The "Toy Story" trilogy is a primal suburban growing-up story. The movie's screenwriter, Michael Arndt, whose father was in the foreign service, grew up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia. "We moved there when I was 4 or 5 years old, then went to Sri Lanka for two years; then I went to junior high and high school in McLean, right near the Potomac River. To paraphrase Sarah Palin, 'We could see Maryland from our front porch!' "
Now Arndt may become the first screenwriter to go two for two at the Oscars. He won the Academy Award for best original screenplay for "Little Miss Sunshine," his tyro effort. "Toy Story 3" is just his second produced screenplay. Pixar has frequently earned nominations for best screenplay, but no Pixar writer has yet won the prize. Given Arndt's Academy karma and how much emotion, humor and invention he has put into rounding off a beloved series, he might just go all the way.
"Toy Story 3" is both a coming-of-age movie and a day care center version of a prison-break thriller. It's full of giddy farce and heart-stopping climaxes. Over the phone from Pixar headquarters in Emeryville, Calif., Arndt deflects credit to Pixar's story crew and "senior creative team" and to the first "Toy Story movies" — "I inherited a story and all these great characters — 80 percent of screenwriting is finding the voice of your characters, and having that already done made it very easy."
Arndt has been part of the senior creative team for several years, joining seasoned writer-directors such as Pete Docter ( "Up"), Brad Bird ("Ratatouille') and Andrew Stanton ("WALL-E"). They meet with Pixar chief John Lasseter after screening Pixar films and, Arndt says jokingly, get into creative "fistfights."
It was not the destiny Arndt planned. He began his career as "the hermit in the garret." When Pixar hired him, he asked whether he could write in New York and send out pages. The response he got was "No, no, that's not how we do things." But now he says, "Part of the reason Pixar films work as well as they do is that everyone is together in one location." At those "senior creative team" meetings, "One person can have half an idea and another person will fill in the other half, and someone will come along and top it. There's a sense when things are firing on all cylinders that the organic intelligence in the room is just much higher than even the smartest person in the room. Because suddenly you have this collective solving story problems much, much faster than any individual can solve them."
The new film's fulcrum remains the buddy-movie duo of steadfast cowboy Woody ( Tom Hanks) and brave and bold Buzz Lightyear ( Tim Allen), who reveals a flamboyant Mediterranean side. But the script also delivers comic gifts to supporting characters as old as the obstreperous Mr. Potato Head ( Don Rickles) and as new (to the series, anyway) as the narcissistic Ken doll ( Michael Keaton), who, quel surprise, is a real clotheshorse.
"We just threw out the Nehru jacket as being Ken's prize possession, and no one ever pushed back on that," says Arndt with a laugh. "We were so totally protected creatively, we could follow our instincts and do whatever we wanted to do. In a protected environment like that, you can let your imagination run wild."
It doesn't run any wilder than when Mr. Potato Head temporarily turns himself into Mr. Tortilla Face. "I think that's an Andrew Stanton idea!" says Arndt. "And seeing the animation for that idea just knocked me out. The execution is so much funnier than I ever expected."
How daring was it to have Barbie develop a political consciousness? "Well, sometimes you want your character to surprise an audience. I love the Barbie-Ken dynamic; it's so endearing at the end. When you meet Barbie, she's so broken-up and simpering, she's pathetic; but at the end, she's strong and put-together. Ken starts out so self-infatuated and full of himself, but at the end, he's truly humbled but in a good way — from the love of a good woman!"