Toy Story 3: Too much of a good thing
I’m late on this. I admit it. But after having seen Toy Story 3 with my kids the other night, I need to weigh in. If you are even more behind than I am, I must warn you — some semi-spoilers are coming . . .
I’m not a movie critic, but I do write fiction. From that perspective, I think that films for kids might be losing their way — that is, if they follow the Toy Story 3 model. The people at Pixar are brilliant. I’ve been a fan for a long time and I very much liked Toy Story 3, but I don’t think the movie is quite right, in terms of its storytelling, for kids — definitely not for my kids, who I’m hoping are not completely different from everyone else’s children.
The problem’s history starts with something that was anything but a problem: Sesame Street, which set a fantastic example that has gotten — as with many things in our era — successfully mimicked and then partially forgotten about in the interest of both artistic expression and box-office success.
Jim Henson, creator of Sesame Street, was a pioneer of the idea that has governed children’s programming ever since (even if the producers of Barney and Friends completely ignored it): if one makes a show or movie that is entertaining for the grown-ups as well as for the kids, it will sell, thrive and last.* I have never met an adult who doesn’t think Sesame Street is funny. Built into the show are adult, sophisticated jokes that kids would never really “get,” along with delightful goofiness: Kermit, doing his finest Sinatra and singing “This Frog”; Big Bird, in the Christmas special, waiting for Santa and hoping that he isn’t “stacked over Kennedy”; Johnny Cash singing to a starstruck Oscar the Grouch who revels in Cash’s grouchiness; Don Music suffering through the creative process . . .
Clearly, this worked like a charm for Sesame Street. The show has become a pop-culture fixture. But somewhere along the way, the writers and producers of kids’ movies have shot past the original concept of writing for both kids and grown-ups and they have moved right on to creating stories exclusively for the grown-ups . . . but they still market toward the kids. This is what I think happened with Toy Story 3.
It’s typical of movie-makers to look at superficials of a successful franchise and then produce similar movies, but on steroids, thinking that more must be better. A hypothetical: someone sees Jaws and then decides to produce a shark film with more sharks in order to capture the magic that made Jaws work (and sell).
The Pixar people did something similar to this in a much more sophisticated way, of course, erring only as a result of their genius as movie-makers. Maybe they thought that more thematic depth was needed, because adults were digging their work; maybe they succumbed to the desire for critical praise over the reward of thrilling and entertaining kids. But, they had already created films with the perfect balance of adult depth and fun-loving entertainment (The Incredibles and Cars, for instance).
As I said, I think Toy Story 3 is an artistic achievement of the highest order, but both during and after the film, which I watched with my wife and my two sons (six and nine) I had serious problems with its writing and production in terms of its target audience: kids.
My first problem was the middle of the film. It was dark, spooky and disturbing, even for me. I’m not saying kids shouldn’t, as part of their mental and emotional development, see movies and read stories that elicit a little fear or discomfort from time to time. In fact, some psychologists have emphasized the benefit of stories and films with feather-ruffling content. Some say it is great for kids to see that a horrible situation can come out okay — Hanzel and Gretel go from a hungry crone’s oven to a happy life, for instance. But what if the story goes too far? What if kids are not yet equipped to deal with the emotional demands a film makes?
Is Mufasa’s death in The Lion King too intense? Kids should understand death, sure, but should they have to see Simba nudging his father’s lifeless corpse while Scar tries to convince the cub that the death was his own fault? (And can it be good that, after repeated viewings, this maudlin, heart-wrenching scene begins to have no effect on little hearts?)
How about the creepy imprisonment and the disturbing back-stories of the characters in Toy Story 3? I’m not so sure the ends justify the sad or even deeply disturbing middles in certain kids’ stories. I’m not sure that kids reason things out the way some adults writers think they do. Just because things come out okay at the end, it doesn’t mean the kids are instantly healed of the small emotional scratches they have received.
Both of my kids wept loudly at the end of Toy Story 3. They both came out of it hating the movie. They understood, conceptually, that the toys wound up in a happy place, but it wasn’t enough to make them feel comfortable with the toys’ separation from Andy. As adults, we can process this and feel emotionally nourished by the toys’ hard-earned ongoing purpose, but kids only see that Andy is going away and leaving his dear friends and the feeling of sadness can’t yet be tempered by the knowledge of the toys’ ultimate good fortune. Keats was right: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty.” But to a six-year-old, the truth of separation is downright depressing, not nostalgic and bittersweet the way it is to us.
Kids may understand logically what happened, but I would argue they are not yet ready to be emotionally comforted by the movie’s end. At least, my kids were not. They both “never want to watch that movie again.”
Are my boys ruined for life? No. But I think Pixar missed the mark by trying to add too much of a good thing: grown-up profundity. While I thought — as a forty-two-year-old — that the film was poetic and touching in its statement about life, maturity and change, I also thought it poured out rivers that young children (especially sensitive young children) are simply not tall enough to wade through.
Adults are seeing and buying these “kids'” movies for themselves, now, without shame, so the lines will continue to blur. But as long as the toys pop up in happy meals, it seems to me that the writing for these films needs to be carefully considered in terms of the emotional demands it make on the kids. What I do know, though, is that Toy Story 3 lead my own kids straight into a really sad bedtime routine that night.
In short, the Sesame Street model that works so well was not maintained by Pixar, in this case. For it to work, adult themes and content have to either be invisible to the kids or they have to be of a depth that kids can handle and that adults can enjoy.
Hamlet will never work for kids, even if it is cast with animated bunnies and bears.
* I won’t credit Warner Brothers, early Disney or MGM with this, since they were, in fact, creating animation primarily with adults in mind.
Chris Matarazzo’s ARTISTIC UNKNOWNS appears every Tuesday.
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Chris, good post. Thanks for sharing!
It reminded me of my own reaction, as a child, to a scene from the animated film, “Lady and the Tramp.” Near the end of the film, there is a dramatic chase down city streets, as the wagon carrying Tramp to the pound is pursued by Trusty, who has returned to his old form, which everyone thought was long lost. The chase ends with the wagon toppling, and taking out Trusty in the process. The sight and sound of Jock howling over what was (I thought) Trusty’s lifeless body, still moves me, all these years later … even though I know what the film’s outcome will show.
You’re absolutely correct, by the way, about who Disney had in mind with his films. And it’s interesting to note that posters for the original release of “Lady and the Tramp” proclaimed “… and NOW his HAPPIEST !otion Picture”
Wow, Jeff — what a cool bit of info about the posters. I guess they felt the need . . . Thanks!
Chris,
I agree with your statement that some animated films are very heavy for kids. I personally thought that the opening of “Finding Nemo” was a very heavy way to open a film. Also the backstory of Ray Romanos character in Ice Age(his wife and kids are hunted and killed by humans was very heavy for a kids movie. But I do believe it depends on the child. Some kids can take it better than others. Hell some kids can take better than some adults.
But I’m wondering: Did your kids see the first 2 Toy Stories on Video? A: because you didn’t mention it and B: Jesse’s Story is very much a precursor for what happens to woody in 3. so I wonder if the kids would not be as upset if they had seen all of them.
TS3 is some heavy sauce and I’m not denying that. (I was personally inconsolable when they were in the incinerator.) But I disagree with you that Hamlet can’t work as a kids film. It did. Very well in-fact. The scene you talked about in “The Lion King” is indeed heavy but EVERY kid can relate to being accused of something they didn’t do. No matter what it is.
Just something to think about.
-Kevin
P.s. I must admit that I am a HUGE movie and especially Pixar snob. So take what I said with that in mind.
-K
was perticularly harsh.
Chris,
I agree with your statement that some animated films are very heavy for kids. I personally thought that the opening of “Finding Nemo” was a very heavy way to open a film. Also the backstory of Ray Romanos character in Ice Age(his wife and kids are hunted and killed by humans was very heavy for a kids movie. But I do believe it depends on the child. Some kids can take it better than others. Hell some kids can take better than some adults.
But I’m wondering: Did your kids see the first 2 Toy Stories on Video? A: because you didn’t mention it and B: Jesse’s Story is very much a precursor for what happens to woody in 3. so I wonder if the kids would not be as upset if they had seen all of them.
TS3 is some heavy sauce and I’m not denying that. (I was personally inconsolable when they were in the incinerator.) But I disagree with you that Hamlet can’t work as a kids film. It did. Very well in-fact. The scene you talked about in “The Lion King” is indeed heavy but EVERY kid can relate to being accused of something they didn’t do. No matter what it is.
Just something to think about.
-Kevin
P.s. I must admit that I am a HUGE movie and especially Pixar snob. So take what I said with that in mind.
-K
Thanks for the comments, Kevin. My kids did see all three, but, admittedly, they are emotional lads. Sounds like we agree on most things. Sometimes, the fact that they can relate to things, though, can be the problem — often too much for them. I love Pixar, too. The Incredilbles is definitely in my top ten of all time, let alone animated top ten.