They made Toy Story 3 for kids, right?
They animated it with pretty colors and they used established characters from the first two Toy Story films, which definitely felt like kid-friendly fare. They set much of the action in a day care center, and they used a fuzzy purple teddy bear for a villain – how much more kid-friendly could they get?
A lot more. In fact, I rate Toy Story 3 as the most terrifying kids’ movie since Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (You remember Chitty: the Andrews / Van Dyke Disney romp that featured a child abductor who haunted preadolescents’ dreams for years). The themes center on loss and betrayal and the slow, mortal march of time. The day care center becomes a chamber of horrors that will make a generation of children scream in dismay at the prospect of spending time anywhere similar. The visuals include a creepy baby-doll who looks like something out of a Romero film, a gelatinous octopus that’d make Lovecraft shriek, and a Daliesque animated tortilla with Potato Head features that weaves and lurches in sickening contortions. Don’t even get me started on the aforementioned villain, an evil good ol’ boy of a bear (brilliantly voiced by Ned Beatty) who represents everything wrong with authority and everything to fear in those who promise to look after you.
Here’s the deal: the first films’ Andy’s all grown up and ready to head off to college, and his toys find themselves in a box dropped off at the local day care. Things seem lovely at first, but it isn’t long before the true nature of the facility reveals itself. Can our heroes escape? With Andy leaving them behind, to what do they have to escape? Why bother?
We’re talking about some dark stuff. Combine it with some of the film’s unnerving visuals and scary sequences, and I can’t imagine showing it to anyone under the age of ten. Hell, just writing about Toy Story 3 creeps me out all over again. If this is a kids’ movie, I’d hate to see what Pixar can put together for adults.
