"Best Picture"? What do we all reckon? I for one would be on my feet. Probably crying again.

I cry at good movies anyway, happy or sad, and just being TOLD about this scene made me tear up before I ever saw it. I love the quality of the writing here - nobody is SAYING anything. It's *shown*. Shown in a way that's so purely human, it doesn't need dialogue.

My buddy bought Toy Story 3 on blu-ray the other day and we decided to pick up some good beer and sit and watch it. We talked over some of it and kinda just had a good time, and didn't necessarily pay very close attention since we'd seen the midnight showing. But as soon as that scene at the dumpster when Lotso shows up, we both quieted down and just watched.

Then the furnace scene came on and I remembered how I felt in the theatre. All the characters are panicking and yelling and finally buzz takes Jessie's hand. And they all hold hands, knowing they're done for and there's absolutely no way out. And that's what I completely believed. This was going to be the end of the toys, going out together in a blaze of fire.

And sitting with my near-empty pint of beer, having half-watched most of the movie, I got the same damn feeling! I don't know how Pixar does it, but that scene is a testament to perfection, and a higher perfection than they've achieved in other films.

The only other scene in the film that came close was the end, the scene when Andy gives his toys to Bonnie. He sets them all out there, giving them their respective introductions, and then surprisingly finds Woody at the bottom. Bonnie immediately reaches for him, and Andy pulls away with a wary look on his face, like she's some stranger trying to rob him of a precious stone. And at that moment, I was Andy, and I'm sure many others felt the same. Pixar, this cute, adorable, ball of greatness, was ripping our beloved toys from our adolescent hands. And then Woody's introduction, delivered like a eulogy! It hit me like a freight train.

Anyway, enough of my rambling, just felt like sharing.

Lazzard, Ruthanne, Garrett: So I guess we're all charter members of P.I.G.: "Pixar Is God". Okay, maybe not big letter "G," but certainly small letter "g," as in they are gods are storytelling.

And what is so amazing is that Pixar is not doing anything new, they haven't revolutionized 'story.' It's just that they craft stories so damn well, and they play with the conventions.

For example, there's a saying in Hollywood about endings: "Give 'em what they expect, then give 'em what they want." Like in "Sleepless in Seattle," where it looks like Sam (Tom Hanks) is going to leave the top of the Empire State Building and not actually meet Annie (Meg Ryan), they're going to miss each other. That's what it looks like so that's we expect. But that's most certainly not what we want: We want them to meet. Which is what happens at the very, very end.

Pixar does that in the scene from the OP: It looks like the toys are all going to get incinerated (expect), but they're saved (want). So a traditional story device.

But then there's the astonishing use of the denouement -- where Andy gives the toys away to Bonnie. It's a long scene, as I recall like 5-6 minutes in length, the passing of the baton, so to speak, underscored by Andy playing with the toys, passing along that 'wisdom' to Bonnie.

What do we expect? For Andy to give away the toys. What do we want? I think if we're honest, we wanted Andy to at least keep Woody.

But no, that is not Andy's character arc: He needs to make the final passage from childhood to adulthood, and passing on Woody and the rest is a symbolic act that seals that deal.

That scene is an almost transcendent moment in moviemaking, so beautiful, surprising, and human.

But that's Pixar!