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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 70.49%
Worth A Look: 19.13%
Average: 7.65%
Pretty Bad: 1.09%
Total Crap: 1.64%
11 reviews, 117 user ratings
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| Toy Story 2 |
by PyThomas
"One of those rare better-than-the-original sequels."
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I don't think the folks who frequent eBay are gonna like this film.I'm talking about the rabid toy collectors who take to buying action figures and keep them boxed and sealed in the hopes of it increasing in value. The ones who get furious at stores like Target who puncture Star Wars action figure containers to deliberately knock down its value to collectors, putting children first.
The ones that pure greed has blinded them to the fact that toys were never meant to be a hot commodity; they were to be PLAYED WITH. I may still have my Lego sets and Transformers in storage, but not to sell or display with a "DO NOT TOUCH" sign. (Though I might see what's valuable if I'm desperate for money.) I'm keeping them for my future kids to play with. But I digress.
The main evil character in Toy Story 2 is a creepily accurate stereotype of the greedy toy collector type: Al (voiced by Wayne "Seinfeld" Knight), of Al'z Toy Barn, full of collectible toys (and no children allowed). He enters the picture when he happens across a yard sale put on by Andy's parents. Ya see, Andy, owner of our familiar Toy Story characters, is going away to camp, and his folks have raided his room for stuff to put in their yard sale in his absence.
This sends the toys into a panic, especially when one of them, Wheezy the squeaky penguin toy, is snatched up to be sold. Woody (vocalized by Tom Hanks) mounts a rescue mission into the yard sale, but mistakenly ends up in Al's greedy hands. All of a sudden, he's whisked away to Al's penthouse office, to be restored and sold to a collector in Japan as part of a complete "Woody's Roundup" package.
"Restored? Roundup?" I'm sure you're asking. Well, it turns out that Woody is a 40-ish-year-old collectible toy from his heyday as star of a 50's puppet show (a la Howdy Doody). And he meets his original cohorts in Al's office: Jessie the Cowgirl (voice courtesy of Joan Cusack), Pete the Prospector (voix de Kelsey Grammer), and his faithful steed Bullseye. And once Woody realizes how much of a star he was and how important he is to them, he becomes reluctant to go back to the familiar comfort of Andy's room, where his old pals have mounted a rescue effort of their own... among them former rival Buzz Lightyear, Mr. Potato Head and Slinky Dog (the vocal cords of Tim Allen, Don Rickles and Jim "Ernest Goes Straight To Video" Varney, respectively).
All the toys from the original Toy Story return for the second go-round (minus Sid and his mutant toy creations). And there's new faces in the bunch, too, including a slew of Barbie dolls. There's bunches of funny jokes and in-jokes too.
But what really elevates Toy Story 2 far above the original is the clever implication of life-and-death concerns - the toys here now ponder midlife crises, their futures after the kids that own them grow up, and their own basic "life cycle" - one that may put them in various forms of toy hell, like dark storage, the landfill, or behind glass for eternity, only intended to be seen and not touched. Real deep stuff, especially for toys. And the folks at Pixar pull it off beautifully.This is definitely a must-see for any kid or grown-up with a vivid imagination, who used that imagination in toy play.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=1337&reviewer=9
originally posted: 12/01/99 16:04:04
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USA
24-Nov-1999 (G)
DVD: 23-Mar-2010
UK
N/A
Australia
09-Dec-1999 (G)
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