The last line of the new Toy Story 3 trailer speaks to my usual fear with sequels. “Return of the Astro-Nut,” says Hamm the piggy bank, referring to the fact that the pompous, delusional Buzz Lightyear of the beginning of the first movie is back in a kind of amnesia-induced excuse for recycled plot and humor. Only now he’s speaking in Spanish, so it’s different. I guess.

But when it comes to this franchise, just as when it comes to toys, familiarity and the revisiting of the past is completely acceptable. It’s part of their point. And so, even though the concept of these lovable characters being left behind and/or discarded seems a rehashing of Toy Story 2, you have no reason to believe this is going to be a lesser movie than its predecessors.

Maybe it’s just that I recently had the experience of going through boxes of old toys at my mom’s house as she packed up to move out. And I couldn’t help playing with some old favorites, fondly thinking back to the innocent years, and taking some toys back to my apartment with me in order to forget just how old I’m getting.

In addition to the nostalgia and familiarity, though, this threequel already has me thinking what the whole movie will have me contemplating more fully (and more depressedly): we all get older and eventually die, while the toys junk remains, immortal. Wait, is Toy Story 3 a prequel to Wall-E?

Check out what other film bloggers are saying about the trailer, and maybe about the circle of life, after the jump:
…Read more