Pixar’s animation is the rare sequel that’s actually better than the original

While they remain one of the most celebrated animation studios for a wide range of projects, the Toy Story the franchise remains one of Pixar’s most iconic, and Toy Story 2 is one of the main reasons. The 1999 sequel served as the studio’s third feature film project after debuting with the three-Oscar-nominated 1995 original and the 1998 film. A bug’s lifeone of Pixar’s most underrated efforts. It wouldn’t be the end of the franchise either, as two more sequels were released and a Toy Story 5 is currently in production.

Toy Story 2 picked up some time after the events of its predecessor, with Woody and Buzz now living harmoniously as co-leaders of Andy’s toys. When Andy inadvertently tears off Woody’s arm and leaves him behind to go to cowboy camp, the toy cowboy tries to rescue one of the boy’s forgotten toys from a garage sale, only to be taken by a toy store owner who wants to sell it. him the cowgirl Jessie and elderly gold digger doll Stinky Pete for a high price. Buzz sets out with the other toys to rescue Woody and bring him home before Andy returns from camp.

Toy Story 2’s story has some heavy themes

Existential reflections on relevance and purpose are surprisingly effective

While Pixar may be well known now for including many emotional moments in its films, Toy Story 2 remains an interesting experiment in the studio’s history to see how much they could get away with in a children’s film. The first film certainly sparked some interesting discussion about the nature of toys, but the creative group of Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin, Chris Webb, John Lasseter, Pete Docter, and Ash Brannon really took things to a new level with the sequel. .

The greatest evidence of this is the exploration of when a toy is no longer considered worthy of being played with by its owners. Wheezy’s reflection on being archived is an interesting retrospective for older viewers on the toys they didn’t treat very delicately, while Jessie’s origin story is a poignant reminder of the toys we left behind. Woody’s dream of being thrown in the trash by Andy and being coldly fired is also still something of an existential nightmare to watch, thanks in no small part to the chilling images of damaged and destroyed toys pulling him down.

Kelsey Grammer’s Stinky Pete, however, is the definitive example of the film’s deeper exploration of relevance and purpose. To younger viewers, his reasons seem simple enough about wanting to keep Woody with the group to be popular, but as an adult, it’s deeply painful to hear him angrily reflect on watching countless other toys purchased while he remained on the shelf. It’s a revelation that offers another layer to the character, portraying him as a sympathetic villain, especially considering he never received the same love from a child as Woody and Jessie and therefore wouldn’t believe what they shared.

The animation still rivals many modern films

A four-year gap has led to some truly groundbreaking visuals

One of the other most impressive elements Toy Story 2 it’s how well the animation still holds up after 25 years. The original Toy Story It was notably the first entirely computer-animated film to be produced, and as impressive as it may seem for 1995, there are certainly some elements that don’t hold up in the same vein today. Much of what happens with Sid and Sid’s dog in the original, as fun as they are, feels a little stiff in its overall animations and lighting compared to the rest of the film.

With Toy Story 2the studio faced an interesting challenge in going through several behind-the-scenes changes and turmoil and yet somehow released a film that looked and played better than the original. Its character models don’t look so smooth that they look blatantly artificial, their movements look quite natural, and there’s even a sense of cinematic style infused into many of its sequences. Aside from Woody’s aforementioned nightmare, the film’s opening sequence of Buzz in action is not only a charming ode to some of science fiction’s most iconic titles, including Star Warsbut also a visually stunning mini-movie.

The film’s humor is charming and effective enough to forgive some mistakes

There are occasional gaps in the logic

Another major curse that most sequels fall victim to – which Toy Story 2 avoids it very well – it’s failing to capture the level of hilarity of its predecessor. The concept of living toys with their own emotions and motivations is new, but it can only take a film so far beyond its self-awareness and blockbuster jokes. Even with so many good jokes in the original, there are still plenty of great jokes throughout the sequel. Whether Buzz and Zurg turn their Darth Vader-Luke Skywalker moment into father-son bonding or subtly adult jokes, the team delivers laughs for all ages.

That’s not to say this film is perfect from start to finish. Toy Story 2The biggest problems are the various gaps in the story’s logic and the inconsistencies in the toy representations. The fact that Woody was kidnapped by Al, who also broke into Andy’s mother’s safe at the garage sale, should have been much more of a red flag for her when the doll reappeared.

Also, the fact that neither Jessie nor Woody saw who left the TV remote in front of the former while the latter tried to retrieve his arm from a sleeping Al is a little too convenient for setting up the reveal of the villainous Stinky Pete.

To be fair, I know some of this stuff can be dismissed since the film is for kids and so I can cut it some slack. The humor as a whole is still charming, the narrative thought-provoking and the voice cast fantastic, especially franchise newcomer Joan Cusack as Jessie. The film overcomes some logical gaps in the narrative to remain a rare sequel that manages to be better than the original 25 years later.

Toy Story 2 is available to stream on Disney+.