Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999)

Toy Story 2

1999 // USA // John Lasseter

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In my opinion, TOY STORY is a great film, but TOY STORY 2 is a better film which assimilates all the best elements from the 1995’s revolutionary animation and expands and amplifies them into near perfection. It’s a rarity that I love the sequel more, but TS2 does it. The 3D animation is much more detailed and rich in contents, probably due to a bigger budget. The storyline is more confidently paced, more adventurous and emotional, the side characters have more memorable moments in the second one. One may take the first one as an eloquent introduction and the second one as an in-depth payoff. Moreover, there’re moments of allusion to the first installment, from reversing the role of Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) in a rescue mission to every small contexts in the story like the small truck from the Pizza Planet, the ‘space ranger’ Buzz, and even the climactic ‘chase’ sequence.

The one thing that TS2 does way better than the preceding one is the introduction of a strong female character. Bo Peep (Annie Potts) is a stereotypical love-interest of the male hero, namely Woody, who adds nothing significant to the overall plot. In TS2 we have Jessie (Joan Cusack), a cowgirl comparable to our effectual Sheriff Woody. The most emotional part in TS2 is accountable to the character arc of Jessie, who has a heart-rendering musical montage of her memories with her previous owner. Her fear of being put back in the dark storage is palpable, which is served as a thematic juxtaposition with Woody’s damaged arm and his fear of abandonment. TS2 expands the theme of existential crisis in TS1 and registers the issue of abandonment and ephemeral, thus foreshadowing the third chapter. It indisputably evokes a self-reflection of your relationship with your own toys, and perhaps other possessions, from materialistic objects to intangible friendship.

TS2 not only introduces a human ‘villain’, the obsessive toy-store owner Al (Wayne Knight), but also a toy ‘villain’, Stinky Pete the Prospector (Kelsey Grammer) from the gang in Woody’s TV show. Intriguingly they are not outrageously wicked. I won’t deny Stinky Pete has his selfish reason, but it is arisen from his lack of love as being a less favorable ‘toy’, it’s basically the original Woody we had in TS1. And Al, despite his obese ‘generic’ look as a fanatic, is perhaps the best ‘owner’ a toy would have been a part of a collection. Still, TS is ultimately about toys and their relationship with the children, being a permanent museum collection won’t be as great as being loved and played by children, even it’s only an interim relationship. Andy is by far the best toy-loving-kid, his imagination and long-lasting care made me shameful. We know he will grow up and ‘move on’ to romance and collage. So TS2 is also about the acceptance of your imminent fate, thus opening the door for the cathartic end of TS3.