Toy Story 2 is a 1999 CGI family film, the third Disney/Pixar feature film, and the sequel to Toy Story, which features the adventures of a group of toys that come to life when humans are not around to see them. Like the first film, Toy Story 2 was produced by Pixar Animation Studios, Directed by John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich and Ash Brannon, and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in the United States on November 19, 1999, in some parts of Australia on December 2, 1999 and the United Kingdom on 11 February 2000. Toy Story 2 was re-released in a double feature with Toy Story in Disney Digital 3-D on October 2, 2009, and Toy Story 3 is scheduled for release on June 18, 2010.
The movie keeps most of the original characters and voices from the first movie, including Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, John Ratzenberger, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf. They are joined by new characters voiced by Jodi Benson, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Estelle Harris, and Wayne Knight.
Plot
Toy Story 2 opens with an action scene with Buzz flying through space and landing on an alien planet. Buzz is attacked by robots, but defeats them all easily, and then drops to an underground lair. He continues through a dark passageway, when the lights turn on and spikes pop out of the wall behind him as it moves to close him in. Buzz narrowly avoids it, and finds himself in a room where he encounters Emperor Zurg, his arch-nemisis. After a short face-off, Zurg destroys Buzz and the words game over appear, revealing that it was just a video game that Rex was playing.
When the real story starts, Woody prepares to go to summer camp with Andy (now 8 years old) for the weekend, but Andy accidentally rips Woody's arm while playing with his toys before leaving, effectively paralyzing it and forcing Andy to place Woody on a shelf and stay behind. There he discovers that Andy's mother is having a yard sale, where she takes a fellow shelved toy, Wheezy, an old rubber penguin with a broken squeaker, to be sold. Woody sneaks down to the yard sale with the help of Andy's pet dog Buster and saves Wheezy, but is accidentally left outside and found by an enthusiastic toy collector, who ends up stealing him when Andy's mother refuses to sell him. Buzz chases after the collector's car as he drives away, but quickly loses him. Back at Andy's room, Buzz and the other toys determine that the thief is Al McWhiggin, owner of Al's Toy Barn whom Hamm despises and the man who wears a chicken suit in a commercial. Buzz recruits Slinky Dog, Mr. Potato Head, Rex and Hamm to help him save Woody.
In Al's apartment, Woody discovers that he is a valuable collectible based on Woody's Roundup, a popular children's TV show from the 1950s, and meets three other toys from the franchise: Jessie, his yodeling cowgirl sidekick; Bullseye, his trusted horse companion; and Stinky Pete the Prospector, who is in mint condition inside his unopened box. With Woody's inclusion and his collection complete, Al plans to sell his Woody's Roundup merchandise to a toy museum in Tokyo, Japan. The three other toys are excited about the trip, but Woody, still being Andy's toy, wishes to return home, though putting himself at odds with Jessie, who fears going back to storage, gets mad with Woody and think Andy is importance to him. Shortly afterward, Woody completely loses his arm. That night Woody attempts to steal back his arm from Al, but in the midst of this, the TV suddenly turns on, waking Al. Woody accuses Jessie of turning on the TV with the remote because the remote is near her. Woody's arm is then fixed by a repairman, and he makes plans to escape and return to Andy once again. Stinky Pete asks Woody to talk to Jessie, who reveals that she too was once owned by a child named Emily until she was forgotten and given away as her owner grew up. When Woody opens the vent to leave, Stinky Pete convinces Woody that being a toy of an owner is temporary knowing that Andy will mature and never be played with again, whilst being a prized display piece is eternal, Woody decides to stay.
Meanwhile, Buzz and the other toys make it into Al's Toy Barn. Shortly after splitting up with the other toys, Buzz encounters a newer Buzz Lightyear action figure (Buzz #2) who wears a limited edition belt and, like the original Buzz from the first film, believes himself to be a real space ranger. The two Buzzes fight, but Buzz #2 overpowers Buzz and ends up being mistakenly taken by the others in their search for Woody. Buzz chases after the team, inadvertently letting loose an action figure of Emperor Zurg, who also doesn't know he is a toy, and sets out to destroy Buzz. Buzz #2 and the gang make it to the apartment and Buzz #2 opens a vent that leads them towards Al's apartment. The toys then take the elevator up to Al's apartment. They break into the room and Buzz arrives. They try to convince Woody to leave but Woody refuses and the gang angrily leaves. When Woody contemplates that even though Andy will grow up, it is still an worthy opportunity to be loved by a kid for a short time nonetheless rather than being an unplayed with in a museum; so he decides to leave, to Stinky Pete's horror. Woody convinces Jessie and Bullseye to come with him, but Stinky Pete gets out of his box and locks the vent. Woody also realises that Stinky Pete turned on the TV during the night (and he framed Jessie) in order to prevent Woody from stealing his arm and escaping.
As Al packs up Woody with the rest of the merchandise and drives off to the airport to ship them, Buzz and the rest of the toys attempt to get out of the building, but run into Zurg, who attacks the group. Buzz and Zurg fight on the elevator, but Zurg manages to win, and claims that he is Buzz 's father, parodying the same scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. Rex, unable to look, turns away, and accidentally knocks Zurg off the elevator with his tail. Buzz and the team carjack a Pizza Planet delivery truck while Buzz remains behind to keep Zurg occupied. In the baggage-handling area of the airport, Stinky Pete faces off against Buzz and Woody, but is distracted by the other toys and defeated, then stuffed away in a little girl's backpack to be taken home to be played with.
Jessie ends up being boarded on the airplane for Japan, but Woody, Buzz, and Bullseye manage to save her just before the plane lifts off. The toys return home just before Andy comes back from camp and await his return. Andy takes in Jessie and Bullseye as his new toys and fixes Woody's arm, with extra stuffing and Wheezy's squeaker the following morning. Buzz shows a crush on Jessie, and is very amazed when she pulls off a stunt like him for opening the door in order to help Andy's dog Buster. After Hamm is playing the same video game played by Rex in the beginning, he watches the TV and sees another Al's Toy Barn commercial, only now Al is crying over the loss of the most important pieces of his collection. As the new toys become accustomed to their new owner, Woody and Buzz both accept the fact that Andy will grow up, and they agree to still be in each other's company while Wheezy sings "You Got A Friend in Me".
Voice cast
* Tom Hanks as Woody
* Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear
* Joan Cusack as Jessie
* Kelsey Grammer as Stinky Pete
* Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
* Jim Varney as Slinky Dog * Wallace Shawn as Rex
* John Ratzenberger as Hamm
* Annie Potts as Bo Peep
* Wayne Knight as Al McWhiggin
* John Morris as Andy
* Laurie Metcalf as Andy's Mom
* Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head
* R. Lee Ermey as Sarge
* Jodi Benson as Barbie
* Jonathan Harris as Geri
* Joe Ranft as Wheezy
* Andrew Stanton as Emperor Zurg
* Jeff Pidgeon as Squeeze Toy Aliens
* Andi Peters as Luggage Handler and Male Baggage handler 2
Production
Toy Story 2 was not originally intended for release in theaters. Disney asked Pixar to make a direct-to-video sequel for the original Toy Story with a 60 minute running time. When Disney executives saw how impressive the in-work imagery for the sequel was, they decided to create a theatrical movie, and the plot was reworked to be more epic and cinematic in scope and the duration of the movie was extended to just over 90 minutes. Some animators got repetitive stress injuries rushing to complete the film, which taught the Pixar managers to arrange breaks between each project from then on.
Pixar and Disney had a five-film co-production deal and Pixar felt that with its change in status, Toy Story 2 should count as one of the pictures in the deal. Disney felt that since the production of Toy Story 2 was negotiated outside of the five-picture deal, it should not count. This issue became a particularly sore spot for Pixar, leading to a falling out between Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Michael Eisner, concluding in Pixar's 2004 announcement that it would not extend its deal with Disney and would instead seek other distribution partners. However, with Eisner's departure and Pixar's ultimate purchase by Disney by 2006, as well as Jobs now holding a seat within Disney's board of directors, these problems have been overcome.
Music
Randy Newman wrote two new songs for Toy Story 2 as well as the complete original score:
* "When She Loved Me" - performed by Sarah McLachlan: Used for the flashback montage in which Jessie experiences being loved, forgotten, and ultimately abandoned by her owner, Emily. This song was nominated at the Oscars in 2000 for Best Song, though the award went to Phil Collins for "You'll Be in My Heart" from another Disney animated film Tarzan.
* "Woody's Roundup" - performed by Riders in the Sky: Theme song for the "Woody's Roundup" TV show. Also end-credit music.
The film also includes two new versions of "You've Got a Friend in Me," the theme from the first film. The first is performed by the puppet Woody (Tom Hanks) "on guitar" as part of the "Woody's Roundup" show. The second is a Vegas-style finale production number sung by Wheezy (singing voice provided by Robert Goulet).
Box office performance
Toy Story 2 opened over the Thanksgiving Day weekend at #1 to a three-day tally of $57,388,839 from 3,236 theaters averaging $17,734 per theater over three days, making $80,102,784 since its Wednesday launch, and staying at #1 for the next two weekends. It eventually made $245,852,179 domestically and $239,163,000 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $485,015,179, becoming the third highest grossing film of 1999, and far surpassing the original, and in fact, every other animated movie to that date except for The Lion King, even though both were later eclipsed by 2 CGI movies, Shrek 2 and Finding Nemo.
Reception
Toy Story 2 was a huge critical and commercial success, earning a rare 100% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes (one of the only animated films to do so, along with the original), with an average reviewer score of 8.6/10 (based on a sample of 144 reviews). Toy Story and Toy Story 2 are both Pixar's highest-rated films to date. It is currently #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of best rated movies. It currently holds a 100% approval from critcs, and 92% from the community. while the original holds a 96% community rating.[4] and the best rated animated movie[5]. The film also holds an 88 out of 100 on Metacritic. It joins the rare number of sequels judged to be "as good as or better than the original."
Toy Story 2 won the Golden Globe for Best Picture Comedy or Musical at the 2000 ceremony.
Television
The film premiered in the US on ABC in 2001.
In Spain, it premiered in 2002 on Telecinco. It is broadcast sometimes on Antena 3, a channel that actually has a partnership with Disney. The last broadcast was on February 14, 2009 after airing of the first Toy Story.
Premiered on RTE Two in December 31, 2006.
Home Video
Toy Story 2 was released as a two-pack with Toy Story on October 17, 2000. That same day an "Ultimate Toy Box" set was released containing both films and a third disc of bonus materials. On September 6, 2005 it was again re-released as a "2-Disc Special Edition" alongside the 10th Anniversary Edition of the first film. Both editions returned to the vault in January 31, 2009.
The film was available on Blu-ray for the first time in a Special Edition Combo Pack that was released on March 23, 2010, along with the original film. There was a DVD-only re-release on May 11, 2010.
Pixar themes
Trailers
One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film.[citation needed] In one trailer for Toy Story 2 (released theatrically with Tarzan), the green squeeze toy aliens watch the metal claw they worship coming down. The claw first brings down the words Toy Story, and the aliens react with their trademark "Oooooh." The claw next brings down the number '2'; in reaction, the aliens turn to face the camera and parody themselves with a 'Twoooo.' Then Woody appears, saying "Hey howdy hey, folks! It's good to be back." He is swiftly disappointed when Buzz shows up as well, and expresses his annoyance that the Space Ranger is also in the sequel. Buzz retorts, "Excuse me, Pullstring Boy, what would Toy Story 2 be without Buzz Lightyear?" "A good movie," counters Woody.
