Toy Story 2 ***** (1999, voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles) – Classic Movie Review 1206

The old-style toy cowboy Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) is back in director John Lasseter’s eagerly awaited Pixar/Disney 1999 sequel to the 1995 hit Toy Story. It became Britain’s biggest box-office success in 2000.

This time, a toy collector makes off with Woody, but spaceman Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen) and the toy chums set off to save him, but he rather fancies the idea of life in a toy museum.

There’s an inevitable sense of déja-vu in any sequel, but this remains one of the happiest, most inventive and magical of cartoon follow-ups, and again the computer-designed images are enchanting and the script sparkles.

Joan Cusack and Kelsey Grammer join the smashing voice cast as Jessie and Stinky Pete the Prospector, bringing the characters alive. Randy Newman again provides the lovely score.

The story is by Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Ash Brannon, Peter Docter; the screenplay is by Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlain and Chris Webb.

Don Rickles as Mr Potato Head, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, Laurie Metcalf, R Lee Ermey, Wayne Knight, Estelle Harris, Jodi Benson, Joe Ranft and John Morris are also in the voice cast.

Toy Story 3 followed in 2010.

Lasseter says: ‘The story of Toy Story 2 is based a lot on my own experience. I’m a big toy collector and a lot of them are like antiques, or one-of-a-kind toys, or prototypes the toy makers have given me. Well, I have five sons, and when they were little and they loved to come to daddy’s work, and come in into daddy’s office and they just want to touch and play with everything.

‘And I was sitting there saying, “Oh no, that’s uh, you can’t play with that one, oh no, play with this one, oh no….” and I found myself just sitting there looking at my self and laughing. Because toys are manufactured, put on this earth, to be played with by a child. That is the core essence of Toy Story. And so I started wondering, what was it like from a toy’s point of view to be collected?’

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1206

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/