Review 25: Toy Story 2
Set four years after the events of Toy Story, after accidentally tearing Woody's (Tom Hanks) arm, Andy leaves for summer camp without him and his mum puts him on a shelf.
This makes Woody feel forgotten and when Andy's mum starts up a yard sale, she takes several toys including a toy penguin called Weezy (Joe Raft) downstairs to sell. Woody rescues Weezy but a greedy toy collector named Al (Wayne Knight) steals Woody and Buzz (Tim Allen) and several of the other toys set out to rescue him.
At Al's apartment Woody meets fun loving and head strong Jessie (Joan Cusack) a cowgirl doll with severe abandonment issues, the sweet horse toy Bullseye, and a Prospector toy still in his box (Kelsey Grammer), and they reveal to Woody their action figures based on an old TV show called Woody's Roundup and the man plans to sell them all to a museum in Tokyo, Japan, and Woody must escape before that happens.
The plot was fun, inventive and builds upon its predecessor in all the best ways it's just a whole new adventure for our characters complete with plenty of laughs and thrills.
Whilst the first Toy Story was a simple story of friendship, Toy Story 2 examines how a toy would feel if it wasn't being played by a child or worse if a child grew out of a toy.
Toys are manufactured, put on Earth, to be played with by a child. Eventually however, children outgrow toys and don't need them as much as they used to. Toy Story 2 spends a lot of time probing and plumbing the depths of a toys psyche. What matters to a toy beyond being played with by kids? What is it that toys are actually afraid of? These are actually very weighty themes that not only loads of children can relate to but also adults can as well.
Toys are very much a thing for a child to play with right? Not a thing to be collected a placed in a museum. However if you collect Toys and you make good play with it then thats a wonderful thing.
The story of this film is just as fascinating as Woody's fate: I read up that Toy Story 2 was originally going to be released straight-to-video like a lot of Disney animated sequels, but when the story reels played so well, Pixar reconsidered and retooled it for a theatrical release. In other words, none of Toy Story 2 feels like direct-to-DVD material, but instead feels like
The film also expands the previous films theme of friendship by having Buzz journey to save Woody from Al, I mean come on, Who wouldn't sacrafise themselves to save a friend like Woody? They're friends they would do anything for each other. Buzz even says it "Woody once risked his life to save me. I couldn't call myself his friend if I weren't willing to do the same."
Even though Andy will one day outgrow them, they will always have each other for company.
Once again that allegory for childhood is prevalent in Toy Story 2, in this case it's the stage of mid childhood where children begin to see their toys as objects for the first time, a point that is further accentuated when Al steals Woody to both display him on a shelf and then sell him to a tory museum in Japan of all places.
Returning director John Lasseter's animation direction is sharp, the animation has improved: it looks more pulpy, John Lasseter's animation direction is sharp, there's a real sense of emotion, the production design is epic they designed so many locations and as they said its is "all over the place", the editing is smart, the character design is genius, especially for the new characters, the action set pieses are thrilling, their are great moments of intensity, the sound effects are catchy, the the score by Randy Newman is excellent and the effect of the ending sequence is exhilarating.
The voice acting is great once again: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are once again superb as Woody and Buzz. Woody is in a tizz about his broken arm and is worried about Andy growing up and abandoning him. When he first arrives at Al's apartment and meets the roundup gang he wants to just get back to Andy but once he's repaired he starts to like it more and decides he wants to go to Japan with them.
In the first film, Buzz was one to learn he is a toy and feel that his existence was meaningless and Woody was, ironically, the one to show him that bringing joy to a child is greatest gift he could give to Andy. Here, the shoe is on the other foot and Woody is forced to relearn that lesson.
With Woody away, Buzz assumes the role of the leader of the Toy gang and through him you see the progression of him taking on the mantel of authority and the more he does it and the more obstacles he and the gang encounter on the mission, the more it drives him and the more he wants to rescue Woody.
Whilst searching for Woody in Al's Toy Barn, Buzz comes across alise of Buzz Lightyear toys and awakens one with a Utility Belt, giving Allen the added bonus of playing both Andy's Buzz. Utility Belt Buzz seems to be fun commentary on the commercialism of Why would they insist on making these upgraded versions of these toys? Because Buzz Lightyear is a brand I suppose, the latest attempt by manufacturers to take an old design, give it a fresh coat of paint and he is this year's latest model. Utility Belt doesn't go through the character development that Andy's Buzz did the first film and instead serves as an embarrassing reminder to Buzz how deluded he was when he first arrived on Andy's birthday.
Joan Cusack is cooky as the cowgirl Jessie, she is over-the-moon when Woody arrives and is extremely happy at the prospect of the whole Roundup gang being together. She hyper, outgoing, free-spirited, energetic and a complete polar opposite from Woody-which gives a run for his money.
Jessie, Bullseye and Prospector are toys that have been forgotten and abandoned and they see the Toy museum in Japan as some sort of safe heaven for them but in the process they forget that its just not the same as being loved by a kid. For Stinky Pete/Prospector, he never got the chance to be played with and as a result, feels like he'll never be loved. As far as he's concerned, being put in the toy museum to be, as he put it "adored by children for generations" is his reward for enduring so much loneliness. He also serves as an excellent foil for Woody; for one his hatred of "space toy" shows what Woody could've become had he allowed his envy of Buzz to get the better of him and they'd never worked out their differences. They also both serve as authority figures for their friends and they both like to decide what is best for them against their will.
The film also expands the previous films theme of friendship by having Buzz journey to save Woody from Al, I mean come on, Who wouldn't sacrafise themselves to save a friend like Woody? They're friends they would do anything for each other. Buzz even says it "Woody once risked his life to save me. I couldn't call myself his friend if I weren't willing to do the same."
Even though Andy will one day outgrow them, they will always have each other for company.
Once again that allegory for childhood is prevalent in Toy Story 2, in this case it's the stage of mid childhood where children begin to see their toys as objects for the first time, a point that is further accentuated when Al steals Woody to both display him on a shelf and then sell him to a tory museum in Japan of all places.
Returning director John Lasseter's animation direction is sharp, the animation has improved: it looks more pulpy, John Lasseter's animation direction is sharp, there's a real sense of emotion, the production design is epic they designed so many locations and as they said its is "all over the place", the editing is smart, the character design is genius, especially for the new characters, the action set pieses are thrilling, their are great moments of intensity, the sound effects are catchy, the the score by Randy Newman is excellent and the effect of the ending sequence is exhilarating.
The voice acting is great once again: Tom Hanks and Tim Allen are once again superb as Woody and Buzz. Woody is in a tizz about his broken arm and is worried about Andy growing up and abandoning him. When he first arrives at Al's apartment and meets the roundup gang he wants to just get back to Andy but once he's repaired he starts to like it more and decides he wants to go to Japan with them.
In the first film, Buzz was one to learn he is a toy and feel that his existence was meaningless and Woody was, ironically, the one to show him that bringing joy to a child is greatest gift he could give to Andy. Here, the shoe is on the other foot and Woody is forced to relearn that lesson.
With Woody away, Buzz assumes the role of the leader of the Toy gang and through him you see the progression of him taking on the mantel of authority and the more he does it and the more obstacles he and the gang encounter on the mission, the more it drives him and the more he wants to rescue Woody.
Whilst searching for Woody in Al's Toy Barn, Buzz comes across alise of Buzz Lightyear toys and awakens one with a Utility Belt, giving Allen the added bonus of playing both Andy's Buzz. Utility Belt Buzz seems to be fun commentary on the commercialism of Why would they insist on making these upgraded versions of these toys? Because Buzz Lightyear is a brand I suppose, the latest attempt by manufacturers to take an old design, give it a fresh coat of paint and he is this year's latest model. Utility Belt doesn't go through the character development that Andy's Buzz did the first film and instead serves as an embarrassing reminder to Buzz how deluded he was when he first arrived on Andy's birthday.
Joan Cusack is cooky as the cowgirl Jessie, she is over-the-moon when Woody arrives and is extremely happy at the prospect of the whole Roundup gang being together. She hyper, outgoing, free-spirited, energetic and a complete polar opposite from Woody-which gives a run for his money.
Jessie, Bullseye and Prospector are toys that have been forgotten and abandoned and they see the Toy museum in Japan as some sort of safe heaven for them but in the process they forget that its just not the same as being loved by a kid. For Stinky Pete/Prospector, he never got the chance to be played with and as a result, feels like he'll never be loved. As far as he's concerned, being put in the toy museum to be, as he put it "adored by children for generations" is his reward for enduring so much loneliness. He also serves as an excellent foil for Woody; for one his hatred of "space toy" shows what Woody could've become had he allowed his envy of Buzz to get the better of him and they'd never worked out their differences. They also both serve as authority figures for their friends and they both like to decide what is best for them against their will.
It never seems to occur to Pete that Woody is actually offering him the chance to be played with and be loved is he comes back to Andy with him and that he's really just trading one box for another. Nope, he just can't fathom the idea that there are better ways for a toy to be loved or that the trip to Japan might just be worse than he thought.
Bullseye doesn't really speak but acts mostly like a pet dog and communicates through sign language-which provides us with a few good laughs.
Also back are all the old favourites including Mr Potato Head (Don Rickles), Ham (John Ratzenberger), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Slinky (Jim Varney) and Bo Peep (Annie Potts). The first all join Buzz on his mission to rescue Woody from the clutches of Al.
New characters in the film include a Mrs Potato Head (Estelle Harris) with a momlike nature and Wheezy (Joe Raft) a penguin squeeze toy with a broken squeaker who sadly had ended up on the shelf.
I also have to praise Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton as the voice of Buzz Lightyear's arch nemesis Emperor Zurg, appropriately bringing a sense of menace and malevolence wiliest also convey the fact that within the context of the films story he poses no genuine threat to Andy's toys and is not meant to be taken seriously as a villain.
Toy Story 2 is an incredible sequel and an absolute childhood favourite of mine, 5/5.
The Anonymous Critic
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