Toy Story 3 made me cry

I have just finished watching Toy Story 3. I've watched it two times and the ending has made me cry both times. There's something funny about these movies that have something to do with your life. Any movie that I've watched countless times as a child leaves me with mixed feelings now that I'm grown up. I feel sad, nostalgic, happy, giddy, depressed and sharp all at once and it's very easy to understand why.

You know when you're a kid and whenever you watch a movie, you feel like it could just happen in your own life? Don't be a wuss and deny that. I'm not going to lie, I used to watch for my toys to move and talk after I watched Toy Story for the first time. Then when I never caught any of my old toys moving, I'd beg my parents to buy me the Toy Story models that Toys 'R Us were selling because I was convinced that those toys would walk and talk. And when I realized they wouldn't, I'd try to make it as real as possible. I'd write my name at the back of Woody and Jessie's boot the way Andy did, I'd make up short soap operas with my Barbie dolls, I'd construct trains or spaceships out of boxes to transport my toy troops to wherever they needed to be, be it space or a desert or just to MS Garden (the biggest hotel in Kuantan which was the most glamorous place ever to a child growing up there).

Then the stories stop. Andy and I grow up. We went through primary and secondary school, and suddenly, we're off to college (at the same time, no shit). At the end of Toy Story 3, Andy ends up giving his toys to a little girl called Bonnie. He gets all emotional and gives some kind of elegy about every single one of his toys.

Some deprived teenager's reaction to this:
"MY GOD, THIS BOY. SUCH A WUSS, JUST GIVE AWAY YOUR DAMN TOYS AND GO GET LAID IN COLLEGE ALREADY."

My reaction:
"OH MY SWEET PATOOTIES, THIS IS SO BLOODY SAD, DAMN IT WHERE ARE THE TISSUES?"

Reader's reaction to my reaction:
"What. The. Fuck."

Yes, yes, so maybe I teared up and got really emotional at the end of Toy Story 3 and you know why? Because I didn't like saying goodbye to my childhood. Nobody does. Andy sure as hell doesn't like it. If Andy had his way, he'd take Woody off to college with him and probably have Woody by his side while he tries to pick up chicks (and failing, obviously, because what girl would want a guy who sleeps with a cowboy doll at 17?)

But then, nobody gets to have it that way. Everyone would like to have some part of their childhood to hold on to. We all want to keep the carefree feeling we had as kids. Our biggest worry was when our favorite toy got ripped or lost. Then when we grow up, when things start getting bigger and serious, simple things like the joy of making up a story with your own imagination becomes forgotten. We try finding joy from complicated things, which more often than not bring stress and sadness, like relationships or success at work or drugs.

We all grow up. We all have to deal with moving on to the bigger things in life and let our old things go. But then, I like to think that it's more than okay to look back occasionally and keep some parts that can remind us of our childhood because all in all, those good times with our imagination is part of what made us who we are now in the first place.

Fucking cheesy, but deal with it.

So yeah, Andy turns 17, I turn 17. Andy can't seem to let go of Woody, I can't seem to let go of Barbie (and her massive collection of clothes and kitchen set). Andy gives his toys to Bonnie, a daughter of his mother's friend. I give my toys to Shayenne, a daughter of my mother's friend. Andy goes to college, I go to college. Andy grows up, I grow up. Hmm.

I think that Pixar has been secretly stalking me to get ideas for when they get stuck on a plot for Andy's life. I mean, you never know right?