Toy Story 3

Word Count:  383

1.      Argument: Toy Story 3 is a fun, exciting movie.

2.      Audience:  The audience is primarily American families.  These families have probably seen the first two Toy Story movies and are eagerly anticipating the third.   

3.      Goal: To get people to come see Toy Story 3.

4.      How:

-          Ethos:  The Toy Story movies have established themselves well in the past, so that in and of itself is great ethos.  People know the story and have loved the other 2 Toy Story movies, so they will be likely to see this one too.  Also, at the very beginning and again in the middle of the trailer, Disney and Pixar are identified as having made the movie.  The audience also trusts both of these names, as they have made many highly loved movies in recent years.

-          Pathos:  The sad song and the montage in the beginning that shows Andy growing up sparks bittersweet feelings in the audience.  Most have seen the first two Toy Story movies and already feel attached to the characters and how much they love Andy and being played with.  Feelings of excitement are introduced in the second half of the trailer as the toys are moved to the day-care facility.   The children are crazy, and it culminates in the little girl putting her tongue all over Buzz’s helmet. The audience will think it’s funny and familiar to see the characters personalities coming out – like when Buzz gets reset to the Spanish setting.

-          Relevant:  This 3^rd movie shows what’s happening to the toys as their owner grows up and leaves to college.  This is relevant to the audience because everyone grows up and outgrows their toys at some point.  They  can relate to the story very well.

-          Accurate: Because the audience has probably seen the first 2 movies, they will be able to see very quickly that the trailer for Toy Story 3 seems to fit right in and presents an accurate representation of what they would expect from the 3^rd movie.

5.      Effective or not:  I think the trailer is very effective.  This trailer made the story clear, it appealed to familiar emotions of growing up, it was funny, it was exciting, and it was made by companies that Americans know and trust to make awesome movies.