Toy Story 3 (2010)

Go on, say it. I'll say it: Toy Story 3 is the weakest of the Toy Story films. I know that's practically heresy. I know people weep at the ending, clutch their chests during the incinerator scene, and talk about this one like it's a crowning achievement of modern animation. I just don't quite get there with it, and I think it's worth being honest about that rather than going along with the crowd.

Because here's the thing: there is genuine brilliance in here. The emotional engine running underneath the whole film, Andy growing up and passing his toys on to Bonnie, is exactly the kind of storytelling that made this franchise special in the first place. It works because it works on us. We grew up with Andy too. Those of us who were kids when the first film came out are the same age as him now, roughly, and there's something quietly devastating about watching a teenager box up the things that defined his childhood. That's real. That lands. I'm not made of stone.

And Bonnie is a lovely touch. Seeing Woody and the gang find a new kid, a new home, a new sense of purpose, it's warm and it earns its emotions. The passing of the torch feels right.

But I keep coming back to what's missing, and what's missing, for me, is a compelling set of villains. Lotso and his crew at Sunnyside should feel genuinely threatening. The prison-break structure of the second half demands it. Instead I find them a bit thin. Lotso in particular feels like a character whose backstory is meant to do a lot of heavy lifting that the writing just doesn't fully support. You get the broad strokes of why he is the way he is, but I never felt it. He's menacing in the way a tick-box villain is menacing, not in the way a well-drawn antagonist is. Compare that to the quiet, creeping unease in the best Pixar films and it just doesn't measure up.

The incinerator sequence, the one everyone talks about as a gut-punch moment, is technically well crafted. But I think the film has to work that hard precisely because the middle section hasn't built enough genuine dread. It's spectacular, but it's borrowed tension rather than earned tension.

I've seen some people argue this is Pixar's best work full stop, and I respect the passion even if I can't share it. For my money, Coco handles similar themes of love, loss, and legacy with more grace and more originality. And if you want my thoughts on where the franchise went next, I wrote about Toy Story 4, which has its own arguments to make for and against it.

None of this is to say Toy Story 3 is a bad film. It absolutely isn't. It's a well-made, emotionally ambitious piece of animation with a lot of heart. Three and a half stars is still three and a half stars. But the conversation around it has hardened into something close to untouchable consensus, and I think that does it a disservice actually, because it stops people looking clearly at its weaknesses. The villains are undercooked. Some of the middle act drags. And the ending, moving as it is, is doing a lot of work to compensate for what came before.

The best of the series it is not. But the worst of the series being this good is still a compliment to how strong the franchise is. I just wish the writing had matched the ambition across the whole thing, not only at the start and the finish.

Three and a half stars.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 2010  | Watched: 2025-05-15

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
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Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

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More from Lee Unkrich: Coco (2017)
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