What better way to celebrate Fathers Day this past weekend than to take the family and visit with old friends, Woody, Buzz, and the gang, Hamm, Potato Head (Mr. and Mrs.) Jessie, et. al. Yes fifteen years (that’s three kid generations) after the debut of Toy Story (TS-1, 1995) and Toy Story2 (TS-2 in 2000) the third installment Toy Story3 (TS-3) came to theaters to remarkable acclaim-and this time in 3D!

Steve Sechrist
Senior Analyst and Editor

Unquestionably the film is already a box office success and snatched the biggest single day gross ($41M) for an animated film from Shrek the Third’s ($38M) record opener in 2007. And beyond the box-office (a bit skewed since 3D films garner more in ticket sales per seat than 2D) at debut, film goers ranked TS-3 at 9.4 stars out of 10 (from more than 10K users) as recorded on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb). That’s a first day rating that puts it as number 11 on its top 250 movie list.

Critically, the film also scored very high (much higher than the aforementioned Shrek) with virtually every major critic placing it in the top third. Here’s a brief rundown:
   *Rotten Tomatoes (RT) reports that 98% of critics have given the film a positive review (170 reviews, with an average score of 8.7/10

   *RT "Cream of the Crop" (TV, Newspaper, Web, Radio) 100% positive based on 33 reviews

   *Metacritic, mainstream critics (normalized rating) 91 out of 100 top reviews

My favorite review came from Scott Mendelson at Huffington Post.com:
"If the first two pictures took Woody and Buzz to ‘infinity and beyond’, this one takes them to hell and back. It absolutely must be seen in 3D if possible, if only because the glasses will be useful in hiding the stream of tears during the first and last reels."

The important message to the display industry in all of this is the fact that the 3D part of this film was not the outstanding part of the feature: it would have been well received in 2D. At times while watching the movie, I had to remind myself that I was wearing the 3D glasses, and began peaking at the screen sans the glasses to look for differences. Surprisingly, they were there but, perhaps like film advances in color and voice did before it-became so much a part of the story that the technology melted into the background allowing the viewer to simply enjoy the event, forgetting all that went into its creation.

The 3D subtlety in this film was remarkable. There were few 3D scenes that brought a "Wow" from the audience. Rather, director Lee Unkrich (who also edited TS-1 and TS-2) chose to build his animated 3D world much the same way we perceive reality with the detail and the added dimension simply added to the story.

Mendelson agrees: "If it needs to be said, the animation is once again peerless, as some of the most poignant moments come from just the facial expressions. And, it should indeed be noted, this is some of the best 3D work yet in a cartoon or otherwise. The film feels fully immersive, but you rarely if ever ‘notice’ the 3D effects at work."

So beyond all other acclaim, Toy Story3 is seminal in demonstrating the maturing of 3D technology, moving it past sophomoric spectacle and radical exhibitionism into a fully mature medium that boosted this story into infinity and beyond… Steve Sechrist