Toy Story 3 (2010)

Synopsis:

The third installment of Disney's franchise about sentient toys that live to serve their owners, Toy Story 3 finds the cast of characters in the same position as the appliances from The Brave Little Toaster. With their master heading to college and the prospects  limited to either being left in the attic, thrown away, or donated, things look very grim indeed. When a series of unfortunate mistakes lead to increasingly desperate circumstances for Andy's toys,  Woody finds his loyalty to the others outweighs his need to be near Andy as he leaves for college. But as the toys move through this transition, they serve as subtle metaphors for larger themes; as they encounter another society of toys with "no masters," and face certain doom in the end, a happy ending emerges, with those connotations left by the wayside. Life begins anew for them all, though we are left unraveling the meanings of what has happened.

Analysis:

Toys, and the way children play with them, is a fascinating history of semi-idolatry and fetishism; I mean that in the anthropological sense of imbuing ordinary objects with magical powers. Yet while these plastic and cloth objects are representative of greater, more powerful forces, identities and concepts, their status as material objects to be kept, stored, given away and destroyed makes them fearful of the masters who control their fate; and creates a special divine status for those who they pledge their loyalty to, and ultimately owe their existence. The symbols of the gods are now playthings of their own gods. Whereas Woody would have been the archtype of the Hero, and a doll may represent a supernatural force, he's instead an apostle of Andy, a higher power he serves with all his being.

Woody's faith in Andy puts him at odds with the other toys several times during the story; though they all start as faithful followers in his home, the transition to a world without him (where "God is Dead") leads them to doubt he ever cared for them. When they arrive at a daycare run by a totalitarian stuffed bear, they are dazzled by a society of toys with "no masters" who boast of equality and plenty for all toys, but quickly find that they are in Darwin's nightmare, as the Nietzsche-esqe order of things puts newcomers on the bottom of the foodchain. Andy's old toys are despondant, but Woody is driven to help them because of his good nature, and his faith in Andy. Though he never recants that faith, he finds it challenged through the story. Near the end, when their destruction is  immanent, all the toys suddenly find an acceptance of their fate, and are rewarded "from on high" by the mystical Aliens from Pizza Planet and their deific "claw." However, the trickster, rebellious and godless Lotso the Bear is doomed to a Sisyphean existence of pleasing a reminiscent dump truck driver (who used to own a toy like him) by remaining fastened to the grill of his vehicle.

Ultimately, toys must know their place; they should remain loyal to their masters, and purposeful in their function, as playthings of the gods, rather than propose to live for themselves. Woody's good apostle-hood is rewarded, as him and his brood find glory in Elysian fields at the home of Bonnie. As Pindar wrote:

And those that have three times kept to their oaths,
Keeping their souls clean and pure,
Never letting their hearts be defiled by the taint
Of evil and injustice,
And barbaric venality,
They are led by Zeus to the end:
To the palace of Kronos

The story is something of a Hero's quest, in a transition to the afterlife. Woody leads his followers, the veritable Argonauts (all heros) to their final destination. Although he is destined for a greater reward (going with Andy to college), he chooses to leave the bosom of his god to make sure that his friends are justly treated. Because of his efforts to save them from damnation and torment in the trash, they are all rewarded with an idyllic future in which their purpose is rekindled, and their lives start over again. This is reminiscent of the conclusion of CS Lewis's Narnian chronicles, where loyalty to Aslan is rewarded by going to his country, and the cry is "Further Up and Further In!" as "it was only the beginning of the true story, which goes on forever, and in which every chapter is better than the one before."

Disney has cleverly adopted the themes of religious self-determination into a story in which the faithful are rewarded an ever-after that suits their purpose, the atheistic Lotso who is punished for his cleverness and individualistic purposes, and the toys in purgatory remain at the mercy of the pantheon of children who come and go from Sunnyside every day.

Summary:

Toy Story was a very enjoyable, yet hard to decipher film. The meanings are deep and murky, but they reflect the struggles of primitive societies. Anthropomorphizing toys makes for a tricky interpretation as to what the movie means for people (are we symbols of the gods desires as the toys are?) but the animation is delightfully distracting and the situations are believable. Or at least as believable as a society of sentient playthings running amok can be.