Apologies for the comic being a day late. The July 4th holiday threw a monkey wrench into things for me. At what point did July 4th change from being a holiday I looked forward to and into a holiday I can only hope to survive.
Oh, yeah. When I had kids. Now I remember.
This is the last of the Toy Story 3 comics I had rattling around in my brain. Next week I plan on moving onto greener pastures. Specifically, Predators. I’m looking forward to this movie so much, it’s ridiculous. So be on the look out for that one.
Before anyone says anything about my depiction of Sid in today’s comic, let me come right out and says that – yes – I’ve heard the rumors that Sid makes a cameo in Toy Story 3 as a garbage man.
Here’s the thing, though. I’m not sure I believe it.
Pixar is known for throwing Easter eggs into their films, referencing their past and future films. But Pixar is also kind of known for promoting these Easter eggs as a way to entice and reward the hard core fans.
I’ve read a few articles that have suggested Sid’s cameo, but there aren’t any images from the movie floating around online.
Fortunately, I snagged a shot from a book that my Mother-In-Law gave Henry over the weekend. I’ve scanned it and am posting it here. Is this Sid? You be the judge.
I can see how people can think it might be Sid because, in the movie, he’s wearing headphones, banging on trash can lids and generally acting like the destructive little Ritalin money we’re familiar with from the first film.
They say he’s wearing a black shirt with a skull on it like he does in the first movie, but this shot makes it kind of hard to tell. I guess until I see the movie a second time, I feel like the jury is still out. Maybe I’m just in denial because I wanted Pixar to make a bigger deal about Sid’s return or at least be a little more obvious about it. I dunno. Maybe that would take all the fun out of guessing?
What do you guys think? I this Sid? Had you already heard the rumors or is the first you’ve been told about it? Will you see Toy Story 3 a second time to confirm?
And – real quick – what about The Last Airbender? I mentioned it on Facebook last week because it seemed like no one was talking about it. Then, there was an avalanche of bad reviews. But lo and behold, the film made over $70 million at the box office this weekend! Will terrible word of mouth kill this film in the second week or are the Airbender faithful going to keep it aloft?
Another question; Considering the large box office this weekend, is a sequel inevitable? If so, will M. Night Shyamalan be asked to return?
More grist for the mill! Thanks for your patience and leave your comments below!
I really liked how they maintained the timeline from the first movie.
It's cool to see Andy going to college.
But one thing bothered me...
Buried in the backyard...
Whatever happened to Sid?
Crawling all over me...
THEY'RE ALIVE!
THE TOYS ARE ALIVE!!
The director, Lee Unkrich, has confirmed that the garbage man is indeed Sid on his Twitter. He will probably go into more detail on the commentary more likely.
Funny comic, though, and probably true to life.
Well, mystery solved, then! So much for comments this week! 😉
Naw, it’s okay. I need to be following Lee’s Twitter. Sounds like a good read.
M. Night Shayamalan’s movies have been worse and worse. I’m just waiting until he turns into a full-blown Uwe Boll. Should be hilarious.
I also thought it was fitting because Lotso gets attached to the front of the truck at the end, continuing Sid’s toy-structive rampage.
I think that’s a *different* garbage man, though. Wasn’t the guy at the end burly with red hair?
Clearly my memory is crap.
It was a different garbage man. When the toys looked for a ride back home the camera pans around from the garbage truck to another garbage man (Sid) listening to music.
The Last Airbender ends in a similar fashion to “The Golden Compass” in not just leaving an opening for a sequel but pretty much demanding one to the point of feeling unfinished.
A
Well, yeah…considering the movie is sub-titled “Book of Water” and there were 3 books in the series, Water, Earth, Fire I’d say it kinda sorta makes sense that it would feel like there are supposed to be sequels….
Avatar could have been a lot better. But that’s true of most movies. I was in a packed theater for the first showing of the day on a Friday, a time that theaters in this area are seldom packed. At the end, people applauded. I thought it was entertaining, but then again I left my brain at home like I usually do when going to the movies.
i’m betting the airbender crowd was just families going out on the holiday weekend and wanting to see something for the tween crowd (and not twilight). no surprises here if the bottom drops out next weekend.
In regards to Air Bender, I expect that to completely bomb this weekend. It was really good counter programing to Eclipse, but this weekend we have Despicable Me coming out, which has been heavily advertised. I really think bad word of mouth, topped with the fact that there is something new for families to see, and Air Bender will take a huge nosedive.
They heavily marketed The Last Airbender for the male audience having a tie-in with Ultimate fighter. I am guessing that this was to pull the guys who were lucky enough to get away from their girlfriends during twilight.
I was VERY, VERY disappointed. regardless of me being a die-hard Avatard, the movie was not good. Night put his finger prints over every major developmental aspect of this film and I feel he needed to distribute the power a bit. Written, directed and produced, the major flaw was found in the writing. The film was riddled with exposition, throwing plot points around like crazy and random trivia that would only be necessary if you were to participate in a trivia right after the film.
“I need to meditate, did you know air nomads can meditated for up to four days?”
Things like this have no purpose in the film and do nothing, absolutely nothing to drive the plot which, after the Earthbernder’s imprisonment, was quickly hurdling towards the cliff.
You can bend earth, why in the name of Azula would you imprison them in a village as opposed to the metal Rig in the middle of the ocean as in the series? The Firebenders can’t make their own fire (which makes no sense as the series clearly explained how they do) but can only manipulate an existing source. 3 Firebender guards needing 1 pot to service them and the earth benders can’t bend the earth and escape? The avatar had to tell them that they were standing on earth, that they can bend the earth and escape. Could they have not done this themselves? What was stopping them from leaving? Were they that ignorant of their surroundings that they did not notice they were standing on earth, their bending element?
There were some other parts, when Katara told Aang, “I knew you’d return.” She had to mention this while he was meditating….after she had been with him for an entire year, it’s now she decides to mention this to him, was there not a better time, closer to his return perhaps?
For Tom and others, if you watch the film, you need to watch the series to cure your anger towards the movie. There were some senseless changes that felt like he wanted to do something to greatly distinguish the film from the franchise, to brand the whole thing as his work. The film had some good parts, Shaun Toub moments, but overall… lets hope the sequel gets a different director, I can’t watch as he messes up the best season of the show. Book 2 earth gave us a look at the consequences of the war on the earth kingdom, suffering Prince Zuko and his uncle experienced first hand while a fugitive and refugee in the EK. the season was much deeper than the first and last. It showed a struggle with him trying to find himself, Zuko’s struggle to regain his honor from his father that created some heavy inner turmoil, even him going to a mountain top asking lighting to strike him, mirroring the hardship he suffered.
“I always thought this scar marked me; the mark of the banished prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever. But lately, I’ve realized I’m free to determine my own destiny, even if I’ll never be free of my mark.”
Sorry if I went off topic, and if the entire passage seems like meaningless rambling. The series was great, the film, not so much.
Movie Zuko hardly had a scar. If it was there, it was more difficult to find than Waldo.
Best thing I have read regarding the film.
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/07/25-questions-you-may-have-about-the-last-airbender.html
What Team Avatar ( the gAang from the series) thought of the film?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfDk3I6di5E
1) The creators must have had a premonition of what the film would be like.
2) Whoever inserted that poster is a genius!
I’m a fan of the show “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and the film would have been great: if it was considered a parody to the show. The acting was horrible. I mean: it seemed like they were reading from bloody prompters half of the time. The pacing of the story was horrible. Most of the film was far from the source material in a terrible way. Only like two names were pronounced right. Appa wasn’t in there as much as he should have been. The film was very anti-climactic. Also: there were like nine earthbenders doing this big stomping routine thing: just to slowly throw a rock in the air. The rock was like the size of a human heart…so, the movement was unnecessary. Most of the bending techniques was a lot of random stuff to do small things. The director should be shot. The credits sequence was pretty kool and so were the trailers before the film. I was waiting for the end ever since like half-way through the first scene of the film. It was horrid.
Lol, before the movie came out, I thought it would’ve been cool if like they had a scene in some fast food restaurant, similar to McDonald’s, and the cashier is Sid and someone asks for a kid’s meal..and Sid starts sweating and slightly freaking out cause he has to put a toy into a bag and he’s like really afraid to touch it..
it could’ve never fit into the movie, I’m sure, but I thought that would’ve been funny if it could’ve been possible
P.S. nice little A113 reference in your comic there haha
Well, y’know. It’s Pixar. I couldn’t resist!
What proved it t me that it was Sid –
Check out the cast list on imdb. Not only was Andy voiced by the same kid as in the first 2, but garbage man Sid is also voiced by the same actor who did Sid is TS1.
And to me, that’s just really awesome of Pixar to use the same guy 15 years later for a cameo voice
This has also bothered me about the series. But the kid deserves it, whatever he got. So long as it wasn’t goth, and then laid by the Twilight movement.
When the heck did goth become sexy….?
Probably around the time Robert Smith hit the scene.
Although, looking at him now, you’d never know it.
The only upsides to Avatar: the last airbender is two thing. First the camera shots (especially the part where they do Tai chi chuan in the North pole), and second Aasif Mandvi being badass. Seriously, he was awesome. It’s hard to realize he’s that one Indian dude from the daily show.
As for the rest… sigh… i miss the old M.Night, i really really miss the old M.night. This pretty much sums it all up:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies/1849-The-Last-Airbender
The kung fu was good though but not incredible… If you’re going to see it, DON’T Watch it in 3D (keep the bucks for inception on Imax) and stick to the cartoon.
Tom, you once said that the ending to TS3 was encouraging to you. To me, it was exactly the opposite. To me, Woody comes out as being very selfish. Andy neglects to say something that would’ve really pulled the whole thing together for me. It bugged me that a lot of the TS1 and 2 cast was gone in this film. Not that I liked them a lot, but I felt there were some situations where having certain character interactions would’ve helped the series a lot more. I missed the insanity of Jessie from TS2. Yes, she was annoying in that movie, but she was also memorable there. The main villain just seemed, idk, kinda soft overall. There wasn’t really anything menacing about him, His sidekick, however, was a force to be reckoned with the entire movie.
Basically, there were a lot of very small things in the movie that just rubbed me the wrong way. Like all Pixar movies, it’s very good. It just feels more like a popcorn movie than a work of art like they’ve been doing more recently. More pedestrian, I guess. I went in expecting to be wowed, and I guess that expectation was a little bit overreached. I liked the movie overall. Just a bunch of small things I wish could’ve been ironed out in the script-building stage.
I agree that TS3 is much less artistically daring than Ratatouille, Wall-E or Up… But it’s also Pixar’s war horse and you kind of have to pitch it to a more general audience.
Frankly, I think that’s the brilliance of Pixar. They can shuffle in and out of these different genres very effectively.
I’m not exactly sure in what way Woody is being selfish in the ending of Toy Story 3. If anything, he was being selfLESS by suggesting the group be donated to Bonnie and by choosing to stay with them rather than tuck himself away in Andy’s belongings for college.
The reason I found the ending encouraging is because it communicates the ideal that imaginative play is not dead, it can be taught and passed down to younger generations.
For a franchise that has dealt heavily with themes of abandonment and obsolescence, it’s encouraging to see that the story isn’t truly over for them.
Woody is being selfish in that he passes up a chance to be with his owner, likely for the rest of both of their lives, to be with the other toys. According to virtually every shot I saw, Woody is the only nostalgic item that Andy planned on taking with him to college, and Woody threw that away for the chance to be with other toys. Andy, amazingly, is willing to go with this and gives away probably his most valued possession with no strings attached. The note was a great touch, a way to get the other toys used again. But my problem was with Woody putting himself inside that box, rather than getting back to Andy’s college possessions. At the very least, I would’ve liked Andy to make it clear to Bonnie’s parents to hold on to those toys even after Bonnie is done with them so that Andy can give them to his kids later on.
A few other small bits that bugged me…
Did Lotso’s security exist before Buzz tried to escape? If so, why didn’t they catch Buzz the instant he left the room? If not, how did the Old Timer know so much about it just a couple days later, and how was there so much footage of toys failing to escape? Remember, the timescale on this movie is a week at most.
There were two ways to go with Lotso at the end. Either reformation or comeuppance. And I’m certain I would’ve wanted to see *BOTH* versions of the story. The comeuppance, to me, just didn’t seem as dramatic as it could’ve or should’ve been.
A great portion of the spirit from the first two movies seemed, idk, missing from this one. I missed the heart of the first movie, and I missed Jesse’s insanity from the second. None of the characters really stood out to me, even the returning characters. Lotso seemed a very weak villain overall, especially given that he was overthrown by a single toy. None of the new characters left any impression, and many of the old ones just came off flat to me. The high point was watching Mr. Tortilla Man, and that wasn’t a high point of characterization more than a high point of computer animation.
When watching the flashback, I just kept seeing Jesse’s Story throughout the entire thing. The timing, colors, and angles all seemed very similar. Of course, the sound was completely different, but it felt very weak after the very powerful flashback from TS2.
Two characters that I really missed in this movie, and I know that they didn’t really do very much in the first two, but I liked having them there. The first was Wheezy, who was the entire reason that TS2 even happened in the first place. It just felt a little bit weird that the basis of a 90 minute movie didn’t even exist during its sequel. The other was Bo Peep. Now, I know her role was basically as Woody’s arm candy, but I liked how Pixar at least hinted at romantic relationships between the toys. The Buzz/Jesse angle felt much more like a fling than a long-term relationship like Woody/BP.
I’m not saying that TS3 is a bad movie by any means. I think it’s better than almost anything not made by Pixar. But I think that this was probably one of their weakest efforts on a feature presentation level. In fact, I’m scratching my head to find a weaker feature that this team has made. It’s still better than everything else out there, but that’s like saying that Robin Hood and The Jungle Book were better than all other contemporary animated features. They are clearly some of the weakest features in Disney history, but they’re still stronger than anything else made at that time.
I think Andy was surprised to see Woody inside the donation box. He hesitated before giving him to Bonnie. In fact, I think I remember he yanked Woody away from her when she reached out.
But I believe Andy came to the same realization that Woody did – that toys are meant to be played with and toys need to be given where they can be put to good use.
Woody wasn’t actively choosing the stay with the other toys. Andy could have taken him to college at any time if he wanted. Instead, I think Woody was playing the odds that Andy would accept that he wasn’t a kid anymore and to let go of childish things.
Just got back from Toy Story 3. Wow. I LOVED IT!!! It was a great ending for the series, I thought. When it comes out on DVD I will be replaying the “Spanish mode” Buzz scene over and over and over and over….has anyone ever watched the Spanish channel? Their shows are totally over the top like Buzz was. It’s hilarious.
Oh and Tom, I like your idea as to what happened to Sid better than the movie’s 🙂
Regarding Avatar– it’s weird how you managed to escape any encounter with unhappy moviegoers on your Facebook, considering mine was absolutely lit up with criticism, hate statuses, and general youtube carnage. I ended up getting suckered into seeing it with a group of friends (in 3D, no less!) and it was every bit as horrifying as you could presume. I (like many) was deeply devoted to the original cartoon series but I’ve been through this act before (Harry Potter fan, X-Men fanatic) so I know by now to put my fan-love on the shelf and act as if I’ve never known anything about the source material before (because so rarely can you walk in as a pre-existing fan and have that loyalty be rewarded to you– Tom… count yourself so extraordinarily lucky that you’re an Iron Man guy. Really) but even with absolutely floor-level low expectations, the movie was atrocious. The script was laughably ridiculous. It’s almost as if M. Night has never even heard of the word “nuance” and can barely remember how to spell “subtle”. The characters are all going around professing the very actions and emotions that we’re supposed to glean from the physical portrayal on screen. (Example- The meditating line someone mentioned earlier. We get that he’s meditating. We didn’t just think he likes to sit in a silly position. We’re really not that stupid, even the younger members of the audience). The actors themselves never manage to make anything feel real or credible. Halfway through the movie, I remembered that Sokka and Katara are supposed to be siblings– you barely have any notion of emotional connection between the two (though, truth be told, you have no sense of emotional connection between anyone. How do you know Sokka falls madly in love with Princess Yue of the Northern Waterbending tribe? Because Katara tells you so in a voice-over while they’re just meeting. Otherwise, you really wouldn’t have known there was supposed to be anything between them). They fail utterly to convey anything, even the much hailed (and my own personal beloved) Dev Patel– he spends most of the movie looking off forlornly while his uncle Iro tries to counsel him towards wiser actions. It’s like he went to the Edward Cullen school of “being deep and, like, stuff”. (Rule number one- deep guys never look at the people they’re talking to. Stare off into the distance, that way people will know that you’re thinking about stuff you can’t say because you, oh you, you’re just oh-so-conflicted and tormented!) The plot doesn’t just move briskly, it sprints. It’s like even the celluloid just wants this to be over, it goes by that quickly. One of the common complaints I often hear about the Harry Potter movies is that there’s no sense of time. People say that it feels like all this just happens in one weekend and then the kids go home but seriously, Harry Potter is paced like a Lord of the Rings director’s cut in comparison to The Last Airbender. It literally feels like all this has happened in less than a week. The plotline moves so quickly that when a viewer becomes inevitably tripped up by something unfamilar in the stream of information they’re being asked to digest, by the time they’ve caught up, the gang’s already reached the Northern Water Tribe and the climatic fight scene’s almost over.
The movie’s only saving grace– yes. The fight scenes were pretty cool, once they actually got into it. Blue Demon sequence, I’m looking at you. But unfortunately, most of the time, they took way too long to rev up and you’re left with way too much time to wonder how impertinent you’re being to notice how easily the limp-wristed hand movements come to the actor who portrays Aang.
When I watched the Rotten Tomatoes show last night, they declared that The Last Airbender had a tomatometer of 7%. Seriously. Seven.
I love the idea of Sid being nuts after the seeing the live toys as a kid! I really enjoyed TS3 & I plan to see Predators next weekend. It seems like it’s been a slow summer. Before TS3 the last movie we saw was Iron Man2 I think. Previous summers we’ve seen a movie a week since early May so we’d be at nearly a dozen by now. Of course there are a few I want to see coming soon like Inception and maybe Sorceror’s Apprentice.
Side note. I’m not sure if it’s just my Vista but on the bottom of this page there’s a Stub Hub ad that is overlaid on top of some Despicable Me ad so I can’t turn off the sound on the Des. Me. Hope this is just a one time glitch or that its on my end & fixable.
I do think that’s supposed to be him.. the shirt is the same. It’s nice to know while he apparently dealt with the toys screwing with him, he didn’t exactly grow up to have a rich life.