I haven’t seen Up yet, but I did just watch the trailer for Toy Story 3. Obviously, there’s a lot of potential there. The first two films in the Toy Story franchise were truly amazing. Plus, trilogies are always great. Things just seem to go nicely when the go in threes.
However, trilogies can often be dangerous, and I hope Pixar Disney doesn’t botch it up. Seriously, a number of famous franchises would have been better if they had just stopped. For example, Spider Man 3 was so bad it not only ruined two hours of my life but also caused me to retrospectively doubt my love of Spider Man 2. Return of the Jedi, while rounding out the Star Wars story, is fairly hollow when held up to The Empire Strikes Back. And lets not forget the godfather of all botched trilogies, The Godfather Part 3. Why didn’t Coppola just end it with Part 2? How did anyone think that following up one of the most highly esteemed films of all time with mediocrity and boredom was a good idea? How did they think following it up at all was a good idea? As it is, the whole series is forever remembered by its high points and its low points.
Given Pixar’s record, its unlikely that there will be as wide a disparity between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 as there is in the Spider Man or Godfather franchises. On the other hand, even if Toy Story is only as good as, say, Cars, it will still be a huge let down. Lets hope that Pixar isn’t just in this one for the money and that the curse of the third sequel doesn’t follow them as it has with so many others.
