I highly recommend seeing Disney's latest Toy Story film at an E3 preview, where you can have all the candy, popcorn, milkshakes, Yoohoo brand chocolate drink, and vodka Jell-O shots you can handle. And I can handle a lot.
A special E3 screening of Toy Story 3 was held on Monday night, to commemorate the release of Toy Story 3: The Video Game, the first Disney Pixar movie tie-in developed internally by Disney Interactive developers. I'm not sure why I, of all of the Kotaku staff attending E3 2010, was chosen for this honor. Perhaps it was just the luck of the drawn. Maybe Crecente thought it would be fun. Or funny.
Either way, I found myself at the Regal Cinemas at L.A. Live, just a short walk from the convention center, waiting to be let inside the special screening reception area, where kiosks with playable demos of the video game awaited.
And something much better.
My buddy for this adventure turned out to be A.J. Glasser, former Kotaku writer who has since moved on to work for another video game news outlet. She's still her old bubbly self, so I was pleased to see here show up at the screening.
After catching up with A.J. for a bit, the ushers let us into the reception area, after confiscating any recording equipment, hence the lack of photographic evidence.
The reception area was staffed with friendly folks carrying trays of movie time favorites. One carried candy, and I picked up a bag of peanut M&Ms to sate my growling stomach. Another had tiny chocolate milkshakes. Quaint, and delicious.
A table piled high with pails caught our attention, so we wandered over to discover the pails were filled with popcorn in various flavors. So far, so good. We opted to wait until the movie started to grab or pails, but one item on the table could not be denied.
Yoohoo. Bottles of it, just waiting for me.
Yoohoo is a fake chocolate drink sold in bottles at the gas station. It tastes like liquid, watered down chocolate candy. You have to shake it or brown goo sits at the bottom of the bottle, slowly revealing itself as you drink, and usually disgusting you to the point of not wanting to drink it ever again.
I shake well. I also refrigerate after opening, but only if there is Yoohoo left in the bottle.
I quickly opened one and down it within seconds. My enthusiasm was contagious, and A.J. grabbed one as well, though she took her time finishing hers.
That is not how you drink Yoohoo, but I was in too good a mood to correct her.
As we stood at the table, me pondering picking up another Yoohoo (I did), another helper came by, this time with little plastic cups filled with Jell-O in various colors and flavors. But this was no ordinary Jell-O.
This was Jell-O with vodka.
Jell-O shots are a common way to consume fruity snacks and alcohol at once, and relatively harmless in small doses.
By the third Jell-O shot I had to hand A.J. my things. We found a lovely bench to sit on, and the helpers took great joy in coming by one by one. More Yoohoo? More Jell-O? More little milkshakes? Don't mind if I do.
By the time the movie started I had consumed five bottles of Yoohoo, five Jell-O shots, three different flavors of tiny milkshakes, and a few M&Ms for good measure.
Between the sugar high and the alcohol buzz I feel I was in perfect condition to watch and critique a movie aimed at children. I may have stumbled a little as I made my way into the theater, but I'm sure part of that was excitement.
And I'm sure A.J. was glad I didn't fall on her.
As for the movie, look for a full review this Friday, just in time for the film's release.
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