Toy Story 3 is a 2010 3D computer animated comedy-dramatic prison film, and the third installment in the Toy Story series. It was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Lee Unkrich, the film was released worldwide from June through October in Disney Digital 3-D, RealD, and IMAX 3D. Toy Story 3 was also the first film to be released theatrically with Dolby Surround 7.1 sound. The screenplay was written byMichael Arndt, while Unkrich wrote the story along with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton, respectively director and co-writer of the two first films.
The plot focuses on the toys Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and their friends dealing with an uncertain future as their owner, Andy, prepares to leave for college. ActorsTom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf reprised their voice-over roles from the previous films. Jim Varney, who played Slinky Dog in the first two films, and Joe Ranft, who portrayed Lenny and Wheezy, both died before production began on Toy Story 3. The role of Slinky Dog was taken over by Blake Clark (a friend of Varney), while Ranft's characters and various others were written out of the story. New characters include performances by Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt,Whoopi Goldberg, Jeff Garlin, Richard Kind, and Michael Keaton.
The feature broke Shrek the Third's record as the biggest opening day North American gross for an animated film unadjusted for inflation, and a big opening with an unadjusted gross of $110,307,189. It is also the highest-grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film, as well as the highest-grossing opening weekend for a film to have opened in the month of June. This is the highest-grossing film of 2010, both in the United States and Canada, and worldwide. In early August, it became Pixar's highest-grossing film at the North American box office (surpassing Finding Nemo), and the highest-grossing animated film of all time worldwide (surpassing Shrek 2); later that month, Toy Story 3 became the first ever animated film in history to make over $1 billion worldwide. It is currently the 10th-highest-grossing film of all time.
Toy Story 3 was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Sound Editing.[10] It was the third animated film (after Beauty and the Beast and Up) to be nominated for Academy Award for Best Picture. It won the awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song.