My wife and I casually watched the film last night and, like many, were drawn into an exquisite plot with unforgetable characters. In my work as a Lutheran clergyman, I will use of the themes and powerful examples addressing many life situations–particularly in speaking with children. Your framework here, spotlighting the pivot points in the lives of the characters and their relationships, adds much to my appreciation of the film.

Thank you very much–Eric

Thank you for your gracious comment, Jim. If only most screenwriters would be so open and willing to learn, we’d see better movies.

I apologize for the rather harsh tone of the Twitter statement.

I, too, occasionally miss moments in films, moments that later turn out to be essential on one level or another.

I’m the guy you called out on Twitter for being “the one guy who didn’t get it” in regards to Toy Story 3. After reading your above post I began to reconsider some of my analysis.

It seems painfully obvious to me now that Woody did in fact change. I completely forgot about the initial scene where Woody refuses Buzz’s hand — a problem caused in part by only having seen the film once. That scene, in concert with the furnace sequence, makes his transformation quite apparent.

Just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to write out this timeline. It helped out greatly during my re-evaluation.

I’m sure Ngaire means that in the nicest possible sense, as in: “When he told the story ’round the campfire, everyone was rapt, hanging on his every word till the very end.”

It’s the same roller coaster ride for all humans. We generally have the same wants and needs, and our truest desire is to get to a point where we refer to them in the right order (needs and wants). Confusing them is the human drama.

Stuctures and formulas exist because we’re all hard-wired in the same basic way. If someone laughs when you stab them, you can be pretty sure they’re “off.” So, if you stab them in the hope they’ll laugh, you’re probably not playing to the majority’s hard-wiring.

Pixar audiences get the experience they want because the group of writers involved has set those scenes in this particular way. They wrote for the audience, and have recognized that a particular roller coaster gives their audience the best ride.

Thanks much for breaking this one down, Karel! It’s enlightening to see how critical – in the best sense of the word! – viewers respond to a film.

On a slightly different tangent, 3D, when you only have vision in one eye (which encompasses a surprisingly large number of people), is a gut-wrenching cinematic experience – reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the script or film.