Toy Story 2
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 You can't rush art.
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Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American computer-animated comedy film directed by John Lasseter and produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the second installment in the Toy Story franchise and the sequel to Toy Story as Pixar's 3rd feature film. The film held its official premiere the next day at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles—the same venue as Toy Story—and was released across the United States on November 24, 1999. The film's initial theatrical and video releases include Luxo Jr., Pixar's first short film released in 1986, starring Pixar's titular mascot. A sequel, Toy Story 3, was released in June 2010.
Plot
Woody (Tom Hanks) is stolen from his home by toy dealer Al McWhiggin (Wayne Knight), leaving Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and the rest of the gang to try to rescue him. But when Woody discovers that he's actually a valuable collectible from a once-popular television show called "Woody's Roundup" and is reunited with his horse Bullseye, Jessie the yodeling cowgirl (Joan Cusack), and his faithful sidekick, Stinky Pete the Prospector (Kelsey Grammer), he doesn't want to leave.
Why It Deserves Bawk-Bawk-Bucks
- Great animation for 1999 and Pixar standards, which is a slight improvement from the first film. Even the humans looks a bit better.
- This film introduces the five new characters, Jessie, Bullseye, Stinky Pete, Al McWhiggin, and Emperor Zurg. In addition, three characters would later return for sequels.
- Stinky Pete is also an amazing twist-villain as mentioned in WIDBBB#9.
- The original characters are still unforgettable and likable, as always.
- The pacing is great.
- Excellent voice-acting, just like in the first movie, with newcomers introduced Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Estelle Harris, Wayne Knight (see WIR#8), and Jodi Benson.
- Like the first film, the sequel has a great story with good morals. The most impressive part of the film is how it was essentially finished in just under a year and it still managed to be great.
- Jessie's backstory is a really emotional scene and the song "When She Loved Me" really helps to emphasize her feeling of abandonment.
- Al McWhiggin is a surprisingly excellent, entertaining, and well-developed villain: he attempts to become rich by stealing Woody in a cunning way and selling the Roundup Gang to the Tokyo museum in Japan; all while he does his best to make sure that the toys are unharmed at the same time. Not only that, but Wayne Knight does a pretty good job voicing him, making him so expressive and silly to the point of being one of the hammiest villains to come from a Pixar movie.
- Al is like the mixture between a very ambitious if greedy owner who wanted to make his business successful from a perfectionist viewpoint and at the same time, being a goofy, somewhat childish clown who tends to be lively & laughs a lot. This makes him one of the funniest characters in the whole movie.
- He also received comeuppance at the end of the movie for stealing Woody underhandedly, how greedy, slightly rude & cocky he can be, and for his fair share of mistakes. Which can make him a little bit sympathetic.
- Aside from Al, Stinky Pete is arguably one of the best twist villains in cinema history, since he is shown to be nice when he is introduced, but when he convinces Woody to stay, his true side is sightly shown and is displaced fully when Woody decides he wants to go back to Andy, and the reveal of Stinky Pete's true side is considered to be one of the most surprising twists of all time since he had been very kind to Woody and acted like a father figure to him and Jessie, thus making the reveal of Stinky Pete being a jerk very shocking in a good way since he had been left on the shelf in toy stores for a long time after Woody's Roundup got cancelled and had never been played with by a child for his life, it actually makes the twist make sense and feel natural overall.
- In fact, he ends up getting his wish when he's defeated by Woody and the Gang by giving him an owner that can play with him, but ends up with a young girl who plays with Barbie dolls and is obsessed with makeup, something that Stinky Pete wouldn't have wanted, but ends up getting as punishment for his actions, making the outcome hilarious and overall comedy gold.
- Events from the first film are referenced (e.g. when Sid strapped Buzz to a rocket and when Buzz tells Woody that he’s a child’s plaything like when Woody told him that), which keeps the film in proper continuity.
- Some iconic lines, like Buzz's "In just a few hours you'll be sitting around a campfire with Andy making delicious hot schmoes.", The cleaner's "You can't rush art.", Hamm's "Oh, I seriously doubt he's getting this kind of mileage." and Rex's "But I don't wanna use my head!", and the iconic Star Wars reference.
- The humor is thankfully still just as funny as before.
- Like the previous film, Randy Newman's score is still amazing.
- Unlike most sequels, it expands upon the themes of the first movie and even gives backstories to characters from the previous film and even continues from where the first film ended, as characters that were mentioned or heard at the ending of the previous film appear in this movie, and Woody is given a proper backstory, as it's revealed that he is apart of a once popular show called Woody's Round-Up that aired during the 1940's and was a massive hit but got cancelled due to low ratings and Western Culture declining during the 1950's in general, which explains who Woody is in general. This is a great way of giving the series an established lore and expanding it's universe, and it does an amazing job at doing so thanks to great writing and the talented team at Pixar for caring about the quality of the product and kept it faithful to the first film without any drawbacks and also did some new things to distinguish it from it's predecessor so that it doesn't come off as a rehash and they delivered on that statement with an original story that's very fresh and is very unique from other films in the series, and overall makes it a perfect addition to the Pixar catalogue overall.
- It continues the charm of Pixar movies and well as the first movie, given it a more adventurous world.
- The scene where Woody gets fixed is a fan-favorite due to how satisfying it is, to the point that YouTube user Astrox made a video about it.
- It improves many of the flaws from the first film, while still keeping the essence of what made it so good in the first place, and even helped the film be able to allow for more growth for the cast from the previous film or expand upon elements that were minor in the first film, such as Buzz Lightyear being available only in Al's Toy Barn as seen in the commercial, which in fact is expanded upon in this sequel as Al appears in-person and his toy barn is shown to have numerous Buzz Lightyears.
- But most important flaw with the first film that was fixed in this sequel was the creepy designs of the humans, which was fixed in this sequel since they look a lot better and smoother in this sequel and no longer have that silted look to them anymore, making for a great improvement to the animation overall.
- Excellent ending to the film (not to the franchise, that would only happen a decade later) where Andy's toys and Woody's Roundup's toys (except Stinky Pete) were officially head back to Andy's home, just before Andy does.
Bad Qualities
- Major plot hole: In this movie, it was revealed that Woody is a collectible from a 1950s TV Show, Woody’s Roundup, and has clearly been around much longer than Andy has. Later on, in the next film, Toy Story 3, when Andy gives his toys to Bonnie, it's established that Woody will never forget Andy, even after being given to his new owner. Then, later on in Toy Story 4, it’s also established that he will never forget Bonnie either, even after choosing to stay with Bo Peep at the carnival. He will also never forget any of his friends, which are Andy and Bonnie’s other toys, and many other toys he befriended along the way, such as Ken and Gabby Gabby. So why does Woody not seem to remember any of his owners and old friends who were toys prior to Andy and his toys, and why doesn’t he realize what time period he came from?
- The scene where Woody has a nightmare where he gets dropped by Andy in a trash can and handled in by a swarm of toy arms while Andy closes the lid (although really not the worst scene) is somewhat disturbing and creepy for its target audience.
- In one blatant act of trying to pander to PC culture, one fake blooper outtake reel from mid-credits (Stinky Pete talking to two Barbie dolls for a role in Toy Story 3) has been removed by Disney since 2019 home media reissue due to the John Lasseter allegations that led to his resignation for the #MeToo movement, which actually caused a lot of controversy.[1][2]
Reception
Box office
The film was no less successful than its predecessor from a commercial perspective. It became 1999's highest-grossing animated film, earning $245.9 million domestically and $497.4 million worldwide—beating both Pixar's previous releases by a significant margin.
Critical response
Despite production struggles, Toy Story 2 opened on November 24, 1999, to wildly successful box office numbers, eventually grossing over $497 million, and received critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie holds a rare 100% rating based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The critical consensus reads, "The rare sequel that arguably improves on its predecessor, Toy Story 2 uses inventive storytelling, gorgeous animation, and a talented cast to deliver another rich moviegoing experience for all ages." On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average, the movie has a score of 88 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim." Toy Story 2 has been considered by critics as one of the few sequel films to be superior to the original, and it continues to be featured frequently on lists of the greatest animated films ever made. On Roger Ebert & The Movies, Roger Ebert and guest critic Joel Siegel of Good Morning America gave Toy Story 2 a “two thumbs up”.
Awards and nominations
The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song When She Loved Me. It did manage to win six Annie Awards, a Golden Globe Award for Best Picture – Musical or Comedy and a Grammy Award.
Videos
Trivia
- The reason why this film took only a year to complete was because the film's release date couldn't be changed, forcing Pixar to rush the film.
- This was the only CGI animated film released in 1999.
- It spawned lots of memes, like "X, X Everywhere" and "You can't rush art."
- Toy Story is the first Pixar film to become a franchise, followed by Cars, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo and The Incredibles.
- Out of them, Toy Story is the only one not to feature a switch role between its main characters on any of its sequels/prequels.
- Due to its release in 1999, Toy Story 2 was the only Pixar sequel to be made before Disney brought the company on January 24, 2006.
- The cleaner's character model is based on Geri in the short film Geri's Game. There are some differences between the two appearances. In Geri's Game, Geri's eye color is brown; in Toy Story 2, the cleaner's eyes are blue. The shape and size of their glasses are different as well. In addition, Jonathan Harris voices the cleaner while Bob Peterson voices Geri (albeit without any dialogue).
- This is the last Pixar film to be made in the Point Richmond office before moving to Emeryville in 2000.
- This is the only Pixar film where the theatrical version (with outtakes at the end credits) doesn't have a music closing logo, but the original 1999 theatrical release (with no outtakes in the end credits) has a music closing logo.
- This is the only Toy Story film to not win an Academy Award.
- This is the last Pixar feature film to be released in the 20th century as well as being the last Pixar film released in the 1990s.
References
External links
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