2010 Rewind: "Toy Story 3"

There's a sort of bitter sweet quality involved in the ending of a franchise. On the one hand you hate to see your long time friend leave, on the other you acknowledge that all things are finite and must have a respectable curtain call.

Too movie franchises share the tragic fate of being run into the ground when corporate big wigs demand the teats of the sacred cash cow be milked dry, resulting in a final product that doesn't resolve anything and leaves the series in a state of perpetual limbo only to have it rebooted in a few years. Luckily, Pixar has a tendency to deliver Grade-A products and knows when its much beloved progenitor franchise deserves a comfortable seat at the retirement home.

Thanks to Pixar's awareness of Toy Story's age and importance to the company they put lots of work into this finally. It perfectly ties up all plot threads and gives the audience a memorable ending that both solidifies that the journey we have all grown up with is over, but also reminds us that the adventures of these individual characters will carry on long after the events of this movie even if we never get to see them.

"Toy Story 3" is an emotional experience which most live-action films can only dream of having. In many ways this movie is the greatest love letter made for a devoted fan base in history, but it also serves as a wonderful instruction manual for other film makers to learn from. Where so many have failed, this film provides the perfect template for trilogy resolution.

Honestly, this movie contains it all; in many ways it deserves to win best picture this year, but as we all know, that's not the way the Academy Awards Ceremony works. Oh well.