What happens to toys when kids grow up?

Play time is over for Woody the cowboy, Buzz Lightyear and friends.

"Toy Story 3," which screened Tuesday for theater owners attending their annual ShoWest convention, poses a new question for the gang from the 1995 hit that launched computer animation into the feature-film world: Is there life for a toy after your kid grows up?

"Come on, let's see how much we're going for on eBay," laments John Ratzenberger's Hamm the Piggy Bank as he and the other toys ponder a lonely future, with their owner, Andy, heading to college and leaving them behind.

Though the film is not yet finished, the screening provided a sneak peek for one of summer's most anticipated releases.

"The youngest kids who saw 'Toy Story' and 'Toy Story 2' when they first came out are now kind of heading off to college. That's the position Andy's in, so it's very strange and nostalgic for people to see this character that is part of their childhood kind of growing up with them and facing the same life changes," said "Toy Story 3" director Lee Unkrich, who was a film editor on "Toy Story" and co-director on "Toy Story 2."

For Andy's favorite playthings, Woody and Buzz (voiced again by Tom Hanks and Tim Allen), the transition threatens to end their long partnership.

Due in theaters June 18, "Toy Story 3" also features new voice co-stars Whoopi Goldberg, Ned Beatty, Timothy Dalton and Michael Keaton.

Their ranks thinned over the years as some of their friends were thrown away, donated or "yard-saled," Andy's toys face their own mortality - that moment when they ask themselves what reason they have to exist without a child to play with them.

The toys' new adventures take them to a seeming paradise, a day-care center with a never-ending supply of kids. But there they find a rigid regime run by a cuddly but deceptive teddy bear.

Pixar personnel knew as far back as 1999's "Toy Story 2" that they might want to return for another sequel.

The key creative team gathered for a two-day retreat at the same cabin where they cooked up the original "Toy Story." The first day went by and no fresh ideas struck. So they decided to watch "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" again.

"We watched the movies and really, really enjoyed them," Unkrich said. "And when they were over, we were thoroughly depressed, because we thought, well, how can we possibly make another movie worthy of being with those two?

"We were depressed for a moment, but then we thought, well, we made those movies, so if anyone's going to pull it off, it's going to be us. So we met the next day, and luckily, the seeds of this came together."