Review of Toy Story 2 (1999) by Andres M — 22 Jul 2015

Warning Spoilers.

Pixar breaks ground once again. Toy Story 2 is their first foray into sequel territory that manages to be a much as a landmark as the original masterpiece. From the breathtaking opening sequence to the credits, TS2, rather than rehash the original in a cheaper, more generic form, continues off where the first film starts and creates a new story with lovable characters that you come to care about. Lets talk about each category, but first the history:

In 1995, after Toy Story broke ground, and generating $361 million at the box office, the Oscar-winning geniuses of Pixar starts developing their next masterpiece A Bug's life, which would go on to be just as successful with $365 million. At the same time pixar were in the talks of making a sequel. They started to make a deal with new Disney chairman Joe Roth, responsible for releasing out straight-to-video "cheap-quels" to Disney's classics, and they decided to consider making a sequel to it, and even considered making it hand-drawn at Walt Disney Feature Animation, and confirmed to have Pixar make a direct to video sequel to the film, which started production in 1996. A few months later on November of 1997, Disney was impressed by a script written by Doug Chamberlin and Chris Webb, though in reality its actually horrible, they decided to bump it up with a theatrical release in thanksgiving 1999. In late 1998, after releasing their next film with Andrew Stanton, another Pixar master, Lasseter went to see the nearly finished version, you'll never see. Without surprise, he was ultimately disappointed, but furthermore, horrified. Because of this, John Lasseter asked Michael Eisner to delay production, push the date to either May or June of 2000, in order to remake the film. However, Eisner was wanted the film to be released as soon as possible, so he refused to push the date. Due to this, Pixar must delete the original sequel completely, including all animation in it, and re-complete the film by scratch in only 9 months, a process that usually take 2-4 years. So Lasseter became director and his team must recreate in such short time, which includes creating the story in just a phenomenal 2 days, with screenwriter Andrew Stanton rewriting the story with a masterfully crafted script in under a week, a process that takes months. However, they still managed to make it to thanksgiving, releasing it with universal acclaim and massive box office numbers. Lets start taking about the film:

Premise/Setting:

The premise has all the creativity and imagination of the original. Not only that, the film, instead of recycling settings, they add in or create a whole new world for our heroes to discover. While the first film mostly stayed or settled to few places and rooms, Pixar created new places, and recreate them with brilliant amount of detail, and effort, such as creating a city, and took small parts and make them big and dangerous under the perspective of a toy, whether they are crossing a street, or climbing a skyscraper. Simply, they created a much bigger world out of the one we knew. 10/10.

Story/Script:

What makes Toy Story 2 so timeless is the ability to tell, at worst, just as good of a story as Toy Story 1. Like the first two pixar films, the story is very simple. When Andy goes to summer camp, a greedy toy collector steals Woody because it turns out, he is a rare collectable toy based on a famous character from a tv show, so Buzz and the gang, must explore new locations, and rescue Woody before Andy comes home. Along the way Woody meets a bunch of new toys, where he discovers that he is a cultural icon, based on a famous tv show. A simple plot is usually a bad thing, especially when you are making a sequel. But unlike any other studio, pixar used it to their advantage. Because of this, it would give them more capabilities on creativity and effort. It also delivers a powerful message that toys won't last forever, and that people outgrown toys, which means at one point, the gang won't be played by Andy no longer; sooner or latter. What makes the story special is the ability to blend simplicity with sophistication. For example, many animated films would have a very childish tone, or juvenile script because it was made for kids. Here, like the last two pixar films, even though they were made to appeal to children as much as adults, their films are made and treated as if they were adult films, with adult references, sharp/dry wit, sophisticated humor and characterization, and a grown-up tone to the story. Simply, Pixar films are grown-up films that appeal to kids. They somehow managed to appeal well with kids, while have a script and story that contains the complexity and sophistication of an adult film, something that Pixar has been praised for, for years. 10/10.

Characters/Casting.

Out of all the parts of the films that makes them revolutionary masterpieces, the one thing that makes the films lovable and extremely memorable are the characters. Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and all your favorite characters are back. The original cast returns, such as Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, John Ratzenberger, and Annie Potts as Woody, Buzz, Rex, Mr. Potato Head, Ham, and Slinky Dog, and Bo Peep and new characters such as Joan Cusack as Jessie, Kelsey Grammer as Stinky Pete, Woody's horse Bullseye, Wayne Knights as Al McWhiggin, Estelle Harris as Ms.Potato head, and Pixar member Andrew Stanton himself as the Evil Emperor Zurg. All the characters, even though voiced by big-name actors, sound distinctive, and natural, like the characters are actually talking, rather than sounding like celebrities just recording their lines, like what many movies would do. The film does a great job introducing the new characters, giving them their own story and with their communication with the original characters. Another thing is the instead of being flanderized, a problem faced in many films, the old characters have evolved, and became more complex, and are just as sophisticated as always. One the the most distinctive elements was the emotional punch of the characters. This is something that makes the world and setup real and human no matter how wild or fantasized the world or film is. In fact, inside the plastic textures of the toys unveil more humanity and heart than what many live-action actors can do. 10/10.

Animation:

One of the vast improvements of the second from the first film is the quality. With vast advancements in Pixar's groundbreaking software PhotoRealistic RenderMan, the animators have brought us spectacular animation, with amazing levels of realism that not only was just as revolutionary as the first film for its time, but still looks visually amazing as of today, as it aged brilliantly with time. There are major improvement first with the characters. The toys' textures and detail from the plastic to cloth to metal has looked more realistic life to them, with more real-life facial and body movement. Andy's dog Buster is an improvement from Sid's dog Scud, with improved character modeling to resemble more like a real dog and more realistic fur. The human characters have also improved vastly also, with more realistic character modeling and textures. The background animation is practically the highlight of the animation improvement. Where trees, grass, wood, and cement, were flat and looked like untextured plastics, they now look real, from the scratches of the road and cement, the bark of the wood and the trees, the now-individually animated blades of grass to even the glossy reflections of the leaves and its stems. The lighting and shadowing has also improved, and overall, everything has vastly improved from plastic-looking to all looking realistic, creating a much more organic, natural world. 10/10.

Overall, Toy Story 2 is another revolutionary Pixar masterpiece that everyone will enjoy from young to old, and rare sequel that would not only meets or exceeds the original, but continues Pixar's goal of setting new bars and standards in cinema, just like their films that came after and before it.