Toy Story 3

Toy Story 3 (2010)
Originally uploaded by chicofireman2

As an adult I feel a bit silly saying that Toy Story 3 made me cry, but as a fan of the films since I was a child it’s completely understandable why Pixar would be able to tap into my emotions and use a product and characters I had grown up with in a poignant way.

This adventure for Andy’s toys revolves around the fact that Andy is no longer a child, he’s going off to college in a week and though Buzz, Woody and most of his childhood toys are still around they don’t know what their fate will be. When Andy’s Mom accidently donates the toys instead of storing them in the attic they assume Andy wanted to throw them out and refuse to follow Woody home in time to see Andy leave. Buzz, Sally & the rest end up trapped at the Sunny Side Day care Center under the eye of Lotso – a toy bear who rules the day care with an iron fist.

What I appreciate about the Toy Story series as an adult is that each film is a metaphor for a stage of life. The first film was about accepting a new member of your family, the second about a midlife crisis, and the third installment is about aging – they’re a beautiful message about family and love. I could write pages about the layer of meaning and metaphor in the films, and I do believe Pixar is able to pack so much meaning, fun and emotion into every film simply because of the way they make their films – doing draft after draft of visual and story before the final animation process ever begins.

While Toy Story 3 didn’t make me emotional the same way the story of Ellie & Carl did in Up there were two definite moments in the film that got me. The first was near the beginning when Woody and the toys discuss their missing friends; Woody claims they’ve gone on to new homes at garage sales, but any viewer who’s paid attention knows they are actually characters whose voice actor has died. The second emotional moment, that did make me tear up, occurs in the last scene of the film. I won’t discuss it here as it would be a spoiler but it has to do with Andy not being a kid any more.

I still can’t believe that I’ve literally grown up with Toy Story. It seems like just a few years ago I was a kid going with my brothers to see the first movie, but here I am now, a young director trying to make movies that impact others they way movies like Toy Story have impacted me.

Director: Lee Unkrich
Writers: Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich
Woody: Tom Hanks
Buzz Lightyear: Tim Allen
Jessie: Joan Cusack
Lotso: Ned Beatty
Mr. Potato Head: Don Rickles
Ken: Michael Keaton
Rex: Wallace Shawn
Hamm: John Ratzenberger
Mrs. Potato Head: Estelle Harris
Andy: John Morris
Barbie: Jodi Benson
Bonnie: Emily Hahn
Andy’s Mom: Laurie Metcalf

Sergeant: We've done our duty. Andy's grown up.
Soldier: Let's face it. When the trash bags come out, we army guys are the first to go.
Buzz Lightyear: Trash bags?
Woody: Who said anything about trash bags?
Sergeant: It has been an honor serving with you. Good luck, folks.

Scream 2

Adjusting to life post-Woodsboro Sidney Prescott is safe and happy as a theatre major at Windsor College; her life has now escaped feeling like a horror movie and is about to be committed to the horror movie genre literally. Gale Weathers wrote a follow up book to her torrid tale about Maureen Prescott’s murder telling the tale of the Woodsboro murders and it is being turned into the latest and greatest slasher movie – Stab. Sidney prepares for the release of the film and the worst time of her life to be rehashed in a melodramatic teen horror movie until the killer returns and it becomes apparent that the killer too is obsessed with sequels and he wants to recreate the Woodsboro murders.

While I cannot definitively say which of the first two Scream films is my favorite I do have to say that for just a pure, fun watch I adore Scream 2. In Scream 2 the movie about a movie factor is heightened, the sequel cliché’s are played to a T and the college campus setting is a way to inject yet more youthful arrogance into the mix and allow for a much larger body count with very little effort.

Perhaps my favorite joke in all of the Scream series is Stab the movie. Stab is not only pulls directly from the characters conversations in Scream but the name Stab is a direct reference to the name of the movie. My favorite joke about Stab is that in Scream Sidney worries that if her life were made into a movie she would be played by Tori Spelling, and in Stab Spelling is the actress that lands the role of young Sidney. The irony and tongue-in-cheek humor is readily apparent and fabulous.

All of the Scream films were made while Courtney Cox was on Friends and Scream 2 decides to use the popularity of Friends (and Cox’s good standing with the cast) to throw in a few subtle references to her Friends co-stars. At one point we find out that Dewey was played in Stab by David Schwimmer and Gale tells of naked photos of her on the internet were her head on Jennifer Anniston’s body. The jokes work on their own, but if you are aware of Cox’s connection to Friends they play even better.

As someone who went to film school, the fact that Randy is a film student is absolutely fabulous to me. Randy and Mickey the rival film students are my kind of geeks and their opinions make me laugh.

In the end I cannot separate my love for Scream from my love for Scream 2. Both movies are fabulous thrillers in their own right and Scream 2 is a great sequel that lives up to its predecessor while managing to feel like its own film with its own set of rules.

Director: Wes Craven
Writer: Kevin Williamson
Sidney Prescott: Neve Campbell
Gale Weathers: Courtney Cox
Dewey Riley: David Arquette
Randy Meeks: Jamie Kennedy
Derek: Jerry O’Connell
Mickey: Timothy Olyphant
Cotton Weary: Liev Schreiber
Debbie Salt: Laurie Metcalf
Hallie: Elise Neal
CiCi: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Maureen: Jada Pinkett Smith
Sorority Sister Murphy: Portia de Rossi
Stab Casey: Heather Graham
Stab Sidney: Tori Spelling
Stab Billy: Luke Wilson

Mickey: Oh come on Randy, with all due respect, the killer obvious patterned himself after two serial killers who were immortalized on film.
Guy #2: Thank you!
Film Teacher: So, you're saying that someone is trying to make a real life sequel?
Randy: Stab 2? Why would anyone want to do that? Sequels suck!