Cut.
Print.
 (Note: I've
gone ahead and combined both chapters in this
story because it was just too awkward haiving
them on separate pages. This means the comic
from the 21st of June will appear eerily similar
to this
one. Enjoy.)
I absolutely
loved Toy Story 3, even cried like a baby at
the end, but I had one minor and one slightly
larger quibble with the story.
(1) Andy's mom was more sisterly in appearance
than motherly. Pixar's last film, Up, showed
the animators are perfectly capable of rendering
the aging process, so what's the deal?
(2) The story didn't really end, as you might
expect, more like just shifted continuity. Worse,
it added
characters
as fast as
it was losing them.
Far be it from me to second-guess the Pixar editorial
team but.... I am. Such was the reason for
the recent Raging Pencils cartoons. I just felt
there must be a logical way to wrap this whole
thing up.
My idea was
predicated on all of the toys in the film being
safely stored in a single box the attic, then a tasteful
fade-out as Andy heads off to college. Years later our intrepid
captain
returns
(Yes, Andy's last name is Davis) and reacquires the
goods in a fit of nostalgia.
Of course, in the meantime the entire population of the
Earth
was wiped
out
in minutes
by a freak cosmological event but,
hey,
that's show-biz.
While working out the details for this story
I also considered another idea showing Wall-E
extricating
the
whole Toy Story clan
from
the bowels
of
Andy's disheveled
home. In my mind he'd be next to the opened
box and hugging Woody whilst a small heart symbol
flutters above
the
two of
them. It would have been adorable but I've read
that Wall-E had a couple of Toy Story references
in it already so
the idea wouldn't have been wholly original.
Besides, it would not have been an "ending",
just another
shift in locale.
Spoiler Alert:
If all of the toys had perished in the furnace
I would have fucking stood up and hooted and
cheered
and applauded as it would have been the bravest
and most honest movie-making decision
since Spock died. (And, as I recall, that worked
out fairly well.) It looked for all the world
like the boys at Pixar gave that idea some serious
consideration but wimped out when studio heads
suggested it might
endanger toy sales. I think that's why the final
five minutes, though heart-warming, feels
a bit tacked-on.
So here's how it might have worked:
We start with a tight close-up on two
hands clasped together (Buzz and Woody's, natch) followed
by a simple fade to white, the music all the
while rising to a crescendo and then fading to a rising violin's
hopeful
note. The
camera could have then panned downward from a brilliant white
sky
to a
montage
of cities and towns and communities, filled with
people going about their business. As the camera zoom and
pans from locale to locale we'd see
children
and adults around the world still loving their
Buzz's,
Woody's, Jessie's and other Toy Story heroes. The sequence
would end in pantomime with an older Andy, now a family man,
offering a new Jessie doll to his young daughter.
In the background a computer monitor would be showing, as
wallpaper, the picture of Andy as a kid among his toys.
I think this
would have been
a suitable
ending of the current story timeline
but
it would
also
have
kept
the
characters
alive.
=Lefty=
|
