Toy Story 2 (1999)

Genre

Adventure | Animation | Comedy

Directors

John Lasseter | Ash Brannon | Lee Unkrich

Country

USA

Voice Cast

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, Estelle Harris, Wayne Knight, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey, Jodi Benson, Jonathan Harris, Joe Ranft, Jeff Pidgeon, Andrew Stanton

Storyline

While Andy (John Morris) is away at summer camp, Woody (Tom Hanks) is accidentally placed in a yard sale and eventually toynapped by Al McWhiggin (Wayne Knight), a greedy collector. It's up to Buzz (Tim Allen) and his friends to save Woody.

Opinion

Four years after "Toy Story" and one year after "A Bug's Life", the only other Disney-Pixar production in between, John Lasseter brought to us "Toy Story 2", this funny, exciting, spectacular sequel that has nothing to envy to its predecessor.

Keeping similar themes to "Toy Story", the film delivers a strong plot, and even though it is similar to the original and has been done in other films before it, it still flows incredibly well. It doesn't have a lot of laughing out loud moments, but it definitely has many good lines and so many references that I absolutely loved - including the original film and "The Empire Strikes Back".

Once again what makes the film so interesting are the characters. There are all the charming, likable characters from the first film - including those cute, little green martians - and some wonderful new characters that includes Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl, Woody's faithful steed, Bullseye, the Barbies, and Mrs. Potato. And once again the voice cast does a wonderful job. 

The film is also interesting because of the fascinating conflict it creates for the main character, Woody. He is forced to make a difficult decision: either he goes back to Andy with Buzz and the other toys, even though he knows that one day Andy will be a grown up and won't play with toys anymore, or he goes with the new toys in a museum where they'll be admired by children all over the world.

This is not the only theme that is going to satisfy grown-ups though. The film also addresses the theme of loneliness and abandonment and how they affect people - well, toys in this case. 

At last the animation. You will immediately notice the step forward digital animation has made since the first film only four years earlier. And there is a greater attention to detail, if that's even possible - the reflection of Buzz's eyes on his visor, Andy's new dog, and especially things like dust and shadows.