Here’s something that will make you feel really old: the original Toy Story was released in 1995, a whopping fifteen years ago. You probably had hair back then, right? And a lot more friends. Ah, happy days. It just so happens that nostalgia is at the heart of this third outing for Buzz, Woody and co.

Time waits for no man, which is why little Andy is now all grown up at seventeen and about to head off to college. The thing is, time does wait for toys and considering that Andy took such good care over his – unlike his evil neighbour Sid from Toy Story – the gang are as good as new. No doubt Andy is kicking himself now that he took them all out of their boxes; just imagine how much he could make on a boxed Buzz Lightyear alone on eBay these days? It would get him a lot of booze to get him through college, that’s for sure.

With Andy moving out, his ‘mom’ gives him two bags: one for stuff he wants to keep that can be stored in the loft, the other to be donated to local day care centre, Sunnyside. Although Andy’s old enough to knock up a fellow teen (not that he would, you understand, he’s still a good kid after all. Well, that’s what ‘mom’ thinks anyway), he still has great fondness in his heart for his toys, so Buzz (Tim Allen), Woody (Tom Hanks), Hamm (John Ratzenberger) etc get put in the bag planned for the loft.

Unfortunately for all of them however, the bags get accidently mixed up and the toys soon find themselves on yet another road trip. But when they arrive at Sunnyside, where they are met by the charming Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear (Ned Beatty), it appears, initially at least, that they have all landed on their plastic feet.

But just like when Lando greeted Han, Chewie etc on their arrival on the Cloud City of Bespin (Ep IV, obviously), there’s more going on behind the scenes than first meets the googly eyes. Needless to say, they’re far from being in toy heaven. With toy pitted against toy, you just know it’s going to get ugly.

Guys, it's a joke - I said that's eggs-actly how I like them! Gee, talk about a tough crowd. Guess the yolks on me huh? Guys...?

As well as being an on-screen reunion for all the toys, it’s a similar story for the film-makers; Lee Unkrich returns to the directors’ chair (having directed TS2), while John Lasseter (director of TS1) gets writing and producing credits, with Randy Newman once again looking after the music. As you would expect from a Pixar project, having the same creative team involved with the franchise only helps solidify the existing emotional ties audiences have with the adorable characters.

You shouldn’t let that little 3 on the end of the title put you off either. It’s clear that this team have far too much love and affection invested in these toys to simply knock out an obvious and bland sequel. And let’s not forget, this is only the third film in the series in fifteen years, so they certainly aren’t in the business of rushing things just for the sake of profit. It’s safe to say then that Toy Story 3 is in the safest of hands.

The film has one huge problem however: the script; it’s so wonderfully written that you forget to appreciate how beautiful the animation is. It’s that rarest of animated titles that not only has lovable characters (old and new), sharp dialogue and an engaging storyline, but the three combined make you somehow forget that it was actually made with super duper computers. Your head kind of knows that you’re watching an animated feature, but your heart will be completely fooled into thinking it’s a live-action flick. And compliments don’t get much bigger than that.

And although it can be appreciated on the big screen in 3D, you won’t lose anything from the film if you happen to catch it with the extra dimension missing. The film itself is far bigger than a mere third dimension, which is perhaps why the ‘D’ isn’t slapped onto the end of the film’s title.

It’s understandable that some might have been a tad weary at the prospect of this particular box of toys being opened for a third time; after all, how many film sequels are genuinely worth watching? Answer: not many. But if ever the words ‘must’ and ‘see’ belonged on a film poster together, it would surely be for this one.

Toy Story 3 simply re-enforces the fact that nobody does animation better than Pixar. It will most certainly charm the pants of the most hardened of grinches and keep all its fans – young, old and really old – beaming from ear to ear. It’s playtime folks – enjoy.