Woody (right centre), Buzz Lightyear (far right) and their playtime pals arrive at their new daycare home in a scene from Pixar's Toy Story 3. (Disney/Pixar)

In the miniature world of the Toy Story films, the dreaded Shelf is where toys end up when they’re broken or their young owner has outgrown them. Eleven years ago, creators Pixar put the series itself on the shelf, but for neither of those reasons.

Toy Story 3 feels like the satisfying conclusion to a trilogy, but it also leaves the door ajar for another sequel. That would be just fine with me.

The original 1995 movie — a computer-animation game-changer — and its 1999 sequel were huge critical and box-office successes. We would willingly have embraced a third instalment, but at the time Pixar was sequel-averse. Instead, the trail-blazing studio decided to make new, shiny diversions for us, from Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo to WALL*E and last year’s Up.

It was a wise decision. Now that cowboy doll Woody and his pals have finally been taken down, dusted off and given a new 3-D coat of paint, we’re more than eager to reacquaint ourselves with them. Toy Story 3 brings back all our favourite playthings from the first two movies. There’s the fiercely loyal Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) and his rival-turned-BFF Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), the ever-resourceful space ranger with the longest chin this side of Jay Leno. There’s Jessie (Joan Cusack), the spunky, red-haired cowgirl who’s sweet on Buzz. And there’s that old scene-stealer, the lovably grouchy Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), as well as his adoring better half (Estelle Harris), a couple of spuds who sound like they were cultivated in the Catskills.

They, along with Slinky Dog (Blake Clark), Hamm the piggy bank (John Ratzenberger) and timid dinosaur Rex (Wallace Shawn), are facing an uncertain fate. In the decade since the last movie, their prepubescent owner, Andy (John Morris), has grown into a teenager and is about to head off to college. As he prepares to put away childish things, Andy stuffs all his old toys — except the cherished Woody — in a garbage bag for storage in the attic. When the bag is mistakenly taken to the curb, Woody, who was college-bound with Andy, risks his wooden neck to go back and rescue his old friends.

Eventually the gang finds refuge with a bunch of other discarded toys — including a perky Barbie doll (Jodi Benson) — which Andy’s kid sister is donating to the Sunnyside daycare. At first blush, their new home looks like toy heaven. With wall-to-wall kids, they’re going to be put to good use. Not only that, they’re welcomed warmly by Lotso (Ned Beatty), a.k.a. Lots-O’-Huggin’ Bear, an avuncular purple plush toy who presides over the daycare’s toy population. He invites the newcomers to take up residence in the toddler-designated Caterpillar Room.

Barbi meets the Ken doll of her dreams in Toy Story 3. (Disney/Pixar)

Little do they realize they’re about to be subjected to the careless brutality of energetic three-year-olds. Or that Sunnyside is actually a gloomy toy hierarchy with Lotso as the mean (albeit, strawberry-scented) boss. Quicker than you can say Cool Hand Luke, we’re in a prison-movie spoof. The recalcitrant Mr. Potato Head ends up spending the night in the box (sandbox, that is), while Woody plots a great escape with help from a battered old-timer in the form of a classic Fisher-Price telephone (Teddy Newton). Needless to say, the Toy Story franchise, God’s gift to toy manufacturers, continues to give new life to old products.

The screenplay is by Michael Arndt, who wrote Little Miss Sunshine. He may be responsible for some of the movie’s more subversive moments, such as the bitter Lotso’s noir-flavoured back-story. Toy Story 3 also revives some of the grotesque humour of the original film, which was missing in the more benign Toy Story 2. In particular, there’s Lotso’s disturbing henchman, a giant baby doll with a lazy eyelid who looks like an escapee from the Island of Misfit Toys.

These creepy touches, and some intense scenes in a hellish-looking junkyard, are probably too scary for younger children. (The six-year-old sitting beside me ended up in his mother’s lap.) Teens, however, will get a kick out of the jokey romantic subplot involving Barbie and the daycare’s preening Ken doll (Michael Keaton), while theatre geeks will adore the troupe of thespian toys owned by Bonnie (Emily Hahn), the daycare operator’s hyper-imaginative daughter. They include a classically trained hedgehog named Mr. Pricklepants, who sports a pair of lederhosen and the sonorous tones of Timothy Dalton.

I could spend this whole review just listing the movie's cast of characters. If Toy Story 3 has a fault, it’s that, like a spoiled child, it has too many toys. The most charming of the new additions, however, is a human — that cute little Bonnie, who helps serve up the movie’s requisite scoop of sentimentality.

Director Lee Unkrich, an editor on the previous two pictures, sees to it that all the successful ingredients are used again. There’s a pinch of throat-tightening pathos, a dash of eye-misting nostalgia. He stirs in those gentle messages about fulfilling your purpose in life and valuing friendships. Then he garnishes it all with Saturday-matinee cliffhangers and more variations on Randy Newman’s head-bobbing Toy Story theme — including a flamenco version by the Gipsy Kings.

In the end, Toy Story 3 feels like the satisfying conclusion to a trilogy, but it also leaves the door ajar for another sequel. That would be fine with me. As this movie proves, these old toys still have plenty of play left in them.

Toy Story 3 opens June 18.

Martin Morrow writes about the arts for CBC News.