Did you see Toy Story 3? (Creative Commons)

Let me start out this review by saying that I absolutely love Toy Story. I barely remember seeing it in theaters with my dad and my brothers when I was in elementary school and we had it on VHS growing up. I can't tell you how many times we watched it but I can practically recite it. It was part of my childhood. I saw the sequel as well and was really excited to find out that they were making a third movie.

But as excited as I was, I was also apprehensive. I have already suffered through the destruction of my childhood memories (also known as Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland), and recently dealt with the disappointing Sex and the City 2.

As I walked into the theater I had a sinking feeling that this movie was going to be a cheap attempt by Disney to cash in on the success of the original without any of its quality.

Boy was I wrong. Toy Story 3 was great. All of the humor, wit and sentimental value of the first two films was intact and the story line was a natural progression that kept me entertained the entire time.

In TS3, the toys' beloved owner, Andy, is graduating from high school and going away to college. Like most college kids, his well-worn toys lay forgotten in a chest in his room. Andy's mother tells him he must clean out his room and decide what he wants to keep, and what he wants to throw away.

I won't give away the plot but the toys as usual get into crazy adventures because of his decisions. I will say a definite scene stealer is the Ken doll they meet along the way. I was dying laughing at hid tours of his "dream house," his obsession with his outfits and his insistence that he is "not a girl's toy."

During a very touching moment at the end of the movie, the girl behind me said out loud, "Wow I can't believe I am tearing up in this movie!"

As I walked out of the theater with my friends one of them remarked that the movie made her feel bad for all the toys she had left behind in boxes from her childhood.

Both were funny comments, but I think that this movie hits home for all of us who have recently left childhood behind. We all, like Andy, grow up, and move on to bigger and better things. But we all keep a little bit of a kid in all of us who just wants to hang out and live in a fantasy world with our toys, dreaming of great things. And like Andy learns in the movie, sometimes it's okay to just sit and play like a kid again.