God isn’t dead, he’s going to college
Pixar can make a good movie, even if their films have reached a level of nuance and meaning that is almost overwhelming for me to watch.
Case in point, Toy Story 3. I went to see it on a Monday afternoon, a day off. And I was expecting a good film, something with more depth than modern “thoughtful” blockbusters (like the surprisingly shallow Inception, with its meanings so unambiguously dictated—including the ambiguity) but that would allow me to think as much as it would allow me to “escape.”
Nope.
Instead Toy Story 3 made my mind do the sort of existential backflips that kept me up all night when I was 16 (and nearly caused a stress-fracture in my metaphorical thought spine).
For instance, the driving image of Toy Story 3—the one that will make you cry—is the image of the toys running up a continuous hill over the fires of hade... err... the garbage incinerator was just one of the many, deep and graduate level references embedded in Toy Story 3 that had my head spinning.
I mostly saw Albert Camus (the French Absurdist or Existentialist—depending on when your Professor was tenured) trying to find purpose in life, or explain the lack thereof, with his concept of an absurd hero. Instead of Sisyphus, there are plastic toys who are “tragic, that is because [the heroes are] conscious [of their situation].” These tiny, anthropomorphic figures are the absurd heroes that they fully understand the futility of their life and work—the Andys of the world will always grow up—but are willing, and joyful, about doing it anyway and are thus able to prove that they are more powerful than their situation.
I also saw Nietzche (notice my title) and think about these uber-toys, controlling there own destinies. Mafia movies. Heist movies (a Toy Story staple). I could have talked about Gilgamesh (see the photo).
Toy Story 3 was unsettling. Yet, I’ll be thinking about it for far longer than I spent thinking about that other, shallower summer heist movie people are talking about.
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| Looking in to the abyss |
Case in point, Toy Story 3. I went to see it on a Monday afternoon, a day off. And I was expecting a good film, something with more depth than modern “thoughtful” blockbusters (like the surprisingly shallow Inception, with its meanings so unambiguously dictated—including the ambiguity) but that would allow me to think as much as it would allow me to “escape.”
Nope.
Instead Toy Story 3 made my mind do the sort of existential backflips that kept me up all night when I was 16 (and nearly caused a stress-fracture in my metaphorical thought spine).
For instance, the driving image of Toy Story 3—the one that will make you cry—is the image of the toys running up a continuous hill over the fires of hade... err... the garbage incinerator was just one of the many, deep and graduate level references embedded in Toy Story 3 that had my head spinning.
I mostly saw Albert Camus (the French Absurdist or Existentialist—depending on when your Professor was tenured) trying to find purpose in life, or explain the lack thereof, with his concept of an absurd hero. Instead of Sisyphus, there are plastic toys who are “tragic, that is because [the heroes are] conscious [of their situation].” These tiny, anthropomorphic figures are the absurd heroes that they fully understand the futility of their life and work—the Andys of the world will always grow up—but are willing, and joyful, about doing it anyway and are thus able to prove that they are more powerful than their situation.
I also saw Nietzche (notice my title) and think about these uber-toys, controlling there own destinies. Mafia movies. Heist movies (a Toy Story staple). I could have talked about Gilgamesh (see the photo).
Toy Story 3 was unsettling. Yet, I’ll be thinking about it for far longer than I spent thinking about that other, shallower summer heist movie people are talking about.
Labels: Mark
posted by M S Martinez at 8/16/2010 09:27:00 AM
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