Short Subject: Small Fry (2011)

Well time to look at my least favourite of the three Toy Story Toons shorts.

That certainly doesn’t mean that I think the short is bad.  On the contrary the animation is great as always.  The voice acting is still top notch.  It easily has the funniest ending credits with the Poultry Palace menu display. 

Furthermore the story ides is innovative. Like with Partysuarus Rex it’s a neat idea to deal with a type of toy we haven’t seen before, the one’s you get in kid’s fast food meals, and all of the toys featured in this short are great.   I mean how could anyone not want these guys?  There’s a vampire train with a werewolf that comes out of the smoke stack, and a monk wearing bling!  These guys are awesome!   

Also I love how Buzz is such an expert at escaping from places after three films worth of experience.  He finds the air shaft and just starts hopping up it with ease.  He makes it home without any help from the others toys, except Gary grappling hook, and still helps mini Buzz at the end by sponsoring him at the support group because he’s a good guy.  

So if the characters are well designed, the voices are good, the animation is great, and the plot is innovative then what’s wrong with this film?  Well there are little things like, how fast did Bonnie eat if she was in the ball pit in the time it took mini Buzz to say like three words?  And how did Bonnie’s mom not realize that the Buzz she picked is several inches shorter than the real Buzz?  But as I said those are minor issues.  The big problem for me is that unlike the other shorts I don’t find this one quite as much fun.  The environment of the brown boxes and dark lighting beyond the group make it look dreary and the fact that the fun meal toys don’t have homes at the end is depressing to me.  With Hawaiian Vacation we got see the toys relaxing and having a good time.  In Partysuarus sure they flooded the house but there was no major damage that we saw, just a bunch of toys having a rockin’ time and Rex being accepted by them.  Here we spend all this time getting to see these great toys and hear a lot of them say how they felt rejected and want to be played with and at the end they don’t get played with!  Either taking home by Bonnie or put in a collection at Geri’s just something more positive please!

So all in all it’s still a good short I just wanted a more uplifting ending like the other two had.