As the only working-class exchange-student (I won a scholarship to pay for my opportunity), I was constantly confronted with the reality of my limited means. My father sent me a stipend that afforded me no luxuries, and often fell far short of necessities. It was a fact that resulted in Toy Story being driven from my mind until returning home, where the movie was quoted to me endlessly.
The anticipation of the sequel by all of my friends in college prompted me to take the obligatory trip down to Blockbuster (yes, THAT Blockbuster) and rent the now-classic on VHS. Of course I loved it, just like everyone else. When the sequel was released, my friends and I were the only adults in attendance without children. With belated apologies to anyone who had the misfortune to be in our theater, we were those guys in the back row, raucously laughing at all of the adult humor that went over the heads of the children. Although a handful of fathers joined us, we drew the ire of the majority of mothers that day.
When Toy Story 3 was announced for a scheduled 2010 release, it was a sequel a decade in the making. Most of the target audience wasn't alive for the release of the previous installment of the franchise, much less the original. In short, Disney was clearly aware that its audience had never seen the first two movies in theaters, if at all. So Disney did what Disney does: they re-released the first two movies in the theater in late 2009 in a money grab that paid off.
The one thing worse than being the loud college kids in a theater is being the parent who brings a crying/screaming infant to a loud theater and refuses to leave, ruining the experience for all the other paying customers — at least us college kids were engaged with the movie. Having owned high quality versions of both movies for years, I took one for the team as I stayed home with my infant son so my wife could enjoy mother/daughter time at the double feature.
My daughter had never been to a movie theater at that point. She was only two at the time, so it should come as no surprise that she had zero theater etiquette. Of course, she had seen both movies many times, and possessing the gift of nearly flawless recollection, she had essentially committed both films to memory without trying. So, in a theater full of many first time viewers, my two-year-old daughter watched these familiar movies as though she were home.
That would seem harmless enough until that scene just before something terrible happens to Buzz, when my daughter shouted at the top of her lungs (in a silent theater):
"Oh no, Buzz!!"
Her tiny voice echoed off the walls, prompting the adults in the theater (including my wife) to erupt in laughter, completely ruining the reveal of whatever happened to Buzz next. I may not have gotten to see Toy Story in the theater, but the story of my daughter bringing down the house was worth the price of admission.
