by Curtis Edmonds -- blueduck@hsbr.org
In a Hollywood culture that tries again and again to (in William Goldman's words) to recapture past magic, Toy Story 2 was, perhaps, inevitable. Few movies have been as magical, as original, as groundbreaking as the first Toy Story. The sheer technical wizardry of John Lasseter and the Pixar team, the sterling voice talent, the inimitable Randy Newman soundtrack, the charm of the characters and the sheer ingenuity of the story combined to create a truly astonishing piece of work.
And, of course, Toy Story was a truly profitable piece of work, all but guaranteeing a sequel. And as a sequel, Toy Story 2 labors under some disadvantages. The first Toy Story sent a high standard for technical excellence that the sequel must equal or better. The audience would expect to see new things, meaning that much more of the story would have to take place outside of Andy's room. New characters would have to appear, including a new villain. The Buzz Lightyear character -- whose grandiose, deluded personality was so central to the first movie -- would have to be reexamined. The friendship between Buzz and Woody the Cowboy would have to be as interesting as their rivalry was. And so forth.
Toy Story 2 tries very hard to overcome these disadvantages and generally succeds. On a technical level, the movie is an overwhelming success. The "sets" (for want of a better word) are nothing short of spectacular, especially in the final action sequences. Trees spread in green canopies, with every leaf digitally rendered. A scene where Woody must navigate a minefield of cheese doodles shows every doodle in astonishing detail. One scene, where the toys use a remote control to click through an infinity of cable channels, practically begs for close frame-by-frame analysis. The wizards at Pixar have done it again.
As far as the characterization goes, Toy Story is fortunate to have a large ensemble cast of familiar voice talent that needs little introduction. (The first Toy Story had a wide range of toys doing many different things; the sequel has fewer toys doing more things, which more or less evens out.) Even the villains are familiar, with Wayne Knight voicing the geeky toy collector, and Kelsey Grammer reprising his Sideshow Bob role from "The Simpsons". The only real new character is Joan Cusack as a spunky cowgirl with a heart of gold -- who has the movie's heartrending moment, complete with the superlative voice of Sarah McLachlan.singing "When She Loved Me". (Which should finally get Randy Newman an Oscar, by the way, and it's about time, too.)
Tom Hanks has the lead role of Woody the Cowboy, and it's hard enough imagining anyone doing a better job. Hanks has taken so many serious roles lately that having him play a role that reminds of the comic, childish side he sow famously showcased in Big is a real treat. (Hanks even gets to sing "You've Got A Friend in Me" from the first movie.) Tim Allen has the less showy role this time, but the story allows him to relapse into the old Buzz Lightyear persona from time to time, which is a hoot.
The problem with Toy Story 2, however, is that it doesn't have the same interplay between Hanks and Allen that was the source for much of the humor in the original movie. To compensate, Toy Story 2 is packed instead with references and allusions to other movies. Sometimes this works. The Jurassic Park reference is a scream, and there's a combined reference to The Empire Strikes Back and Field of Dreams that's very funny. Sometimes it doesn't work. The whole last half of the movie, at times, plays like a retread of the first two Die Hard movies. Overall, the pop-culture references are neat, and they serve to keep parents interested (in much the same way that Robin WIlliams did in Aladdin). But the constant gags seem to indicate a lack of trust in the Toy Story source material, and a lack of originality in the storytelling.
The ultimate question with Toy Story 2, I suppose, is whether it succeeds in its mission to recapture the past magic of the orginal. It succeeds spectacularly on the technical side -- a a credit to Team Pixar and their technological bag of tricks. However, the story of Toy Story 2 isn't as strong (though it has its compensations). Toy Story 2 isn't a great, groundbreaking picture by any means, but it does its best to cultivate the ground broken by Toy Story, and that is enough.
-- Curtis Edmonds blueduck@hsbr.org
Movie Reviews: http://www.hsbr.org/buzz/reviewer/reviews/bdreviews.html http://www.epinions.com/user-curtisedmonds
"Oh, if life were like the movies, I'd never be blue." -- Alan Jackson, "Here In The Real World"
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews