Toy Story 3: Juan Or's First Time at the Cinema

During the period of endless paperwork at the office (yes, it's that darn MQA documentation thing!), off and on, Mommy managed to surf Tanjong Golden Village (TGV) and Golden Screen Cinema (GSC) websites to keep track of Toy Story showtimes. Mommy's panic button started sounding when on 8th July, Mommy realized that certain TGV and GSC outlets have stopped showing Toy Story 3 altogether! Only limited outlets are still showing Toy Story 3. So Mommy decided to take Emergency Leave on 9th July to take Juan Or to watch it. And mind you, Mommy even told Mommy's boss about taking Juan Or to catch hold of Toy Story 3 at limited cinema outlets as the reason for taking emergency leave! Luckily, Mommy's boss is a family woman herself, so she understands Mommy's situation and allowed Mommy to take the leave (even though the MQA thing is not fully completed, but almost done!).

Mommy went for morning show at TGV Bukit Raja (Klang) although we are staying in Puchong - few reasons: (1) To allow a longer car ride journey so that Juan Or can sleep in the car for a substantial amount of time before the show to minimize the possibility of fretfulness; (2) certain TGV's nearer to Puchong are no longer showing Toy Story 3, e.g., TGV Mines; (3) Mommy wants to join a Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear Contest organized by TGV which requires 2 Toy Story movie ticket stubs. So Juan Or and Mommy set off at 9am, went through some village road that finally leads us to LDP highway that goes into Shah Alam (this is Mommy's first solo trip using this way!). Then from Shah Alam, Mommy used a portion of the LKSA Highway that leads into Federal Highway and then into Padang Jawa and finally to Jusco Bukit Raja where the TGV is. All in all, the journey took 55 minutes to reach the destination including a 10-minute stop to pump petrol. Good thing too, Juan Or immediately dozed off shortly after we started our journey.

Arriving at Bukit Raja Jusco where it houses TGV.

Shortly after 10am, Juan Or woke up and he was a very good boy - he didn't fret when he woke up suddenly and he obediently drank a bottle of milk in the car (which was his first time drinking milk in the car since he had history of refusing to drink milk in other places other than the babysitter's house).

This is the first time Mommy brought Juan Or's milk supplies along in the car. The infant car seat that Juan Or had 'retired' from now serves as a compartment of sorts to put things securely in the car.

This is Juan Or's first time drinking milk in the car which went on smoothly.

A self-portrait of Juan Or and Mommy in the car while still busy finishing up his milk. See the Buzz Lightyear watch Juan Or is wearing? It's actually a projector watch where you can project an image of Buzz Lightyear by pressing a button (for children's fun!) besides the watch function. Mommy bought it from Tesco during the Toy Story promotion for RM20.++

By 10.15 am, we were already at the ticket counter of TGV. After buying tickets, we had quite some time to spare (the show starts at 11 am). Mommy took some photos of Juan Or with the Toy Story picture in the background and even had time to go to the post office (also in Jusco Bukit Raja) to pay bills. Juan Or also managed to have a quick kiddy ride before we headed to the cinema again.

One pose here and .....

.......another pose there!

Here's our Toy Story 3 movie tickets!

Just before entering the cinema, Mommy bought the combo set (consists of a Coca-cola and popcorn) that comes with Toy Story cup and Toy Story popcorn box) for RM11.90. Mommy finds it costly, but what to do, Mommy is crazy about Toy Story merchandize as well, so Mommy gave in to some indulgence!

The Toy Story 3 cup and popcorn box now sits in the glass cabinet display at home. That's Mommy's collection of Toy Story items! As for the Coke, Juan Or simply loves drinking it (and ended up with gassy stomach and vomit the next day!) but didn't want to eat the popcorns at all.

At the ticket man's place, Mommy asked Juan Or to hand the tickets to the man and so far so good - Juan Or did not show any fretfulness when facing a stranger - not even when the ticket man handed the ticket stubs back. We went into the designated cinema hall and there were already some trailers showing. Juan Or seemed frightened at first when he first entered the hall - dark, big space plus loud sound! He kept on wanting to go out to the corridor which was brightly-lit and making fretful sound. So first thing in Mommy's heart was like "Oh, there goes my RM13 - gone with the wind!" Luckily, Mommy brought along his smelly, security towel and he settled down quickly when Mommy brought him into the hall again. Phew!

In the hall, Mommy could see only 4 other people in the hall as well - 3 adults and 1 child - so altogether was only 6 people watching the show - very spacious and peaceful! ^ ^ Throughout the show, Juan Or was very excited to see and identify the Toy Story characters that he saw at home. At almost every appearance of the main characters, Juan Or would excitedly shout out their names. Probably he was the noisiest kid in the cinema hall! Somewhere in the middle of the show, Juan Or sit up excitedly while calling out a Toy Story character's name, and as result, he went off-balanced and fell forward - his face hitting the seat in front of him and he landed on the floor, flat on the face, crying! At first Mommy thought his face merely hit the cushion of the seat, but when Mommy took him near, Mommy could smell of blood (it was all darkness in the hall so Mommy couldn't see the wound at first)! And oh dear, apparently he cut himself at his left eye-lid. Most likely, he hit the metal stub that bears the seat's numbering. Juan Or cried and cried and cried, but luckily he didn't cry for long and didn't bleed for long too. He appeared very clingy after that and kept on wanting Mommy to sing him "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" while watching the show. In the end, we finished the show amidst the not-so-pleasant experience and Juan Or appeared to have cheered up already.

This was the cut at his left eye-lid as a result of the fall.

This is the security towel that Juan Or finds comfort with, with which Mommy used for wiping the blood on his face. Luckily he didn't bleed for long, otherwise there will be more blood stains on this towel.

After the show, Mommy submitted the contest form to the ticket counter and we had our lunch at McDonald's because Juan Or kept requesting for burger, French fries and 'Coco-lala' (Juan Or's way of saying Coca-Cola). In the end, Juan Or only ate French fries, but refused to eat the burger or even drink the Coca-cola (probably he had enough of Coca-cola already with the popcorn combo set!). After the lunch, Mommy allowed him to ride on the kiddy rides for as long as he wanted to before we set off from Klang. Once back in the car, Juan Or dozed off immediately!

Kiddy rides for Juan Or to cheer him up from the fall and cut.

All in all, Juan Or and Mommy enjoyed ourselves very much. Mommy was very happy to be able to let Juan Or feel the cinema experience. Although we have watched it once before (Papa downloaded a Russian version from the Internet), but Mommy didn't enjoy it because the picture and sound quality was poor so much so Mommy couldn't really follow or appreciate 100 % of the story. In fact, from the download version, Mommy could only spot one touching moment whereas from the cinema version, Mommy could spot and feel more touching moments. Mommy even asked Juan Or whether he would like to go to the cinema again and he immediately answered "Yes!" very enthusiastically!

For readers out there who have already watched Toy Story 3. You may have noticed that there's one scene when the other toys in Sunnyside Daycare Centre digged for a Buzz Lightyear instruction manual to change Buzz away from the original factory setting. Mommy did wonder about this: since Buzz Lightyear is the only space ranger toy there and when Buzz Lightyear and the other Andy's toys were given away to the daycare centre, the toys all arrived without their boxes (and of course without their instruction manuals), right? So where did the Buzz Lightyear instruction manual come from? Surely the manual won't just appear from nowhere in the daycare centre, right? That is the only inconsistency that Disney and Pixar did not attempt to resolve. ^ ^