Potato Head after so many years, but then he got whipped by… Sherrif Woody, the star of Toy Story the series. The biggest applause yet as he walks up like a badass, and they cheer again when we see his face. We laugh our butts off, and when the aliens drive up, they cheer again. Then, they cheer just as loudly at Buzz, and everyone says “To infinity, and beyond!”
The audience laughs, laughs, laughs at everything, and a collective “awwww” at Bo Peep, and other sad moments like Lotso. Probably the most laughter I heard was at Ken and Chuckles. Then, people start gasping in terror at Big Baby nearly finding Woody, Woody being pulled in, Buzz getting hit, the LGM’S being swept up, Slinky nearly getting hit by a hammer, the whole nine yards.
Then when the camera flew to show us the incinerator, I screamed, seemingly not of my own will, “Oh SHIT.” And then, the biggest audience gasp I’ve ever heard at “Where’s your kid now, Sherrif??” And from then on, the audience was just silent. You could hear a pin drop in there. And when the LGM’s rescued them, there was laughing, but mostly cheering, and huge applause that the toys were okay. From here on, there were laughs, and “Aww’s…” at the sad parts. But when it came to “Goodbye, Andy.” scene, the audience was once again as silent as they were during the incinerator scene, probably just unable to do anything besides weep. There were a lot of “awww’s” when Andy pulled Woody back… and the final “Thanks guys,” and of course, “So long, partner.” By then, we couldn’t cheer at the film’s ending like we did with the incinerator, we just clapped, making no words at all. We were just emotionally overwhelmed, I suppose.
Then of course, lots of laughs and gasps of joy at Zurg and the Army Men during the end credits, and the final “Awww” of Toy Story 3? Chuckles smiling.
No one was walking out of that theatre with dry eyes, and I wept all the way home, and made clear my position - Pixar will never ruin a film, or a sequel, and they will never go wrong with Toy Story. They can never top a film of this magnitude, of this emotion, of this depth, of this perfection. If this had to be the final film from Pixar, so be it. It was well worth the eleven year wait, and the fifteen year wait for a conclusion, to a story about toys - a Toy Story.
Happy Birthday for today Toy Story 3! I love you, brilliant, brilliant film, which I have wasted at least £40 in total on you with the 3 cinema tickets and the eventual DVD! 
Wow! Are they TS3 biscuits?! 
I remember it cam out the day before my 19th birthday and say it on the 4th of July.
Craziness! I remember not being able to see this film the day it came out because I was in New Orleans. That was painful! Was it really a year ago?