When I noticed Toy Story was releasing its third installment, I was slightly confused, should this be embraced or not? Toy Story was Pixar’s first ever release, it was a first of its kind, it took the genre of animation to a whole new level and it was a monumental success in the box office there are a lot of great memories I hold with this movie (even its sequel). So, were they going to ruin a perfectly good franchise like they did with our favourite green ogre?

The screenplay of Toy Story 3 cleverly brings this theme to life by putting us in Andys shoes. Maintaining the wild adventure plot structure, the movie is a fun-loving combination of entertainment, laughs and pure nostalgia. It touches on an era before Nintendos, Play Stations and Xboxes reminding you of a time where acrylic toys, a beautiful imagination and a world of your own, comes together to define the relationship between childhood and toys. I honestly was not expecting much from Toy Story 3 but anything that can get me a little chokey as the credits roll up, has without a doubt delivered in a big way.

His family soon knew that he had the makings of an artist and, in 1620, when he could hardly have been more than sixteen, and may have been considerably less, he left Leyden University for the studio of a second-rate painter called Jan van Swanenburch. We have no authentic record of his progress in the studio, but it must have been rapid. He must have made friends, painted pictures, and attracted attention. At the end of three years he went to Lastmans studio in Amsterdam, returning thence to Leyden, where he took Gerard Dou as a pupil. A several years later, it is not easy to settle these dates on a satisfactory basis, he went to Amsterdam, and established himself there, because the Dutch capital was very wealthy and held many patrons of the arts, in spite of the seemingly endless war that Holland was waging with Spain.

It may be said that after Saskias death, and the exhibition of this fine work, Rembrandt Van Ryns pleasant years came to an end. He was then somewhere between thirty-six and thirty-eight years old, he had made his mark, and enjoyed a very large measure of recognition, but henceforward, his career was destined to be a very troubled one, full of disappointment, pain, and care. Perhaps it would have been no bad thing for him if he could have gone with Saskia into the outer darkness. The world would have been poorer, but the man himself would have been spared many years that may be even the devoted labours of his studio could not redeem.

Between 1642, when Saskia died, and 1649, it is not easy to follow the progress of his life; we can only state with certainty that his difficulties increased almost as quickly as his work ripened. His connection with Hendrickje Stoffels would seem to have started about 1649, and this woman with whom he lived until her death some thirteen years later, has been abused by many biographers because she was the painters mistress.

He has left to the world some 500 or 600 pictures that are admitted to be genuine, together with the etchings and drawings to which reference has been made. He is to be seen in many galleries in the Old World and the New, for he painted his own portrait more than a score of times. So Rembrandt Van Ryn has been raised in our days to the pinnacle of fame which is his by right; the festival of his tercentenary was acknowledged by the whole civilised world as the natural utterance of joy and pride of our small country in being able to count among its children the great Rembrandt Van Ryn.