Toy Story 3

It rains here all the time. Locals say it's unusual to have this much precipitation but to my eyes, it rains all the time. So much that we've been getting violent storms. Friday a nasty black cloud moved in with 70 mph winds. I work on the 29th floor and once HR saw the windows buckling, they herded us into the elevator stairwell. The storm moved past in 20 minutes but left behind a wake of felled trees and downed power lines.

Our power was out most of the weekend. Yesterday was Father's Day and rather than spend it in a hot, dark house we headed to the malls at Naperville. With the whole day to kill and Ben almost three, we figured it was a good time for his first movie theater experience.

We got to the theater and Renee stopped in the parking lot. "I don't think he understands what's going on."

I knelt down.

"Ben? You see this building?"
"Uh-huh."
"We're going to go in there now and we're going to see Buzz and Woody."
Audible gasp.
"And have popcorn."
Ben ran into the theater.

He was absolutely overwhelmed by the screen. He sunk in his seat and tapped Renee on the arm. "Mommy? This is the biggest TV I ever saw."

He sat quietly through the entire movie. Didn't hurt that the movie was great. It's the type that suckers you in. I spent most of the time thinking, "Sure, this is good but its' not 1 or 2 good." Then it paid off. Paid off big time.

This is not a film of a stand-out set piece (though it has them) or great new characters (though it has them). It's a whole and when it's finished, you walk away with the entire film in your head.

And dammit if it doesn't make everyone cry. The kids in the audience got a little fidgety during the deepest emotional moments but they stayed with it. It has that right balance that holds every age every demographic. Someday people will call this time a golden age of film because it had PIXAR in it.

Ben loved it. But before we left he had to touch the screen. It was just too big.