Toy Story 3Film TrailerAnalysis

The first shot is the bottom on the left. We see a wooden floor with a wall paper of clouds, which if the viewer has seen the first two films of this sequel, would then reminded of Andy’s room (another character which is unseen in this teaser trailer.) We also recognize the distinctive theme tune of Toy Story, so with out even watching the trailer, we understand that its Toy story from the music and voiceover's of star persona’s (Tom Hanks, Tim Allen) We also see a skipping rope with the soldiers slide down. This is a way of introducing their role in the film. We then see Woody step in to the same scene and without showing Woody’s face, we immediately recognise his cowboy style boots which is an icon of his character. With the soldiers looking up we understand that Woody is the superior character. It then cuts to a long shot which is a long take of each character being introduced. Woody then waves his hand to welcome on the next character and says ‘come on folks we don’t have much time’ shows that the trailer will be short as this fulfills the convention of a teaser as it only lasts for 1 minute and 40 seconds. However, this is a bit longer than a typical teaser. The shots we see are not actual film footage which can be a convention of teaser trailers as they tend to with hold information. These tend to be made before the film actually went in to production. Its not until the theatrical trailer that the plot begins to flesh out, this is just so we are aware that the filming is coming soon, which is what this trailer does.

The next character introduced is the horse balancing on a ball rolling around Woody. Woody repeatedly praises the characters, which portrays his character as the protagonist. Then the aliens walk in front of Woody carrying blocks. The dinosaur enters from the opposite way, whilst tangled up in fairy lights. You notice that they all bring on a prop as they re-introduces their characters. Although, we don’t know why they are bringing on the props they have, which follows the convention of raising questions and maintaining them to be unanswered. This keeps the audience engaged as this is a teaser trailer, only a short time is used to entice their audience (who are children and family’s) For this target audience, bright colours attract the audience which is exactly what has been used. We are also reassured that Woody is the main character as he plays the role of a presenter as he continues to be involved in the long take and never exits and as he continues to introduce each character individually. The music continues over the top of the ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ theme tune.

The next shot shows the sausage dog entering as woody throws something which the dog tries to catch, which. This time with the dog it shows two different heights. Woody is on the ground and the dog jumps up. Mr and Mrs potato head enter with a chalk board. Still maintaining with the unanswered questions of the props each characters are shown with. The pig is then wheeled on by two of the soldiers. None of the characters tell us any of the plot of the third Toy Story, which follows the conventions in that they give a limited amount of information, but in this trailer no information about the film is given. It simply just introduces each character to remind the audience of the familiar personalities. The music continues. Woody also says ‘keep it moving, keep it moving’ when the pig rolls along. This shows that Woody keeps the trailer flowing.

The final character to be introduced is Jesse who enters on a pogo stick. For audiences who have seen Toy Story 2 would be aware that Jesse is a very outgoing and hyper character so a pogo stick relates to her character as they are ‘fun and bouncy.’ We then get to see the use of the characters props when 51 seconds in to the teaser trailer, the first cut shows us that the characters have re-created the Toy Story 3 logo out of toys which each character was introduced with. Woody then walks straight across continuing to praise the characters. Woody then bumps in to Buzz Light Year. Woody asks where Buzz has been and he replies that he has been up all night working on a little ‘something.’

The audience then sees a preview of of what Buzz has been ‘up all night’ doing which is the official logo which the other characters tried to duplicate. The characters are all mesmerized and walk across the scene to evaluate the logo of which Buzz has created. The shot has been composed with Woody and Buzz (with Woody being the protagonistic character) and the stock characters placed on the opposite side, ( with the recognisable logo in the middle. The logo then lights up with the dark background so the logo stand out as Woody says “At least ours up’ in a defeated manner.’ Then Buzz claps his hands to reveal the lit up logo. The music then stops as the stock characters go to study Buzz’s design.

The shot then cuts to a black background which Buzz and Woody walk on to, to reveal the release date which is a convention of trailers to make the audience aware of when they can view the film. The date shown resembles fridge magnets, again repeating Toy effect of re-creating the logo. But then Buzz again competes with Buzz to improve the logo, which reminds the audience of the date a second time then exposes that the film will be in 3D,which is a different form the previous films now that technology has developed. The last shot also publishes the website where the audience can research about the film which is also a convention of trailers.The ‘You Got A Friend In Me’ music then begins again as Woody throws up the release date.