Non-spoiler spoiler alert.
Toy Story 3 is a fantastic movie. The animation, the sound and the comedy are all on-point. The story of a boy and his beloved toys parting ways and the related theme of "growing up" and "moving on" were touching.
But there's more to this Toy Story than just what's on the surface. Toy Story 3 actually has a well-developed libertarian sub-theme that is successfully articulated, conveyed and concluded through the course of the movie, not interrupting the larger events while not dancing around them so much that the coherence of the sub-theme itself is lost. Instead, both elements are nearly perfectly integrated-- it's like watching two movies for the price of one.
In Toy Story 3, we see the war of ideas between capitalism and communism; between a society of private ownership versus a society of public ownership; between individualism and collectivism; between hierarchy and the division of labor.
Furthermore, through this metaphorical world we see reality for what it is: workers' paradises are actually prison camps; socialist systems are involuntary and built upon patronage and coercion, capitalist ones are voluntary and built upon the productive value of the participants; it is communism that is exploitative, wasteful and erected on the lie that the worker's lot under capitalism is one of dreary repetition and a lack of appreciation for the laborer's efforts; that most politicians and self-appointed "community organizers" are trying to compensate for their own psychological trauma, and have no qualms about using other individuals and their lives and emotions as means to the satisfaction of these psychological ends.
Perhaps most importantly, we can see that only under a free social order can everyone, even the tired, old and formerly hostile members of society, live in peace, harmony and abundance.
Somebody or somebodies at Disney/Pixar seem to have recently come across a copy of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. In this day and age, their timing couldn't have been better, or more bold.
Toy Story 3 is creative, dramatic, visually appealing, exciting, dynamic and downright hilarious. Even better, it's libertarian. Grab your friends, grab your family, grab your tickets and enjoy this movie as soon as you possibly can.
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