Review of Toy Story of Terror! (2013) by John R — 31 Oct 2014

The TOY STORY franchise has been mining the material of the first film for a couple decades now, recycling and reappropriating many of the same thematic concerns and dramatic situations, usually brilliantly, but often with a degree of familiarity.

TOY STORY OF TERROR! is no exception, and, while the law of diminishing returns may apply, it's a terrific holiday special and a more than solid entry in the franchise, riffing on horror and suspense movies, turning in several great gags, and providing some nice, clever callbacks to the earlier films to both provide punchlines and create dramatic tension.

It doesn't blaze any particularly new trail, but it doesn't really need to--Pixar's charm and invention more than keep it afloat, even when not everything lands, and, as calculated and commerce-based as it sometimes feels, it's also a lot of fun to see the ever-increasing TOY STORY cast of characters becoming one of the great comic troupes of our time.