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Toy Story 2
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Toy Story 2 is a CGI animation film and the sequel to Toy Story, and the third Disney/Pixar feature film, which featured 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 Australia on December 2 1999, and the United Kingdom on 11 February 2000.
The movie also keeps most of the original characters and voices from the first movie including the likes of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn and John Ratzenberger. They are joined by new members, voicing the new characters such as Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer and Estelle Harris.
The movie is also the all time best reviewed film on
RottenTomatoes.com with a score of 100% of 106 reviews.
Contents
- 1 Voice cast
- 2 Plot synopsis
- 3 Songs
- 4 Trivia
- 4.1 Relation to A Bug's Life
- 5 Box office and business issues
- 6 Crew
- 7 Attached short film
- 8 Trailers
- 9 See also
- 10 External links
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Voice cast
Plot synopsis
The movie begins with scenes of a Buzz Lightyear adventure, which turns out to be a video game that Rex is playing. The game ends with him being defeated by Evil Emperor Zurg. Some time after the events of Toy Story, presumably the following summer, Andy is preparing to leave for Cowboy Camp with Woody. While playing with him and Buzz, Andy accidentally rips Woody's arm, leaving him unable to take his doll to the camp. Woody is placed on the shelf, where he finds another broken toy, the penguin Wheezy, and begins to fear he'll soon be thrown away. When Wheezy is set out for a yard sale, Woody tries to rescue him, but ends up in the yard sale himself. He is seen by Al McWiggin, an obsessive toy collector and proprietor of "Al's Toy Barn". Al tries to buy Woody from Andy's mom, but she refuses to sell him. After failing to negotiate a sale, Al creates a distraction and steals Woody, causing Buzz to launch a rescue mission, with the help of four other toys.
Woody is taken to Al's apartment, where he is greeted by a yodeling cowgirl named Jessie, his trusty steed Bullseye, and the Prospector (an unsold toy still in its original box). They reveal to him that he is part of a set and the star of a forgotten children's TV show, Woody's Roundup. Now that Al has a Woody doll, he has a complete collection and intends to sell the toys to a museum in Japan. Woody initially insists that he has to get back to Andy, but Jessie reveals how she was forgotten and eventually abandoned by her owner as she grew up. The prospector warns Woody that he faces the same fate as Andy ages. Woody agrees to go with the "Roundup Gang" to the museum.
Buzz and his friends search for Al at Al's Toy Barn, where Buzz gets into a scuffle with another Buzz Lightyear doll, who, like Buzz in the first movie, doesn't realize he's a toy. The new Buzz sets off with the other toys for Al's apartment, believing it to be a genuine rescue mission from his arch-enemy, Emperor Zurg. The original Buzz frees himself and follows them to the apartment, but while exiting the store, he accidentally frees an Emperor Zurg toy, who follows him.
When they reach the apartment, Woody tells them he doesn't want to be rescued and intends to go with his new friends to Japan, since he's now a "
collector's item". In an ironic reversal of a scene from the first movie, Buzz reminds him "you are a child's plaything... you are a toy!" Woody (figuratively and literally) turns his back on Buzz, and Buzz's group leaves without him. However, Woody soon has a change of heart and, after calling Buzz and the group back, invites the "Roundup Gang" to come home to Andy with him. Jessie and Bullseye agree, but the Prospector locks them in the room, saying that the museum trip is his first chance (since he was never sold) and won't have Woody messing it up for him. Al returns and packs the Roundup Gang, and the rest of the toys give chase, but are interrupted by the sudden appearance of the Emperor Zurg toy. In a showdown mimicking a similar scene from
The Empire Strikes Back, Zurg reveals himself to be Buzz Lightyear's father, shortly before finally being defeated by Rex. As the other toys resume the rescue mission, the second Buzz remains behind with Zurg, playing father and son games.
Al takes the toys to the airport, where Buzz and his group manage to free Woody and Bullseye from the suitcase. The Prospector has other plans, though, re-tearing Woody's arm. Buzz and his group, however, come to Woody's rescue, and stick the Prospector in a little girl's backpack so he can "learn the true meaning of play-time". But Jessie finds herself in trouble and remains trapped in the suitcase. Woody and Buzz ride Bullseye in order to rescue her from being taken to the museum on her own.
Woody manages to find Jessie inside the plane but just when they're about to escape, the door closes and the plane heads for the runway. Woody finds another way out of the plane, through a small hatch which leads down to the landing gear wheel, and as they are doing so, he slips but Jessie catches him. When the plane is at the main runway, Woody knows that time is running out. In true "Woody's Roundup" style, he uses his pull string to swing him and Jessie down to safety on Bullseye's back - just seconds before the plane takes off. Their mission accomplished, the toys now make their way home.
At home, Jessie and Bullseye are adopted into Andy's toy family. Woody's ripped arm is repaired by Andy himself. Meanwhile, a fixed Wheezy sings "You've Got A Friend In Me", and Buzz asks Woody if he was still worried about Andy giving him up. Woody replies that he isn't worried anymore, and that when it is all over, he has Buzz to keep him company, for "infinity and beyond".
The events of the airplane's cargo hold have a terrible (and hilarious) consequence for Al. After Hamm fails at the Buzz Lightyear video game, he flips through the channels and sees Al in an Al's Toy Barn commercial, crying since he lost his precious luggage. While Al is crying, Hamm says a somewhat humorous remark about Al and his scheme ("Well, I guess crime doesn't pay.").
Spoilers end here.
Songs
Randy Newman wrote two new songs for Toy Story 2:
- "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 beautifully poignant 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 Disney's 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 (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).
Soundtrack Listing
- Woody's Roundup - Riders In The Sky
- When She Loved Me - Sarah McLachlan
- You've Got A Friend In Me (Wheezy's Version) - Robert Goulet
- Zurg's Planet
- Wheezy And The Yard Sale
- Woody's Been Stolen
- Chicken Man
- Woody's Dream
- Jessie And The Roundup Gang
- Woody's A Star
- Let's Save Woody
- Off To The Museum
- Talk To Jessie
- The Cleaner
- Al's Toy Barn
- Emperor Zurg Vs
- Use Your Head
- Jessie's In Trouble
- Ride Like The Wind
- You've Got A Friend In Me (Instrumental Version)
Trivia
- The way Emily plays with Jessie is very similar to the way Andy plays with Woody in the first toy story.
- When Hamm is flipping through the channels to find the Al's Toy Barn commercial, many of the scenes visible are from Pixar's short films.
- Andy wears a Triple-R shirt during the film. This is a reference to Spin and Marty, a cowboy TV series that was part of the Mickey Mouse Club
- The nightmare scene where Woody is thrown into the trashcan after Andy says he doesn't want to play with him any more was actually an idea for the first Toy Story, but was not used.
- Before the toys are due to cross the road to Al's Toy Barn, Slinky Dog says "I may not be a smart dog, but I know what roadkill is". This may be a parody of a phrase in another Tom Hanks film, Forrest Gump, "I may not be a smart man, but I know what love is."
- The Cleaner, the old man who restores Woody, also appears in the 1997 Pixar short film Geri's Game. Incidentally, when he opens the drawers of his box looking for his glasses, one of the drawers contains chess pieces.
- In Woody's nightmare, all the cards the other toys are playing with are the Ace of Spades which, in fortune telling, represents death.
- The truck that drives by just as the toys cross the road to Al's Toy Barn is the Eggman Movers truck from the original Toy Story.
- A Life magazine in Al's apartment features Woody riding Bullseye on its cover. It is dated January 12, 1957 (which is John Lasseter's birth date). Its price is 25 cents and the headlines on the cover read:
- "Children television. Saturday's favorite cowboy 'Woody'"
- "Sputnik - First photos revealed" (note that the surprise Sputnik 1 launch occurred on October 4, 1957)
- "Doctors say 'Americans don't eat enough fat'"
- Al's car has design elements of both a 1957 Ford Fairlane and 1957-1959 Chrysler Imperial.
- The dust in the scene where Woody meets Wheezy set a record for number of particles animated for a movie by computer.
- In the opening sequence, when Buzz is on an alien planet in Gamma Quadrant, Sector 4, and ultimately battles the evil Emperor Zurg, many of the sound effects are directly from the original Star Wars trilogy, including lightsaber sound effects, the torture droid's hum, the scraping metal noise the AT-ATs make as they lumber across the plains of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader breathing, and also a metal round camera on a metal stick from Return of the Jedi
- The floating platforms Buzz Lightyear hops on plays Also sprach Zarathustra, the theme to the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- While filming a documentary on the making of Toy Story 2, presenter Andi Peters was invited by John Lasseter to record a line for the film. He is the Baggage Handler who shouts "Hold it! There's a couple more bags coming from the terminal!". This line was recorded in London, England as Peters didn't have the correct working Visa to record the line in the United States
- When the original Toy Story was being made, the producers wanted to use a Barbie doll in their movie as Woody's love interest, but couldn't get the rights from Mattel at the time. But after the first movie Mr. Potato Head sales went skyrocketing so Mattel jumped at the opportunity for the 2nd movie.
- During the scene in the toy store, there is a camera shot with Rex shown in the rear view mirror of the toy car, a reference to Jurassic Park. The sentence made famous by the Jurassic Park movie "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" is also visible on the side rear-view mirror of the toy car.
- The creators of Toy Story 2 decided to give the Little Green Men a bigger role in Toy Story 2 than originally planned, after realizing how popular they are in Asia during a trip there.
- During the beginning of the film, it is revealed that the Buzz Lightyear introduction is part of a video-game that Rex is playing. The controller Rex is playing the game with looks similar to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) controller.
- In a reference to This Is Spinal Tap, Emperor Zurg's gun-arm dial goes to 11.
- In the airport, when the Prospector has been inserted into a small girl's bag, an announcer can be heard saying "LassetAir Flight A113 now arriving from Point Richmond." "LassetAir" is a reference to John Lasseter, while Point Richmond was, at the time, the location of Pixar Studios.
- The Pizza Planet delivery truck from the first movie was used by the toys to get to the airport to save Woody.
- When the Pizza Planet truck arrives at the airport the intercom states "the white zone is for immediate loading and unloading...", a reference to a joke in the movie Airplane!. There is also a courtesy phone call as the toys go through the automatic doors.
- At the very beginning of the film as the text "Walt Disney Pictures presents" is displayed, the outline of Luxo Jr. from the Pixar short film of the same name, can be seen amongst the stars on the top-right hand side of the screen.
- During the outtakes, director John Lasseter's voice can be heard saying "action" and "we're losing daylight."
- When Rex climbs back into the car after falling out during Barbie's tour, Barbie says, "Remain seated please. Permanecer sentados por favor." This is a reference to a safety recording by Jack Wagner at the end of the Matterhorn Bobsleds ride at Disneyland. At the beginning of the tour, Barbie also says, "For your safety, remain seated, keeping your hands, arms, feet, legs, and all other accessories inside the car at all times." This is also a reference to the safety recording played on all the rides at Disney parks worldwide (minus the "accessories" comment).
- Mr. Potato Head throws his bowler hat to block an automatic door from closing in a parody of the character "Oddjob" from the James Bond film "Goldfinger".
- When Al is finishing his call with the Japanese Museum after agreeing to selling the Round Up Gang, he says back to the person on the phone "Don't touch my mustache", a play on "Doo itashimashite" Japanese for "you're welcome".
- This is the second Disney sequel to have a theatrical release. The first was The Rescuers Down Under.
Relation to A Bug's Life
It is widly believed that the toys in this film live in the same universe as the Bugs in "A Bug"s Life" several examples are seen to prove this:
- There are A Bug's Life toys in Al's Toy Barn.
- Right before the road crossing scene, the "bug bar" from A Bug's Life is visible in the bushes.
- In the beginning when Mrs. Potato Head lost her ear she was reading the Little Tykes book A Bug's Life.
- The elevator in Al's penthouse has the "elevator music" version of the Theme to A Bug's Life.
- Prior to the end credits, during the "Blooper Reel", Flick and Heimlich from A Bug's Life converse about the supposed sequel to their movie, although Heimlich informs Flick that it is not A Bug's Life 2. Before Flick's question as to what movie is being filmed can be answered, Buzz Lightyear's karate-chop-action hand snaps the twig. Incidentally, in the movie, if one looks close enough at that same location, a caterpillar looking suspiciously like Heimlich crawls by moments before Buzz breaks the branch.
- At the end when Wheezy is singing, Andy's calendar has a picture of bugs on a blade of grass carrying food, which is a preproduction painting from A Bug's Life.
- In Jessie's "When She Loved Me" scene, the tree from Ant Island in A Bug's Life is seen.
- Just before the scene where Buzz finds the Buzz Lightyear aisle, Dim from A Bug's Life makes a cameo appearance, but it is difficult to see because the background is blurred.
- The swing set and hill from Jessie's flashback is a part of Ant Island in A Bug's Life.
- The "asteroid" that Buzz flies over in the opening video game sequence is actually the same CG model as the valley and island where most of the action in A Bug's Life takes place.
- When the Barbie party is shown some them are doing the limbo complete with the limbo song: how low can you go, which is the same thing that the bugs do at the celebration in A Bug's Life.
- The technology used in A Bugs Life was used again in this movie for the leaves and other environments.
Box office and business issues
Toy Story 2 made over $245,000,000 in its initial US theatrical run, far surpassing the original, and in fact, every other animated movie to that date except for The Lion King, though both were later eclipsed by another Pixar movie, Finding Nemo.
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 much more epic and cinematic in scope and duration of the movie was extended to just over 90 minutes.
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, however, 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. With Eisner's departure and Pixar's ultimate purchase by Disney, however, these problems have been overcome.
The movie was first broadcast on pay-TV in the UK on The Disney Channel on December 8, 2001 but like Toy Story, the transition of the movie from pay-TV to antenna TV was extremely slow and eventually first appeared on terrestrial TV on BBC ONE on December 25, 2005.
The film was received very very well by critics, gaining a rare 100% rating at Rotten Tomatoes.
Crew
Attached short film
Main article: Luxo Jr.
Theatrical and video releases of this film include Luxo Jr, Pixar's first short film released in 1986, starring Pixar's mascot, Luxo.
Trailers
One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. Trailers for this film include:
- The green alien toys come up to a center with the claw coming down. First the claw was carrying down "Toy Story" with the aliens doing their trademark "Oooh". Second the claw brings down a "2" and with the aliens turning around and looking at the audience and saying "Twoooo". Then Woody appears and is swiftly disappointed when Buzz shows up as well. He expresses his annoyance that Buzz is in the sequel. Buzz replies, "Well of course! What would Toy Story 2 be without Buzz Lightyear?" "A good movie," counters Woody.
See also
