Toy Story 2, Special Edition (Blu-ray + DVD) (1999/2010)
Pixar animated feature dir. by John Lasseter
Voices: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Wally Shawn, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer
Studio: Pixar/Disney 103325 [3/23/10]
Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 1080p HD
Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HD MAster Audio, 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, 2.0 DVS Dolby, Spanish & French 5.1 DD EX
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: Sneak peak at Toy Story 3 and free movie ticket to it, Buzz Lightyear Mission Log to International Space Station Pt. 2, 3 animated studio stories: Sleep Deprivation Lab/Pinocchio/The Movie Vanishes, Pixar’s Zoetrope, Making Toy Story 2, Outtakes & alternate scenes, Deleted scenes & design galleries, music videos and 60 minutes more extras
Length: 92 minutes
Rating: *****
The toys are back, with some new ones added to the mix, and they’re even better than Toy Story 1 if that’s possible. Considerable advances were made in computer graphics for animation during the four years between the productions, and it is immediately discernible in the better execution of the human characters and the much more realistic fur on the dog and hair on various characters. Also there are massive populations of detailed toys on the screen at once, which wasn’t possible in the first film.
Toy Story 2 opens with Buzz having an intergalactic adventure on the planet of Zurg, his arch nemesis. He later meets another Buzz Lightyear who is the lookout for hundreds of identical boxed Buzz Lightyear toys that are stacked, unsold, on shelves at a toy store. (You’ll crack up about what the “other” Buzz learns about Zurg in the end.) Somehow he returns to the other toys in young Andy’s room, where Andy has gone off to Cowboy Camp, leaving the toys – who come alive when humans aren’t around – to their own devices. The greedy toy store owner kidnaps Woody when the doll accidentily falls into a yard sale at Andy’s house. Woody discovers that he is a rare and highly-valued collectible toy from a 1950s TV show called Woody’s Roundup, and he meets the other toys from the show, enthusiastic Jessie the cowgirl, cute Bullseye the horse, and Stinky Pete the propector, who is still in his original box.
All of them are going to be shipped to Tokyo to a collector there who is paying a huge sum to obtain them for his museum, but Woody is the key to the whole transaction. He vacillates between wanting to join them to ensure many coming years of display and adoration in the museum vs. a few years with Andy until he no longer wants to play with his toys. But the other toys are led by Buzz in a daring rescue race attempt to bring Woody back. It’s similar to the struggle for the toys to reach the departing car of Andy’s family in Toy Story 1 but ramped up several notches.
The further developments of the various characters are cleverly carried out in this sequel. Mr. Potato Head wanted a Mrs. Potato Head and as we saw in the opening of Christmas presents at the end of the first film, he now has one. Don’t miss the final credits, where Pixar laboriously created “outtakes” of various hilarious scenes. In one, Mrs. Potato Head is throwing various things into Mr.’s head which he might require as the toys go on their rescue effort. They include “your angry eyes in case you need them.” Slinky Dog turns out to be very helpful in getting the other toys down from high places. There is also an entire couturie of Barbie Dolls which come into the story at the toy store.
The Blu-ray transfer is of course excellent, and there is more attention-getting use of sound effects in the surrounds than in the first film. The various extras are all very worth watching. The Pixar Zoetrope, patterned after a similar one at Ghibli Studios in Japan, is fascinating to see. The Movie Vanishes tells how Pixar nearly lost most of Toy Story 2 when a tech error accidentily erased it from the studio’s system – a warning to all computer users to back up/back up! The film was only saved because one of the animators, who had to do some of her work from home where she had a small child, had made a copy of the film for use on her home computer.
– John Sunier
