Tuesday, October 6, 2009

At the Movies 2, part 1

Before he became famous by changing TV with the help of a teenage vampire slayer, Joss Whedon was one of those who wrote the Oscar-nominated script for Toy Story, which is the start of Pixar's animation dynasty. It's one of the few things I haven't seen that has a Joss connection, A couple of the others are Alien Resurrection and Titan A.E.. But they aren't in 3D.

I checked out Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D, and it was wonderful. The ticket price was right, just 8.50, and so was the experience. While it's great to see two monvies that made history by making CGI movies viable, what counts is a good story. Both movies have that story: the first one being a toy concerned about being replaced in a boy's heart, and the other looking at how long a toy can be loved by someone. The latter theme will be looked at again when we see Toy Story 3 on my 51st birthday.

Still, I had to guess which part of the first Toy Story movie were written by Joss. I bet it was the scenes where Woody meets the toys that evil Sid took apart and reassembled in horrible ways. Such a sight is freaky, even when you discover their hearts are still good although their bodies are mutated big time. The second movie was also great, since it invented the first gag reel for an animated movie. If you can see these two movies in 3D, do it!! It is worth it and more. You may even recognize some scenes that will be used again. If you look hard at Woody's scenes with Jessie, you may say, "didn't I see this in Bolt?"

The second half will come later, when I attend a special birthday for a well-known movie house in Sacramento.

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