It's very easy to talk about the first " Toy Story" film in big, broad terms: as the movie that started a studio (Pixar), as the film that in many ways saved a tradition (of animation for Disney), as the film that rejuvenated and redefined the entire medium of American animation. It's just as easy to focus on the smaller, story-based merits of that first film: how the plot and characters were finely honed without feeling overly crafted, and how Tom Hanks and Tim Allen both worked no small amount of magic in playing Woody and Buzz's strengths and weaknesses. And under any and all of these layers is the simple reason that those things mattered, which is that John Lasseter and Pixar and his writers and actors crafted a story about friendship, and about love, and about how all things change in time.

" Toy Story 3," directed by Lee Unkrich, could have been a cynical cash grab: It is crafted in 3-D, 10 years after " Toy Story 2," it's full of new characters, and it could have potentially been as technically advanced and numbingly empty as the money-making, meaningless " Shrek" films. Unkrich and his collaborators, most notably screenwriter Michael Arndt, whose " Little Miss Sunshine" offered a similar family of mismatched members on a journey, have instead made a very different film. "Toy Story 3" has comedy, but that comedy comes from character and circumstance, not from loud slapstick and shallow pop-culture references. It has 3-D effects, but those effects serve the look and feel of the film, not just the bottom line of higher ticket prices. It has sentiment, and at the same time it earns every emotion with real writing and the choices of characters we have come to care about. It also has action, but that action is always an intrinsic part of the plot, and never a loud, large space-filler for the absence of plot as it is in all too many animated films.

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Andy, the little boy who played with Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) in "Toy Story," is headed off to college. A storage mishap lands the majority of the toys in the donation sack for a local day care center, with Woody resolute to find and rescue them. At first, welcomed by the warm and folksy Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear ( Ned Beatty), Sunnyside Day Care looks like heaven to Buzz, Jessie ( Joan Cusack) and the rest of the gang: plenty of kids to play with you, a new crop of kids every year, no being outgrown or being forgotten.

But like in Orwell's "Animal Farm," Sunnyside is a flawed utopia, where all toys are equal but some toys are more equal than others. The gang have to get out, culminating in a breakout sequence that evokes the verve and wit of " The Great Escape," although at a much smaller scale. The final action sequence -- at a municipal dump that's half Dante's "Inferno" and half McCarthy's "The Road" -- may be a little too intense for younger kids, but it's also a bravura demonstration of Unkrich's skill and his team's artistic and technical prowess.

And, like the original "Toy Story," "Toy Story 3" succeeds not because of its glossy and gleaming high-tech pixels, but rather because it is so well-written that you could tell it with low-tech hand puppets and still thrill and reach an audience of children and adults both. Woody, once again, must find the courage to lead and the wisdom to belong. Buzz, once again, gets plunged into delusion and strangeness (in a device similar to one Danny Kaye mined for comedic gold in 1955's " The Court Jester," this time around) by his very nature as a toy. (Let us not mince words. Woody may actually be Hanks' greatest, richest role, and Buzz gives Allen a chance to be far funnier and more engaging than he has ever been, or ever will be.)

Disney and Pixar have already announced plans for shorts featuring the "Toy Story" gang, but the final shot of this film so gracefully and expertly puts a final bow on the whole series that I sincerely hope that this marks the end of the feature films with the characters. The "Toy Story" films, like life, have a contradictory series of morals and messages. Some things can't last, so you should enjoy them while you can; some things last forever, so you have to fight for them body and soul, even if your body is made of stuffing or plastic and your soul is on a microchip. Like Andy, it may be time for us to move on from the toys of "Toy Story" -- and, like Andy, we're given a chance to say farewell before letting a new generation of young moviegoers get to discover them for themselves.