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In the United States, there is still the tendency to view animation as a kids playground, no matter how many South Parks, Simpsons or whatever Adult Swim throws on at 2 in the morning there may be floating around. This leads to the mindset of reviewers to make allowances for most animated features with some kind of caveat along the lines of "Kids will like it the most, but parents won't be bored out of their minds." And that steadfast mindset really gets under my skin. I was doing my best to think of a fair number of animated films - just from this decade alone - that have been crushingly reviewed and not many come to mind (yes, yes, I am not forgetting you, Delgo.) God knows I am already mentally lined up and fairly giddy for Toy Story 3 and I expect to be laughing and bawling my ass off in at least a 1 to 2 ratio. I am not someone waiting for Pixar to "fail." I approach most every film in an attitude of prayer because the chance to see a great film is a small miracle every time. But if the third installment isn't worthy of praise, will enough voices rise up to lay claim to this sad truth?

The Pixar productions I do adore - Toy Story, WALL-E, and Toy Story 2 - I admire and embrace with a great fervor. As an example of what I think Pixar does better than a lot of films, animated or otherwise, let me cite this brief story. Most recently, I caught Up in a second-run theater/brewpub during an afternoon matinee when kids were still allowed. Shortly after the scene where Muntz captures Kevin the bird, a young boy in the row in front of me went into deep unshakeable spasms of sobbing. Not the kind of crying that comes from being scared or sad, but that emanates from your soul when you have been moved beyond all proportion. Eventually, his father had to take him and his younger brother (who had not reacted) out and alas, the lad did not return.

There is an emotional clarity and unifying theme to most of Pixar's films, as well as a resistance against jokes and references good for a cheap laugh today, but that would sorely date the work at some unforeseen point in the future. From the start, with Toy Story in 1995, they have been, in ways both large and small, ruminations on the passing of time and what that can mean for a family, for one's dreams, for the relationship of a toy to its child. Toy Story 2 finds a way to unfold a tale that in many ways is very similar to Toy Story but the joy is in all the details that flesh out the story and make it different. I had not seen the sequel since Thanksgiving Day 1999 when I was packed into the front row of a sold out theater, stomach stuffed, neck craned back and eyes staring up. It's probably the most fun I have ever had being that uncomfortable at a screening, as well as one of the last times. The opening sequence and how it unfolds had completely slipped my mind before I watched it again last weekend. So when the film's title hurtled towards me against a starry backdrop with a very Lucas-ian bent to it and then plowed right into an action spectacle with Buzz Lightyear that felt more like a videogame than a movie, I began to doubt my memory - which is a more than common occurrence nowadays.

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