Jessie and Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 3.

It's said Pixar doesn't make bad movies. It may jump the shark one day, but I'm happy to report that day isn't today.

Indeed, Toy Story 3 doesn't just break the "sucking" curse afflicting sequels with the number 3 behind them. It forms a natural arc of closure to the story of Andy and his toys: Woody the Cowboy (Tom Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm the Pig (John Ratzenberger), etc.

The opening scenes pointedly echo the opening of Up. There's a "home movie" reminiscence of the toys' golden era as Andy's objects of imagination. We're then abruptly dumped into teenage Andy's world of guitar, computer and a long-ignored toybox. Even Andy's 12-year-old sister Molly has dumped her Barbie for, oh, I don't know ... Justin Bieber?

People age. Times change. And change can be dramatic indeed. And for the toys who ache for the attention of a child, the drama begins as Andy packs for college and they are delivered to a daycare whose cheery facade masks the tyranny of a Teddy Ruxpin-like teddy bear named Lotso (Ned Beatty).

Lotso cynically welcomes the new toys as cannon fodder -- age-inappropriate playthings for toddlers too young to do anything but bust up our gang with gleeful abandon (with the exception of Barbie, who meets a dandy named Ken on the bad-guys' side of the door).

With that, director Lee Unkrich adopts a prison-break motif for Toy Story 3. It's a dark premise to be sure, but these have never been squeaky clean stories. (Remember Sid the toy torturer from the original?)

There are a plethora of good gags in Toy Story 3, including the discovery of Buzz Lightyear's "settings" button (that's all I'll tell you). But the most pleasant surprise is that Barbie and Ken are the life of the party, or at least of the movie. Jodi Benson (the voice of The Little Mermaid's Ariel back in the day) actually gives Barbie an infectious personality, a lot of spunk and more pointed things to say than, "Math is hard!" Her subplot is not only critical to the course of the movie, she gives Toy Story one more solid heroine (after Joan Cusack's Jessie) to make the movie equal-opportunity fun.

As for Ken, Michael Keaton voices him as a petulant clothes horse who lives in what most girls would immediately recognize as Barbie's Dreamhouse. In fact, he comes off as a slightly less macho version of Scooby-Doo's Fred (ascot included). Still, like Barbie, he has an arc of discovery of his own.

Meanwhile, the duplicitous Lotso is perhaps the best villain the series has seen yet -- complete with his own complicated pathology of loss of a child's love.

But leave the psychology (and odd sentimental tear) to the parents. For the kids, it's a living, breathing CGI good time and even the 3D doesn't come off as gratuitous.

(This film is rated G)

jim.slotek@sunmedia.ca
More Movie Reviews