When We Were Young

There's a wildly popular group on Facebook - "Move out of the way, children, I've been waiting 11 years to see Toy Story 3", and once you watch the movie, you'll realize how Pixar waves a hello to it's currently college-bound original audience of the 90s.
In each of us there lives an Andy with wild, riotous imagination and a posse of favourite toys. But just like Andy, the 90s kids grew up and the toys now live dusty, forgotten lives.
"Andy's going to College" are the opening words of this movie, what are the toys going to do now? Do they get donated, stored in the attic or just ruthlessly thrown away? Relegated to a dystopic daycare ruled over by the tyrannical Lotso, the toys decide to break out and return to their original owner, deciding that a forgotten life in the attic (and a chance that Andy's kids might play with them) is better than living their lives out in the living hell that is Sunnyside. What follows is an hilariously entertaining prison-break scenario, toys creeping around under sandcastle buckets trying to escape the eerie Big Baby. As always there is a race against time, and they must get home before Andy leaves for college, but of course, plans go awry.
While the basic plotline is largely predictable, Pixar's treatment of the same is refreshing and engaging, drawing in both the six-year-olds and the nostalgic teenagers, there is physical comedy interspersed with witticism. A wonderfully familiar cast, and of course, 3D. What sets Toy Story 3 apart from Shrek Forever After (in the 3D aspect, because Shrek was just a terrible movie overall) is that even though TS3 doesn't really have scenes that jump out at you from the screen, the effects enhance the ridiculous detailing on the characters, making HD seem primitive. Every colour is just more colourful, and the detailing is insane, like little crayon scratches on Mr. Potato Head, the green paint on Jessie's hair, which doesn't disappear. It's amazing how much love and care has been put into the movie.
At the core of it all, there is that little pang of a largely unrealised emotion that will run through you as you watch it. You wonder where your own toys are, and you wonder if they miss you. What makes this movie successful, dramatically, is that you are completely drawn in, cringing in fright and apprehension at the climax, even though you know that this isn't how it will end. And when it does end, it is all you can do to stop yourself from crying.
Pixar ALWAYS does this, in all of its movies (especially if you remember the cinematic brilliance of Carl and Ellie's montage in Up!)You have your fun, you have that exhilarating adrenaline ride full of laughs and rainbows, and then comes that one moment that'll leave you thinking about assorted things. I promise to not spoil it for you, but you have to promise you'll watch this movie.
With Andy driving away, you know it's over. We've all driven (or been driven) away from the past, and you can watch all the films and buy all the merchandise you want, you will never be that wide-eyed-six-year-old in the seat next to you ever again. It's a heavy price to pay to understand the entire poignancy of that ending sequence of Toy Story 3, but it is, in a way, closure.
Thank you Pixar, for nudging me just a little bit closer to adulthood. In the gentlest way possible. :)

P.S. - You should really watch that montage from Up! I even linked it for you.