The first was pretty damn amazing, and also a very good film ... the second is, if anything, even better.
Toy Story, the product of a combination made in heaven between Mr Disney and Mr Pixar, was soon followed up by an excellent sequel. In reality you just got more of the same (plus the introduction of Jessie the Cow Girl, Stinky Pete the Prospector and a faithful cowboy horse, plus of course the delightful Mrs Potato Head keeping her grumpy old spouse under check), but the first episode was just so bloody wonderful that there was always enough scope for a strong sequel, and we certainly got it because Toy Story 2 was quite definitely a great bit of work.
Surprisingly, the makers originally saw the film as something which would go straight to video, but in the end they saw sense and went for the big screen anyway.
The story is slight, the characterisation fairly bland, but as a whole it's just excellent, to be recommended.
The big plus point
is the bad guy of the piece, with The Simpsons' Comic Store Guy replaced by Fat Al of Al's Toy Barn, with his comb over Bobbie Charlton, fat belly and oh so realistic scummy goatee beard. He's certainly a thoroughly bad egg and so realistic you could imagine him with egg on his tie after his dinner. As it is you get him dropping off with a big bowl of cheese puffs and unerringly accurate depiction of orange stained fingers (don't you just hate it when that happens - Wotsits are the worst and I can't abide them cos of that nasty little trait).
Okay, basic storyline ...
It's a while after the first piece and we seem to have sorted out the battle to be Top Dog between Buzz and Woody, although Woody has a nasty looking rip in his floppy arm ... perhaps the wound arising from a duel between the two of them to win Little Andy's favours.
Andy's Mum is having a yard sale (car boot to we mortal chaps and chap-esses) and decided to chuck out Wheezy, an asthmatic squeaky penguin (you can even see the squeak in his throat when he opens his mouth), as a 25 cent bargain and it's selfless one armed Woody to the rescue, helped out by the family's fun loving dog. Unfortunately while he's rescuing the asthmatic one, he accidentally gets dropped and comes to the attentions of Fat Al, who knows a valuable toy when he sees one, especially one with a genuine poly vinyl hat and offers Mom up to to 50 dollars for Woody.
When she refuses, the Rotund One pinches him anyway, sparking off another long distance rescue attempt, this time led by Woody.
During the rescue, they come across a whole room packed with Buzzes in Al's Toy Barn, and a naive replica attempts to imprison our intrepid hero. Needless to say he gets mistakenly adopted by the toys as their leader, while the arch enemy Zurg also gets freed to wreak havoc with his ping pong ball gun on his sworn enemy, but to little avail in a straight spoof of the Darth-Luke scene in Star Wars.
The story isn't that important, although it is satisfying enough, Toy Story 2 is just about gloriously realistic animation and a bizarre kids' world where toys come to life and manipulate their human hosts. As a whole it's wonderful stuff from start to finish and well worth 90 minutes of anyone's life. It took me ages to see this film, but I was wonderfully enthralled when I did, starting off by being persuaded by the dave27-ettes to watch it and then carrying on viewing when they hopped it out of the inevitable boredom.
The new characters are good, especially the nasty piece of work known as Stinky Pete, while the spoof out takes at the end of the film are great value...
Voices - Tom Hanks (Woody); Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear); Don Rickles (Mr. Potato Head); Jim Varney (Slinky Dog); Wallace Shawn (Rex the Dinosaur); John Ratzenberger (Hamm the Piggy Bank); Annie Potts (Bo Peep); Kelsey Grammar (Stinkly Pete the Prospector); R. Lee Ermey (Sarge); David Ogden Stiers; Joan Cusack (Jessie); Wayne Knight (Big Al); Estelle Harris (Mrs. Potato Head); Joe Ranft (Wheesy); Ken Michroney (Emperor Zurg); Jodi Benson (Barbie).
Production - John Lassiter (Director); Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich (Co-directors); Pete Docter, John Lasseter, Joe Ranft, Andrew Stanton (Story); Joel Cohen, Ken Michroney, Jeff Pidgeon, Alex Sokolow, Andrew Stanton, Joss Whedon (Screenwriters); Karen Robert Jackson, Helene Plotkin (Producers); John Lasseter, Steve Jobs (Executive Producers); Randy Newman (Songs, Musical Score)
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