If someone states as a Golden Rule that sequels are never as good as the originals, the automatic response is usually "The Godfather Part II", with references to The Empire Strikes Back, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Bride of Frankenstein held in reserve. Superior sequels are pretty rare, but Toy Story 2 is perhaps the best example there is. For while Toy Story 2 can't possibly carry the impact of its predecessor, it is a better movie all round.
In the toys' second screen adventure, Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) discovers he is no ordinary cowboy toy but is a valuable collectible. Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) has now recovered from his delusion that he really is an intergalactic superhero but is still pretty heroic as he and Woody's other friends try to rescue the cash cowboy from an evil toy store owner trying to toynap Woody to complete his collection of cowboy toys and sell him to a museum.
Co-director John Lasseter, whose company Pixar made the Toy Story films, has always been an animator who happened to use technology, rather than a techno-nut dabbling at animation. This means that propeller-head gee- whizzery never gets in the way of the requirements of traditional story- telling - character and plot are everything, and instead of showing us how clever they are, Lasseter and co-director Ash Brannon properly concentrate on thrilling us and making us laugh. There have nevertheless been significant technical advances in rendering software and sheer computing brute strength over the last four years, and the level of textural detail and naturalistic movement on show here is amazing.
Toy Story 2 was originally planned to have an undignified straight-to- video release - the traditional route for animation feature sequels - but the suits at Disney and Pixar decided it might be worth a shot at a theatrical release. After the film's eighty-million-dollar opening weekend, they were probably pretty pleased with themselves.
Although sometimes a bit syrupy, Toy Story 2 is very impressive technically and, much more important, it's great fun. (8/10)
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Gary Jones
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