Monday, June 21, 2010

Toy Abandonment Issues

So, I survived last week and am more or less back to normal, except for the physical therapy. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, the first morning in ages for which I have nothing scheduled. Now, watch me be wide awake at 6 on the first day I can really let myself sleep in.

I got up early Saturday because I went with my friends to see Toy Story 3 and we thought we could avoid the worst of the crowd by going to the early, pre-noon show. That was perhaps overly optimistic of us, as the theater was full, and mostly with very little kids. In a way, though, the kids enhance the experience of a movie like that. I had a big "Awwww" attack on the way into the theater when a little one toddled in holding his Woody doll in one arm and his Buzz Lightyear doll in his other arm. The movie was brilliant -- definitely not just a sequel designed to make money. It was kind of a coming-of-age story, both for Andy and for his toys. And like every Pixar movie ever, it made me cry.

The funny thing is, I'm not sure why the part that made me cry had such a strong effect on me (my eyes are starting to water just thinking about it). I didn't have a favorite toy as a kid, nothing like Woody is to Andy -- the toy you play with, sleep with and insist on taking with you when you go out. I guess I'm fickle. I had a couple of toys that worked in the security blanket role when I was a toddler, but nothing that I loved throughout my childhood. I liked playing with my Barbie dolls, but I don't recall feeling any particular affection toward the dolls themselves. I mostly liked books, and I liked the one I was reading at the time, so I didn't even have a beloved favorite there. I think I tried a couple of times having a beloved favorite toy after reading something like The Velveteen Rabbit and feeling like I should have a beloved favorite, but it never stuck. I did play with toys the way Andy does in the movies, creating epic scenarios that combine all the toys into one story. I just don't get that affectionate toward inanimate objects. I also don't name my cars or computers.

I think perhaps I identify with the Toy Story toys instead of with the kid, and I seem to have some abandonment issues, so it sets me off whenever it looks like a toy might be left behind or forgotten.

At any rate, it's an excellent action movie that just happens to be about animated toys. And that might make you cry at the end. The Pixar cartoon before the movie was delightfully surreal.

There were tons of trailers before the movie, but the only one that got me excited was Voyage of the Dawn Treader, set for the Christmas season. I didn't even realize they were making that one. It was one of my favorite books in the series. Now I hope it does well enough for them to make The Silver Chair, which was my favorite. It's a classic quest story that would lend itself well to film, though I'm not sure any CGI version of Puddleglum could beat Tom Baker in the late 80s/early 90s British television production. I'm not too interested in The Sorcerer's Apprentice, mostly because Nicholas Cage bugs me, but I rather hope it does well at the box office because something with magic in the modern world being a smash might help the chances of my movie getting made.

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