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Save your money and re-watch them on DVD

Back in 1995, Walt Disney Pictures partnered up with Pixar Animation Studios to bring us an animated film like nothing we’d seen before.  Who hasn’t ever fantasized about their toys coming to life and having awesome adventures?  I’m pretty sure this is something just as relevant to the little boy staging epic battles between his Transformers and his Ninja Turtles as it is for the typical little girl playing with her dolls in her Barbie Dream House.  (Forgive my stereotypes.)  This was definitely one of the many things to which we can credit Toy Story’s massive appeal to both the young and old.

A story about friendship and belonging, Toy Story boasted state of the art animation, a smart and funny script and some impressive voice performances from a collection of well known television and movie actors.  While geared towards children, the film was daring enough to take the story into more mature territory without coming across as too boring or “dark” for the kids to handle.  It was the first of it’s kind and established Pixar Animation Studios as a studio to keep your eye on.  Moviegoers expected many more great projects from Pixar.

Since Toy Story’s debut, Pixar has released nine feature films.  Some, like Ratatouille and Wall-E, became instant classics.  Others, like A Bug’s Life and Cars, maybe not soo classic but still huge box office earners.  Pixar has set the standard for excellence in computer animated cinema and seem to keep raising that bar with each new release.  But now I’m getting way ahead of myself.

One of the nine films released by Pixar after the debut of Toy Story was, of course, Toy Story 2.  This installment added a few more characters and expanded the world just a bit more.  We got back story on Woody and were introduced to the rest of the Round Up Gang.  And the advances in computer animation gave us some cleaner and sharper character effects.  One of the rare occasions where a sequel stands up nicely when compared to it’s predecessor.  Don’t worry about time consuming introductions and exposition as Toy Story 2 wastes no time in diving into the meat of the plot and delivers another hour and a half of fun and entertaining eye candy.

In June of 2010, Pixar and Disney will be releasing the highly anticipated Toy Story 3.  Andy (the little boy from the first two films) is heading off to college.  What will happen to his toys now that he’s all grown up?  Well, I can’t answer that question.  It had been such a long time since I’d seen the first two that I couldn’t have even wagered a guess.  Hell, I wasn’t sure I even remembered half of the characters.

Disney and Pixar, no doubt, predicted this conundrum and are going to fill those gaps in your memory with a special limited release of a Toy Story and Toy Story 2 double feature in 3D opening October 2nd.  I have to be honest, the movies looked fine enough on their own.  The addition of 3D doesn’t really enhance the experience too terribly much.  Sure, there are a couple of parts here and there (mostly in Toy Story 2) that really pop.  But, for the most part, you’ll find yourself wishing you could just ditch the glasses and watch the movie in it’s original format.

The double feature “presentation” is pretty much what you would expect.  There’s a cute little shadow puppet animation that opens things up before the first film.  After the first movie ends, the audience is offered a ten minute intermission for bathroom breaks or concession refills.  If you choose to stay in the theater, you’ll be treated to some trivia games, original concept animations and pre-production stills with a little timer in the top left corner counting you down to Toy Story 2.  While I found the original concept animation to be interesting, I think that time between films may have been better served treating the audience to some of Pixar’s past animated shorts.  That’s just personal preference tho.

How do the movies stand up over 10 years later?  They still look good… for the most part.  I think the first film has a few moments where you go “Whoah… that totally wouldn’t fly if it was released now.”  But those moments are very few and incredibly far between.  Toy Story 2 definitely benefits from the advances in animation that come from being a younger film.

There’s no denying that Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are still rich, timeless stories that can speak to the young and old alike.  There’s very little that can hinder the kind of magic that comes with such effective storytelling.  But it looks like the 3D presentation comes close.  I hate to say it but save your money and re-watch them on DVD.  The new 3D format hurts more than it helps.

Please note that my rating is based on the 3D double feature presentation and not the original films.

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