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