The other day I was thinking about Toy Story 3 and the Toy Story series in general. I'm not a huge fan of them, though I did enjoy the 3rd one. I tried to figure out what about the movies didn't really work for me and it occurred to me that while (some of) the characters are three dimensional their world view is too flat for me.
What do I mean by that? Well, we see how the toys grow and learn from each other. Buzz goes from a tool to one of the gang. Yay. What we don't see is any of the toys actually thinking beyond the set of roles they are presented with. They are told that they are supposed to function as entertainment for children and they follow this role with dogmatic adherence. Even in the 3rd film, in the midst their fears of being rejected possibly coming to fruition they stick to that same role in all their choices: stick with Andy or move on to other children. At no time to they think that after being thrown out the then have complete control over their lives and movement. They are free not only to entertain other children but they can also venture out on their own. While they do derive pleasure from making kids happy we know that they can find emotional fulfillment in other ways. Just look at the happily married Potato Heads.
The only character to question this role is Lotso, the sinister and unredeemed bastard bear who rejects children. But putting this up as the alternative lifestyle against the forever devoted Woody is a bit of a thin and pathetic dichotomy. If children are seen as gods then this is the equivalent of portraying all people as devout fundamentalists or self-assigned anti-Christs. Woody has pure and ultimate faith in Andy and any child who he serves. Bringing them joy, no matter how neglected he becomes, is his only purpose in life. Lotso, alternatively, actively distrusts and hates the capricious children and essentially makes his goal in life to live a completely hedonistic lifestyle while punishing believers.
I understand that this is ostensibly a children's series but it's Pixar. We're allowed to expect more from them. That combined with the fact that this is the third installment means that there's a reasonable expectation that these characters could grow to question the world they've inhabited since 1995.
To be fair, Pixar still brings the Toy Story characters to a level above that of most kid's movies. But they rarely do sequels to by installment number three I'm going to expect new levels of the story and the world to be exposed and played with. With Up we have a relationship blossom in just a few minutes and it's strong enough to fuel the whole movie. In The Incredibles we see a family fighting against society, their nature and see that sometimes not all people are equal. Ratatouille essentially took a bunch of things that should have bored the pants of kids and made them enticing and joyfully appealing. WALL-E was... well, it was WALL-E. That movie was constructed not as a children's film but as an experiment in classical direction but with robots in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
With all that under their belt it's not beyond reason to expect Pixar to push out a bit in the third Toy Story movie and make the characters think beyond raging fundamentalism by both sides of the plot. What was there was good. Don't get me wrong. I liked it. But the series falls flat for me because I expect the world to be a bit deeper. Instead they stop short of any sort of breakthrough. They may push the edges of their roles but they never quite become as self aware as an autonomous, growing character should.
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