Toy Story 3, by Lee Unkrich

Toy Story is back and our old friends too. John Lasseter was too busy being the boss of Pixar-Disney animation studios, so after co-writing the story he stepped back and let Lee Unkrich, a Pixar veteran too, taking the lead role of Director. But it is very much a Pixar team work that, as Time Out says, ‘puts their gorgeously detailed digital craftsmanship at the service of a pleasingly simple fantasy set-up, warm, complex characterisation and classically elegant storytelling’.

First we are told ‘put your 3D glasses on now’ and we are blessed with the latest of Pixar’s short film gems. The new one, ‘Day and Night’ is well in the Pixar tradition: no dialogues, a cool classic jazz soundtrack, an entirely original graphic design, warm, funny, poetic. Sheer genius. And this time, of course, in 3D. Contrary to the feature film that takes the right approach of a light 3D touch, the short film explores the 3D opportunities and 3D/2D contrasts in marvellous ways. Impossible to describe this artistic collage. It reminded me a bit of the slapstick and surreal quality of Les Shadocks.

Then the big film. Pixar Opus eleven. Andy is 20 and about to go to college. His childhood toys have been sleeping untouched in a box for many years. As Andy must clear his room, toys anxiously face several options: move to the attic, donation to a daycare centre, or being thrown away. The toys are divided on what would be the best option for them to retire.

The Timeout review is quite good at spotting the weaknesses. It’s true that too many plot patterns from Toy Story one and two are repeating here, but everything is so brilliantly written and filmed that pleasure is constant and intense again. However I am not a huge fan of the Barbie/Ken subplot (too easy) and Buzz in Spanish mode is fun but overdone.

It is also the second Pixar in a row to be so deeply emotional. Nostalgia, passing of time, despair and separation were always part of the Toy Story saga but the theme is very explicit this time.

I am one of those, many, who cried here, after having cried at Up (twice). Somehow it's okay now, even for a guy, to admit crying when it's a Pixar film. Minor spoiler is coming now. I am referring to the final scene, of course, where Andy eventually chooses to give his favourite toys to an adorable little girl of the neighbourhood and then plays with her – and with them – for the last time. Feeling tears is always an uncomfortable feeling and we should of course be wary of cheap melodrama. There may an argument here but for me there is nothing outrageously cheesy in that scene. It’s simple, true and beautiful.

But another scene took me by surprise. The very short and simple scene where Andy’s mum is suddenly stricken by emotion at the sight of Andy’s room being emptied. Perhaps because I am about to become a father myself I can start to imagine how hard it must be to see your child leaving the family home for good and how I, like most of us probably, was an unfair and insensitive brat to my mum when I moved away to university.