We Are All Andy: Toy Story 3 & Class 2010 Plus: Animated Daycare Prison Break-outs

"Mom, can't I blog about connecting with thousands of teenagers before I clean out my room?"

Toy Story 3 marks a movie experience that will never be replicated for the people of my exact age ever again.

What I mean by people of my exact age is people who belong to the class 2010. People who graduated from high school in spring 2010 and that were entering college for the first time. The central story of Toy Story 3 is about Andy going to college for the first time, and the main majority of my peers in the class of 2010 were gearing up to do the exact same thing.

We, class 2010 millennials, were in the exact same situation as the main character of the number one animated movie of all time. We completely identified with Andy. We were all the same age. We were all going to college. We were all having to say goodbye to our brothers and sisters, clean our rooms, throw out old stuff, and dealing with gettting older.

"It's so sad" and "I cried so much" were phrases I heard from almost anybody that saw the film. Well, I heard those phrases mostly from girls, but still, regardless of gender everyone I know my age identified with the film on some level. A movie of that magnitude, one of the most anticipated sequels to the films that we grew up on, defined us as a generation, our generation: we all were the main character, we were all Andy. Really, we were. Everything fit, we all felt the same.

This will never happen in such a specific way ever again. Sure, we might identify with a father or mother figure in a movie in twenty years ago because that guy or girl is going through the same tough life issues we are, but nothing on such a universal level like this will ever happen again.

I'm so amazed I was part of something so big. It makes me want cry. It almost made me cry in theaters, but my girlfriend was there though, so, y'know, I just kept my tears in my eyes.

Let's Get All Steve McQueen in this Joint

Moving apart from the once-in-a-lifetime part of Toy Story 3, I'm going to talk very shortly about why I love the film so much: the main, physical conflict in the film is a prison-breakout story. Woody's gotta bust his pals outta da' joint. It's even got the classic character of the worn-out oldie who knows all the prison tricks, who decides to give Woody the low-down on the prison in hopes of achieving some sort of self redemption.

It's almost always awesome to see a good 'ol prison breakout, and when Pixar's crafting the details, it's better than an afternoon of old Steve McQueen movies. Who wouldn't want to see Woody stealthily slinking about a prison daycare breaking out his pals?

Also, the giant one-eyed baby doll, Big Baby, pretty much serves as the Leatherface of Pixar: it does whatever Lotso (that pink-bear, gangster overlord) wants it do, it's not the brightest toy in the bunch, it's damaged goods, and it's undeniably freaky. I've overheard moms complain about how their children were scared of that baby. That's because it's the modern incarnation of Leatherface. 

In conclusion, I love Toy Story 3. It's rad.

Joel Samson Berntsen (Aquemini - OutKast)