Toy Story 3 and Baby Cakes

It's hard to believe fifteen years have passed since we took our first trip to Andy's bedroom, meeting Mr. and Mrs. Potato, Slinky dog, Rex the dino, the world Pixar gifted us. Childhood has changed so drastically since the days of Hasbro and Mattel creations. Eight year olds email, text, video chat. The concept of play is different and imagination takes new forms. Walking into the final Toy Story chapter, sliding into my reclining Imax chair and slipping on my 3d goggles, I was transported to an old fashioned playtime, before my ipad replaced my Hot Wheels cars (okay, there were a few steps in between that transition) and our consumer culture took a turn. Rather than expound on the merits of this movie, too numerous to mention, I will simply hold it as an example of what film can be. Magic. Magnification of our souls in images. Unifying. The community of audience members dabbing their eyes in the final scenes were all experiencing a collective nostalgia and catharsis. At an animated film. About mass-manufactured inanimate objects.

In a way, I was the exact target audience for this picture. Someone who grew up with these toys before they became relics, these films before the Pixar empire was founded, who not all that long ago packed up and headed into adulthood. This film was reassuring. We are all in this scary world together, with friends looking out for us.

There is much scholarly discussion about the role of mothers vs. fathers in Disney animated films. Toy Story is exceptional in that, unlike Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pochantas, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Finding Nemo, etc, the father is absent, replaced by a (questionably) young single man. Yet the film doesn't lack paternal love. Woody and Buzz seem to fill in that void of protecting, nurturing, acting as models of masculinity -- the heroic cowboy and the noble spaceman. What more could a little boy ask for?

Your $22 3d imax evening New York movie ticket goes well with drinking fountain water, but if you are feeling like you can handle another treat-- Baby Cakes on the lower east side. Gluten-free, dairy-free, and/or vegan cupcakes, scones, brownies, cookies that let you be a kid again without as much guilt. Feels like you walked into some five year old hipster's birthday party.