5) Toy Story 3
I’ve written a little bit in the past about why I don’t really buy the conventional wisdom that states sequels (or remakes or reboots) are inherently bad, and the Toy Story franchise, especially in the context of the greater Disney/Pixar machine, is one example of the franchise model done right. Its makers took their time with each segment of the story, with each focusing on the various stages of human development, and so it worked. That is, that’s how they made it work. There could be countless ways of making such a continuation of a singular story work, and that’s the successful way they happened to choose for theirs.
Again, of course it’s not necessary for there to be a Toy Story 3, but despite that, it’s an absolutely wonderful film. There didn’t need to be two parts to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, but allowing the book to be made into two movies, or, essentially, one long one split into two parts, resulted in a product with the amount of detail and richness that the filmmaking team desired. Popular entertainment is itself an indulgent medium. I’m curious why so many find certain aspects of its indulgence to be unbearable, while others go by without a glance. Where’s the line between acceptably indulgent and unnecessarily indulgent?
