Toy Story 2 Review

My Rating: 9/10

Pixar do it again. Toy Story 2 is one of those rare brilliant sequels to films, and generously compliments the previous film. Woody and the gang are back with improved animation, new characters and a story with parallels and twists. Pixar never fail to please when it comes to films in general and this film proves that. Kids and adults will love this film, and I think Toy Story 2 is a fantastic family film.

Toy story 2 takes us on a big trip, taking a leap in technology from the previous film and takes us to a Toy Barn, the outside world and even an Airport. One day Woody notices an old toy, by the name of Weezy, a deep singing voiced penguin. Weezy is picked up by Andy’s mother and takes down to the yard sale. Being who he is, Woody gets into action in his attempt to save the day. So he takes the family dog down by the name of Buster, and attempts to rescue Weezy. While Woody is there he goes into ‘Toy Mode’ and gets picked up by a middle aged fat man, with legs like tree stumps. Now it is up to Buzz to try and find him, and on Woody’s journey we meet the newest cast of the Toy Story crew.

The Characters:

Woody finding Weezy in the dust.

We have Joan Cusack and Jessie, Kelsey Grammar as Stinky Pete, and Bullseye the noble horse who does not talk (its good to see that not all the toys have to speak). It was great to see the entire original cast back, including Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Mr Potato Head (Don Rickles) and several other favourable characters. I feel that Joan Cusack really brought the character Jessie to life and did an excellent job of it. I also enjoyed Stinky Pete’s voice actor. Now let’s talk about Stinky Pete. (Spoiler ahead, doubt that no one knows the story for this film) Stinky Pete is a character who is manipulative from the beginning; however you won’t discover that until the second half of the film. But when you learn he was the bad guy, you look back at all his scenes like when the TV ‘magically’ comes on and when he gets him to talk to Jessie. We can see that he does it all to get Woody to stay. But when Buzz and company come to rescue him, instead of woody saying to Woody “You. Are. A Toy!” straight out of Toy Story, Buzz says it to Woody.

This is when we learn the prospector is the bad guy.

It was a fantastic parallel swap around to see. Let’s not forget about Mr Potato head’s new found wife. Mrs Potato. It is such a simplistic name which makes it perfect. There is so many wonderful characters in this film I still must mention two more! Along the way we come to the toy store (Al’s Toy Barn) and meet the diluted Buzz. This refers back to the previous film graciously reminding the audience what the old Buzz was like. It was very funny to see him because of how dramatic and overdone he was. Even the way he was animated. And another character that I highly enjoyed was Zurg. After opening the film with the in game Buzz Lightyear videos game and having seen Zurg, it was nice to see the character in Toy form. I especially love the scene with diluted buzz meeting Zurg, who is actually ‘his father’. A nice tribute to Star Wars Episode 5: Empire Strikes Back.

Buzz saying to woody "You are a Toy!"

Zurg finding buzz and Co.

The Creative Geniuses:

Toy Story 2 was written by none other than John Lasseter (Now chief of Walt Disney Animation Studios), Andrew Stanton (director of Wall- E), Pete doctor (director of Monsters Inc.) and Ash Bannon an animator and director from Toy Story. These are some of the finest creative minds still around. Fresh ideas are all around in Pixar, and at the moment I’d compare them with the rest of Hollywood and call them some of the most creative people to date. We all know now how films are slowly getting less original, because most ideas have been done over. (Not saying all new films are boring) Pixar defy all this and create enjoyable films that get remembered.

The Music:

Jessie staring out at Emily (her owner), during her flashback montage.

Randy Newman, the master behind the original Toy Story soundtrack is back again in Toy Story 2. And I tell you this, he did an excellent job. Of course we can’t forget about the ‘She Loved Me’ ballad which had extremely high emotional factor along with the beautiful animation. It really gave the scene of Jessie’s back story more emotion. It’s one of those scenes that will make you think about the toy you lost or gave away (maybe even making you feel guilty) or even loosing someone you loved. So this emotional scene can hit you emotionally in several ways. John Lasseter said in the commentary “For parents it makes you think about your kids”, and so does the next 5 minutes after this ballad. We hear Stinky Pete saying to Woody, just about to leave “How long will it last woody? Andy’s growing up. Do you think he’s going to take you to college? Or his honeymoon?”, and soon after Pete’s manipulative line Woody replies back “No, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world” which will remind parents that they wouldn’t miss seeing their kids grow up for the world.

Scene with Jessie and Woody after Jessie tells Woody the back story.

Overview:

And it is impressive how Pixar bring these characters across with such strong emotions, because it’s fictional animation. The fact that animated characters can make you feel motions like all 3 Toy Story films likely will is very impressive. So overall Toy Story 2 may be my least favourite of the series, doesn’t stop me from loving it. It is still a fantastic film, and is another one of the animated films that made my childhood! Toy Story is one of the greatest sequels there has ever been and is a highly enjoyable movie experience.

My Ratings:

Story: 9.6/10

Characters: 9.5/10

Emotion: 9.4/10

Visuals & Editing: 9.3/10

Direction & Cinematography: 9.4/10
Music: 9.2/10

Overall: 9.4/10

Trivia:

• In the scene where we first enter the airport baggage room, the first 10 seconds or so took 70 hours a frame to render!
• In the airport scene we can see someone holding Molly, Andy’s sister in the film.
• John Lasseter did the voice of the Blue Rock Em’ sock Em’ Robot.
• In the scene where Ham is flicking through the channels, we can see some of Pixar’s short animations such as ‘Tin Toy’ and ‘Red’s Dream’.

I call this the 'Monster Render'. 70 Hours a frame.