Second Look - Toy Story 2

Note: This review contains spoilers for Toy Story 1 and 2.

Following the success of the original Toy Story film, Disney desired to capitalize on it with a sequel, developing one themselves for the direct-to-video market. When the project, Toy Story 2, was upgraded to a theatrical release, Pixar were unsatisfied with what had been made and were given permission to overhaul it themselves, but they only had nine months to do the whole thing due to Disney not wanting to budge on the 1999 release date. While I was too young to see the original Toy Story when it first came out in a theater, I was old enough to see Toy Story 2 this way, and many of its themes and contributions to Toy Story canon stuck with me well into adulthood. Looking back on it, where the original Toy Story has held up as a timeless classic, Toy Story 2 has managed to solidify itself as another classic in its own right thanks to its strong writing and well-handled themes.

When Andy (John Morris) is about to leave for Cowboy Camp, he accidentally tears Woody’s (Tom Hanks) arm during a last-minute play session and begrudgingly leaves him behind. As Woody deals with being put on a shelf and being possibly forgotten while Andy is gone, Andy’s mom (Laurie Metcalf) puts Wheezy (Joe Ranft), a shelved toy penguin with a broken squeaker, up for sale at a yard sale the next day. While rescuing Wheezy, Woody ends up the midst of the sale, where a toy collector named Al (Wayne Knight) steals him, prompting Buzz (Tim Allen) to form a rescue mission of his own.

Arguably, the original film didn’t really need a sequel, but Toy Story 2 manages to find a way by centering the narrative around the question of a toy’s playability vs collectability. Although it explores both arguments, it ultimately favors the former, that a toy’s ultimate purpose is to be played with rather than simply displayed in a box. Speaking as an adult toy collector with a fixation on transforming robot toys, while I do have a handful of items still in the package for one reason or another, I have always believed that toys are meant to be played with (partly because of this movie) and have even gone out of my way to collect a handful of older sealed toys with the express purpose of being the one to open them. Purely from a collector’s standpoint, however, I will say that I thought Al’s well-kept collection of Woody’s Roundup memorabilia was actually pretty impressive, but I found it physically painful to watch him handle Woody in one scene with fingers covered in cheese dust.

Impressive collection.

 

War crime.

From a storytelling perspective, the film takes what worked best about the first one and runs with them. While Al fills a similar role to Sid in that he is an antagonistic human force from the perspective of the toys (to be fair, stealing is a crime in itself), Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) is not only the true main antagonist, but is a great example of a twist villain done right; shocking at first, but makes perfect sense on a rewatch. The introduction of Woody’s Roundup feels organic, revealing Woody to not have just been a one-off toy but part of a cultural phenomenon preceding the space age and Buzz Lightyear, all of which Woody learns about it at the same time the audience does. With what little we see of the Woody’s Roundup series, the attention to detail in the puppetry and the age of the recording also makes it feel like it could have been an actual series. The storytelling is already emotional on its own, but what really adds to it is Jesse’s (Joan Cusack) heartbreaking backstory that contributes to her character arc and turns Woody’s arc on its head. There are also a good number of callbacks to certain moments in the original Toy Story, often with a different context or putting a different spin on them (such as the famous “You are a toy” line) so they don’t feel like a lazy rehash.

All that aside, there a few other things I felt worth mentioning. One of these is the noticeable on-screen presence of more big brand toys, specifically Barbie and Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, but their inclusion feels organic due to being seen within the confines of a toy store. Where the first film mentioned Al’s Toy Barn outlets in the Buzz Lightyear commercial, implying a chain, the local ad in the second makes it seem like it’s a singular location, but this could be explained by the store seen in Toy Story 2 being the flagship since it’s where the namesake Al is seen working. I will also mention a minor quibble with the animation that I noticed on subsequent viewings is that, when it looks like a pipe is going to run over Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles) while crossing the street, he somehow teleports form being in the center of the pipe’s path to being closer to the edge of it, allowing him to safely escape from harm’s way.

Clearly in danger.

Not so much.

I also want to give special mention to the opening Buzz Lightyear sequence, which, aside from being a better Buzz Lightyear movie in under 5 minutes than Lightyear was in 105, showcased a video game I had always wanted to play since I was a kid. In the years since, however, this sequence would inspire a level in Disney’s Extreme Skate Adventure, as well as a level in the Toy Story 3 video game adaptation.

A better Buzz Lightyear sell than Lightyear.

The animation is a step up from the first film, showing how quickly the technology had advanced in only 4 years and also allowing it to hold up better than its predecessor. With the increased level of detail, the human characters are also a lot easier to look at, even if it’s still a ways off from what The Incredibles was able to accomplish. Much like Pizza Planet before it, Al’s Toy Barn not only looks like a place I would have wanted to go when I was younger, it also managed to accurately capture the feeling of walking through a pre-bankruptcy Toys “R” Us.

As with the original, the film also features some well-done voice casting, with returning voice actors sounding more comfortable in their roles. Among the new talent, Kelsey Grammer really shows off his acting skills as Stinky Pete, as does Joan Cusack as Jessie. Toy Story 2 co-writer and future Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton delivers an iconic performance as Evil Emperor Zurg, who very quickly became one of my all-time favorite characters from the Toy Story Cinematic Universe.

Zurg (Andrew Stanton) makes a lasting first impression.

Toy Story 2 takes everything about the already-great original and manages to improve upon them immensely, resulting in an emotional and thought-provoking film that has very much stood the test of time. It is, however, highly recommended to start from the original Toy Story, as that film provides the necessary context for character relations and development.