Toy Story 3 (2010)

*SPOILERS ABOUND* You will mourn every lost or thrown out toy in your life after seeing “Toy Story 3,” the final chapter in the wildly popular, vastly successful Pixar franchise. I did. And I still am, days after seeing what has to be the best “third chapter” film ever made. (Even “The Godfather” series could not pull off that trick.) This gem packs an emotional wallop like nothing ever made by Disney. It is about nothing more than the need to be wanted and remembered, a child crossing into adulthood, and the notion that throwing your cherished toys out is akin to sending them to hell. And there’s a literal inferno at the film’s end. All in a "G" movie.

The story of this “Story”: Young Andy is now 17 and looking toward college, leaving home and packing away all his childish belongings to the attic, donation, or … the trash. Andy hasn’t touched his toys – stashed in a trunk -- in years. Many, including Bo Beep, have been, for lack of a better term, killed: Thrown out. Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the rest, fear the same fate. Ten minutes in, this animated CGI film is aiming for the adults in the audience, even as children laugh at the jokes and thrill to the action. It got me.

But I digress. The plot thickens: Woody, Buzz and pals end up at a daycare. There, countless children will play with them and cherish them, and the toy world is run by a soft pink bear that smells of strawberry. Heaven? Not so. The children are wild beasts who torture their toys, and Lotso Hugs Bear is a dictator, a vengeful, angry Tennessee Williams character stitched onto the cold-as-ice warden of “Cool Hand Luke,” dangerously sweet Southern accent and all.

Woody, of course, wants to go back to Andy. But is that the best course of action? After a daring escape from Sunnyside that tips its hat to “The Great Escape,” the toys find themselves at a garbage dump, inches away from a blast furnace. Hell. And, by God, I knew all was going to be OK in this film, but as Woody, Buzz, Jessie, etc., all face death, and hold hands as they sink toward flames … wow. I got verklempt. I haven’t done that in a film since “E.T.” in 1982.

The animation is perfect, crystal clear and yet subdued. At every chance, a lesser animated film would go for the brightest effect, but Pixar pitches this “Toy Story” perfectly. Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are, of course, perfect. And the new cast members bat with equal gifts: Michael Keaton as Ken, Ned Beatty as that dastardly pink bear, and Timothy Dalton as a toy named Mr. Pricklepants. The music is priceless.

“Toy Story” 1 and 2 had their own layers of story and themes: jealousy, growing up, wanting to be wanted. But this is a whole new ballgame. If having a relative throw your old vertically enhanced Spider-Man action figure (it was not a doll) into the trash is sending it to hell, then giving it to another child to play with is heaven. And what better heaven is there than a child’s imagination? My childhood mashed the worlds of Star Wars, G.I. Joe, The Black Hole and the Six Million Man in perfect, epic battles, and it made sense to me. To think most of those toys are in a trash dump somewhere is heartbreaking. My 8-year-old self would be furious with the adult who didn’t care enough to save much of anything. (My favorite toys: A set of Coca-Cola trucks, and anything “Star Wars” or G.I. Joe.)

The final scene is perfect. Andy has his toys back and, unwittingly pushed by Woody, hands over his treasures to a young girl who lives nearby. As Andy drives off, I thought of the finale of “E.T.”, where the wrinkled alien left Elliot behind, to go off to his own world. Here, it’s the boy that leaves for a new world, knowing that the joy of a small girl outweighs his need to hold onto the physical past. He always will remember his toys. As Woody and Buzz and all stay behind, they grow up as well. Andy is not God. They are not here on Earth solely for him. If anything is “God” to a toy, it’s the limitless imagination of a child’s mind. Any child’s. The themes are akin, even without a glowing finger pointed at a boy’s chest: “I’ll be right here.” It’s unspoken. But, wow. Our toys will be always with us. And, in some weird way, us with them. Pixar is a masterful film studio, and a master story teller. A