If you keep up with the American critical scene, you’ll probably have got the message by now that people kinda like “Toy Story 3.” No surprise there: every one of Pixar’s features since their 2006 misfire “Cars” has been greeted with the kind of mass veneration usually reserved for returning messiahs, and on at least a couple of occasions, they’ve deserved it. (That’s no dig at their latest, which I have yet to see.)
You’ll also likely have heard that a certain Armond White is less impressed, dismissing the film as “drivel” and adding that “‘Transformers 2’ already explored the same plot to greater thrill and opulence.” Of course, in its own way, this is as knee-jerk and predictable a response as many critics’ annual ejaculation over the Pixar brand; White is accused virtually on a weekly basis of disingenuous contrarianism. It’d have been greater cause for concern if he’d liked the movie.
As exasperating as he can be, I’ve stood up for White on these pages before, and I continue to do so: as I wrote on Twitter last night, I see his reviews as calculated provocations to the reader, forcing them to engage with the idea of critical responsibility. And for all the talk of “trolling,” I do think he’s conditioned himself to the point where he believes every word he writes — for better or worse.