Toy Story 3 is a good movie.  It’s well written.  There are lots of lessons.  I cried.

You can check out Donald Miller’s blog for some great thoughts about story and love : here. here. and here.

But, I’ve been thinking about my Emotional Pornography blog post since Relevant posted it up several weeks ago.  One of the common retorts to the ideas in that article is that we shouldn’t see it as negative that movies give us an unrealistic view of love and relationships because that’s what movies are supposed to do.  One reader commented :

Football movies: you know, those sappy guy-flicks where the scrappy hometown team defies the odds to win the gridiron championship. Real life isn’t like that;…  Thus, you have FOOTBALL PORN.

Combat flicks: this is yet another unrealistic depiction, where the drama is ratcheted up to make guys (and it’s mostly guys who like these flicks) all weepy and sentimental… Let’s call it what it is: WAR PORN.

Comments like these actually helped me ask “what unrealistic expectation to I walk away from movies with?” and “what negative emotions am I experiencing while watching films that I should be aware of?”  I’ve become especially sensitive to these kinds of things in movies directed at children.  Movies are altering and influencing the way they see and interpret the world with little to no critical thinking.  (Spoiler alert starts now)

So, in Toy Story 3…

Let me pause here and roll my eyes at the ogling of the bikini clad women going on in the animation short before the feature.

So, in Toy Story 3, we’re introduced to Lots-O, a stuffed bear who was let down by his previous owner and, out of that hurt, is controlling and hateful to the other toys.  It’s clear he’s the bad guy.

When he’s exposed for what he is, he’s pushed into a dumpster to be hauled off to his death in the dump.  So, what happened in that moment in the hearts of the adults and children in the theater?  Either an introduction to or reinforcement of, at best

Exile your enemies.

at worst

Kill your enemies.

This is the same problem I had with Avatar.  The first 2/3 of the movie is an attempt to set the Na’vi people apart as peaceful and connected to the earth and each other.  But, when attacked, they attack back.  We see the same message in both of these films.

When attacked, fight back.  Vengeance is ours.

But, in Avatar, the man actually in charge of making the decisions to fight or not fight was the one of the verge of heart change –  a change toward peace.  The violent response of the Na’vi only served to harden his heart and strengthen his resolve to take what he wanted through force and death.  Was there a chance that grace would have changed the outcome in both of these films?

Later, Lots-O is given the opportunity for a second chance.  He doesn’t take it.  He stays true to his hard heart… Why not?  He had just recently encountered a second rejection from those around him.  And while the characters in the film do not see him again, the viewer is left with something unsettled – a need for revenge.  So, by the end of the film, we see Lots-O picked up by a garbage man and strapped to the grill of the garbage truck to live the rest of his life eating bugs.

The recognition by the film makers of the need for resolution via punishment is telling.  It speaks to our innate propensity toward revenge, which, in Toy Story 3, is reinforced.

Let me end with this.  The messages sent during the credits of the film are powerful :

Teamwork

Mutual sacrifice

Interdependence

The flattening of hierarchies

All great messages.  And, as with my Emo Porn post, I’m not saying we should stop watching movies.  Rather, I’m saying we should be aware of what we believe and how the things we intake are at peace with or in conflict with those things.  So, if you go see Toy Story 3, talk about these things with someone – especially if that someone is a child.