Set ten years after “Toy Story 2” (1999), Andy (John Morris) has stopped playing with his toys and is going to college. Woody (Tom Hanks) is in the box marked college while the rest of the toys’ fate is uncertain. “Toy Story 3” (2010) asks if they are headed to the attic, the garbage dump or a daycare called Sunnyside? When they wind up at the day care with lots of kids to play with them, it seems ideal. Will the toy family find a way to stay together? This third installment feels as if it should be the last one, but there are two more to go!
“Toy Story 3” starts with Woody still in charge, but everyone is losing their faith that Andy will ever hold them again and are slightly resentful over Woody’s good fortune. From the outset, the dialogue runs down a list of regular characters who got lost in between the interval of the second and third installment. After the second film, Woody was tempted to leave Andy for a better life, but this time around, his faith is stronger than ever. He is committed to a life in the attic to “be there for Andy.” Are they hoping that Andy will have kids and pass his toys on to his offspring? Woody has zero memories about his life before Andy even though he possibly existed since the fifties. How does this whole toy life work? The tension is that Woody is also committed to sticking with his family, who have prioritized themselves in the face of harsh reality that the best option is sitting unused in an attic.
The other toys have traded places with second movie Woody while retaining some of their resentment towards Woody from the first movie. They want a vibrant life being with children, not as forgotten objects. Sunnyside looks like toy heaven, but it turns out to be the first step on a road trip through the toy version of Dante’s circle of hell. It is the second “Toy Story” franchise movie where the toys are the villains, not the human beings, and extended physical torture is on the menu.
Once again, Buzz (Tim Allen) gets a storyline about the essential mutability of his character. It is the inverse of his predicament from “Toy Story 2.” Instead of his toy family’s inability to distinguish him from other Buzz figures, he can be manipulated into not recognizing then betraying them. It turns out that Sunnyside is an extremely hierarchical place, and the cushiest spots go to the mightiest toys whereas everyone else gets treated as if they were in prison. When Buzz seems like an asset, they get him to cooperate, and toy manuals have never been so sinister. It is “The Manchurian Candidate” (1982) for toys.
“Toy Story 3” introduces the greatest number of new characters, but here are the most essential ones. Lotso (Ned Beatty) is a folksy stuffed bear that smells like strawberries. Ken (Michael Keaton) immediately hits it off with Barbie (Jodi Benson) and has his version of a dream house. Barbie occasionally talks as if she would belong in “Barbie” (2023). Did this movie, at least in part, inspire Greta Gerwig’s take on her hit existential crisis movie? A new child, Bonnie (Emily Ricks Hahn), is introduced. Her mom works at Sunnyside, and Woody briefly has an exchange with Bonnie and meets her toys. Chuckles (Bud Luckey), a clown toy, has valuable information about how Sunnyside became a nightmare. Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton) considers himself more of an actor than a toy. There is so much more. Trixie (Kristen Schaal) is a dinosaur toy from the same line as Rex (Wallace Shawn) and is tech savvy. Dolly (Bonnie Hunt) is the leader of Bonnie’s toys.
Narratively it does not tread new emotional ground. As an adventure action animated film, it definitely raised the stakes to apocalyptic levels. For all the parents watching the entire franchise in preparation for “Toy Story 5” (2026), “Toy Story 3” is around the time that you should consider deliberately arranging fun activities to offset the doom and gloom of this franchise, especially since “Toy Story 2” (1999) has the biggest emotional gut punch. At this point, this franchise is verging on becoming technicolor sadism. It is still required viewing because one throwaway line about missing characters becomes a central event in “Toy Story 4” (2019) and “Toy Story 5.” While it is possible to watch the most recent installment without watching anything that came before, it helps to offer perspective and fully appreciate how brilliant “Toy Story 5” is.
Honestly “Toy Story 3” is hella depressing. It is like watching animals getting tortured. I never saw it before, and it seems like a one and done movie. It was a natural ending to the franchise, but with the franchise being the equivalent of an ATM and still receiving critical acclaim, it makes sense that they considered the third installment as a natural transition point to a soft reboot instead.
There were more horror elements this time. Mrs. Potato Head (Estelle Harris) plays a pivotal role acting like a psychic because she is at Sunnyside while one of her eyes is still in Andy’s room so she can sort of see what is happening at their old digs. The animation depicts her view in a hazy way as if it was a dream. Visually it is the most innovative idea in the franchise, and it never reappears in the rest of the franchise to date. The disembodied body part is usually a hand or an arm acting independently and often criminally from its user, so it was also a clever deviation from the standard and broke new ground as a tool that helped change the characters’ motivation. While seeing things through another person’s eyes has been done before, there was not a way to do it using the characters’ own eyes.
If the surveillance cymbal banging Monkey (Frank Welker) seems familiar, it is a deliberate reference to Stephen King’s 1980 short story, which originally appeared in “Gallery” magazine then was revised and published in a 1985 King short story anthology called “Skelton Crew.” In “Toy Story 3,” he looks frightening and is a huge obstacle for the toys trying to leave Sunnyside but shares no overt characteristics with King’s cursed toy. If you want to pull that thread, you will have to check out “The Monkey” (2025).
“Toy Story 3” is the kind of movie that people who love the characters will enjoy, but if you enjoyed the first two movies for how they resonate with you emotionally, this movie will largely feel like an entertaining, well executed waste of time. It is as if Sid (Erik von Detten), who reappears as a rock and roll loving garbage man, made this movie as a child as they are physically put through the ringer. It is almost verging on unpleasant without a big cathartic payoff.
