Has there ever been a greater trilogy' The Godfather, monumental as its first two installments are, peters out in Part III. Same with Alien and Terminator. Back to the Future and Indiana Jones more or less land the plane, but the follow-ups never hit the heights of the originals. Richard Linklater's Before trilogy and Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colors trilogy are masterpieces start to finish, but they lack the operatic scale and mainstream appeal of, say, Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. Those latter two franchises both have a credible claim to the title, but the glut of subpar sequels and spin-offs has diluted their magic. For my money, none of them measures up to Toy Story. Is this an entirely neutral and clear-eyed assessment' Well, let's just say that as a child I owned no fewer than nine Buzz Lightyear action figures. This much, though, is beyond dispute: Financially, culturally, artistically'by any metric, really'the original Toy Story trilogy is a triumph. The first movie,...
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