WEBVTT 00:00:08.450 --> 00:00:13.370 Greetings, and welcome to Earthling Cinema. I am your host, Garyx Wormuloid. This 00:00:13.370 --> 00:00:18.090 week’s artifact is Toy Story 3, brought to you by corporate powerhouse Disney, which, 00:00:18.090 --> 00:00:24.450 as you all know, survived its planet of origin and now owns a 51% share of the known universe. 00:00:24.450 --> 00:00:29.410 Toy Story 3 is a story about toys, a race of living, breathing creatures that were enslaved 00:00:29.410 --> 00:00:33.980 by the humans for their own amusement. In Earth’s heyday, toys such as Woody, Female 00:00:33.980 --> 00:00:38.320 Woody, Buzz Aldrin, and all these different horses were considered second class citizens 00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:45.260 in a materialistic society that judged beings based only on their pragmatic usefulness. 00:00:45.260 --> 00:00:50.040 When the film begins, the toys are owned by Andy, a ruthless overlord who labels them 00:00:50.040 --> 00:00:54.720 with his name, effectively smothering their individual will. He keeps his subjects suspended 00:00:54.720 --> 00:00:57.750 in a perpetual state of oppression, ignoring them to heed the 00:00:57.750 --> 00:01:03.780 beck and call of his master: the cell phone. A Samsung Galaxy Note from the looks of it. 00:01:03.780 --> 00:01:08.009 Andy must further cement control over his dominion by going to college, and since his 00:01:08.009 --> 00:01:12.149 toys don’t have the test scores to go with him, he sentences them to the attic. The toys 00:01:12.149 --> 00:01:19.149 undergo an existential crisis, uncertain about the sort of “afterlife” that awaits them 00:01:19.749 --> 00:01:26.749 up there. And their anxiety is justified. Three words: spi-der- webs. That’s why I 00:01:29.100 --> 00:01:34.189 always make my wife get the Galaxmas decorations. Woody, ever the die-hard loyalist, preaches 00:01:34.189 --> 00:01:36.009 eternal devotion to Andy. 00:01:36.080 --> 00:01:44.300 A classic case of Sher-lockholm Syndrome. But it’s no use. 00:01:44.659 --> 00:01:48.789 The other toys escape to a daycare facility called Sunnyside, a name that makes 00:01:48.789 --> 00:01:53.689 sense if you remember that Earth had only one sun. Sunnyside seems nice at first, but 00:01:53.689 --> 00:01:57.569 turns out to be a socialist nightmare. Here the toys are no longer private property. 00:01:58.759 --> 00:02:00.380 Lots-O-Huggin’ Bear takes it upon himself 00:02:00.380 --> 00:02:07.380 to rule this socialist utopia with a fuzzy fist, for as he says, the toys are “without 00:02:07.479 --> 00:02:13.090 owners”. But he is a malevolent dictator, subjecting his citizens to torture at the 00:02:13.090 --> 00:02:17.750 hands of ruthless toddlers in order to crush their spirits. He maintains power with a secret 00:02:17.750 --> 00:02:24.750 police force brainwashing, and a monkey who is clearly on meth. Lotso’s walking stick 00:02:25.980 --> 00:02:30.430 doubles as a gavel, a symbol of order, and his strawberry scent strikes fear into the 00:02:30.430 --> 00:02:34.420 batteries of all who cross him. The toys try to sneak out unnoticed, but when 00:02:34.420 --> 00:02:43.579 Lotso confronts them, they figure why not stage a libertarian coup. It works, and the 00:02:43.579 --> 00:02:48.860 big baby throws Lotso in the trash-- the very place he said toys were destined to go. He 00:02:48.860 --> 00:02:53.469 drops his gavel-walking stick, suggesting his reign of tyranny is over. 00:02:53.469 --> 00:02:58.040 But that ending would be too easy, so Lotso drags everyone else into the trash with him, 00:02:58.040 --> 00:03:02.989 and they are hauled off to a volcano. Here salvation comes in the form of a giant claw, 00:03:02.989 --> 00:03:06.809 operated by a trio of racist caricatures. 00:03:09.079 --> 00:03:13.579 This is what’s known as “deus ex machina,” an Ancient Greek term for a machine 00:03:13.579 --> 00:03:17.579 that descends from the sky to put Gods on the stage, and I don’t just mean god of 00:03:17.579 --> 00:03:22.980 the stage Neil Patrick Harris. In 21st century parlance, the expression was used to indicate 00:03:22.980 --> 00:03:28.920 a plot device that immediately and conveniently solves an unsolvable problem. Toy Story 3’s 00:03:28.920 --> 00:03:33.109 deus ex machina is both a literal machine descending from the sky and a plot device 00:03:33.109 --> 00:03:37.459 that conveniently saves the day. Despite being critically and commercially successful, the 00:03:37.459 --> 00:03:41.359 boys at Pixar could always find time for obscure inside jokes. 00:03:41.359 --> 00:03:45.620 At the end of the film, Ken and Barbie usher in a “groovy” utopia, perhaps indicating 00:03:45.620 --> 00:03:50.400 that a time will come when the toy race will no longer be oppressed, and can exist in harmony 00:03:50.400 --> 00:03:54.420 with all the Earth’s creatures. In the meantime, Woody and his friends are content to live 00:03:54.420 --> 00:03:58.129 under Bonnie’s benevolent rule. That is, until she goes to college too and they have 00:03:58.129 --> 00:04:02.959 to do the whole thing over again. For Earthling Cinema, I’m Garyx Wormuloid. 00:04:05.909 --> 00:04:10.400 Hey folks, thank you for watching Earthling Cinema, I'm Mark Schroeder, aka Garyx Wormuloid. 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:13.959 If you like what we do, and you wanna help us out, please support the sponsors that make 00:04:13.959 --> 00:04:18.430 this possible. Audible.com is a sponsor and they're amazing. They're really fantastic, 00:04:18.430 --> 00:04:22.050 and they're gonna give you a free gift, just for being a fan of Earthling Cinema. If you 00:04:22.050 --> 00:04:27.900 go to Audible.com/earthling you can get a free download, today. It's that easy. No strings 00:04:27.910 --> 00:04:34.180 attached, my word. Garyx Wormuloid's word. Garyx Word-uloid. So seriously, Audible.com/earthling, 00:04:34.180 --> 00:04:39.980 and if you want a recommendation, Creativity, Inc. By Ed Catmull. He's the president of 00:04:39.980 --> 00:04:45.130 Pixar, and do you ever wonder how Pixar just cranks out amazing thing after amazing thing 00:04:45.130 --> 00:04:47.750 after amazing thing? This book is going to be the key. So if you want to get into their 00:04:47.750 --> 00:04:52.050 heads and figure out how they do it, check out Creativity, Inc. It's pretty good. Also, 00:04:52.050 --> 00:04:56.580 if you liked this episode and want to try another, we recommend the Mean Girls episode. 00:04:56.580 --> 00:04:58.980 Check it out guys, and thanks for watching Earthling Cinema. 00:04:58.980 --> 00:05:04.210 So Earth enthusiasts, it's time to employ the democratic method again. If you'd like 00:05:04.210 --> 00:05:09.910 to see me break down The Matrix next, vote by clicking on this eyebrow. If you'd like 00:05:09.910 --> 00:05:16.639 to see me break down Star Wars, click this eyebrow. Now I leave you with a musical number.