Loveday Writing

Pioneered and highlighted their then-new technological style:

Toy Story 2 was in the unique position of both marking the halfway point of the Golden Age and also being the sequel of Pixar’s debut animated feature film, and therefore being able to show exactly how far Pixar had come in the brief four years since its predecessor’s debut.

According to Wikipedia, character models received major upgrades and shaders went through revisions to bring about subtle improvements. I believe these improvements can be easily seen with the toys as they have a more refined 3D look – they are clearly 3D but don’t look like plastic dolls anymore, and on the human side, Andy’s mother looks more human, with her hair now shorter and brighter in this film.

Wikipedia also stated that technology had advanced farther to allow for more complicated camera shots than were possible in the first film.

Made a film that focused on great attention to detail and storytelling:

Toy Story was all about a child’s favourite toy feeling insecure and threatened by a new, trendy toy, Toy Story 2 posed the question of whether it was better to be loved and played with by one child even though the relationship wouldn’t last forever, or if it was better to be loved and adored by generations of children at a museum, but not played with. I personally felt that both the premise and possible answers to this question was a great story for this film and a sequel.

This premise is kicked off when Andy goes away to camp, initially planning on taking Woody, only to change his mind at the last minute when he inadvertently rips Woody’s arm and his mother places him on the bookshelf, something all the toys fear happening to them. Whilst he is on the shelf, he discovers an old toy, Wheezy, who has been left on the shelf for so long that he has gathered dust. When Andy’s mother comes in to find old toys to sell at a yard sale, she takes Wheezy but not Woody. Woody’s efforts to rescue Wheezy, only to end up being found and stolen by Al, a toy collector and owner of Al’s Toy Barn, is the inciting incident that gets the film going.

This premise is heavily focused on with the reveal that Woody is part of a collection, alongside cowgirl, Jessie, prospector, Stinky Pete, and his horse, Bullseye. The collection is not only one of a set of toys, but also part of a TV show and merchandise. When Jessie reveals her origin story to Woody, Stinky Pete poses the film’s central question to Woody, it is this question that prompts him to change his mind about going home to Andy.

However, Woody changes his mind again and invites Jessie, Stinky Pete and Bullseye to go back to Andy’s with him, where he knows they will be played with and loved. It is here that Stinky Pete is revealed to be the true antagonist of the film.

The attention to detail in foreshadowing the reveal of Stinky Pete being the real antagonist as opposed to Al is well-done, with the hints of this being subtle enough that the reveal is surprising enough but not too obscure that it comes completely out of left field. He stops Woody from leaving in the middle of the night by leaving his box to turn the TV on to wake Al up and frames Jessie for it, he is also the most insistent out of the three (him, Jessie and Bullseye) to go to Japan and that Andy will abandon him, and he also lied about “Woody’s Roundup” being cancelled.

There is also attention to detail in smaller areas, such as with the Cheese Puffs, Al’s beard (considering the troubles that the animators had with hair in the previous film), the multiple references to Star Wars and Jurassic Park, and the appearance of Heimlich from A Bug’s Life on a tree branch.

Setting the precedent for future films:

Interestingly, this film set the precedent for its own future sequel, Toy Story 3, by focusing on the consequences of Andy inevitably growing up. By the end of the film, Woody no longer fears Andy growing up and losing interest in playing with him and the others, rather choosing to make the best of the time they have left with him.

Themes of hope, happiness, and togetherness:

Hope – The theme of hope is addressed in multiple ways in this film. Once again, Woody finds himself away from home and has hope that he will get back to Andy again, however Jessie portrays the other side of this, the loss of hope. Jessie’s loss of hope comes from a combination of spending years in storage, as well as being abandoned by her original owner, Emily. Jessie ultimately finds hope and love again when the toys rescue her from the plane and she is “adopted” by Andy at the end of the film.  

Happiness – The theme of happiness in this film is explored through its central question and the possible answers to that question. The film begins with Andy’s toys living in harmony and happiness with Woody and Buzz as co-leaders, and progresses to Woody being stolen and discovering toys that have been in storage for a long period of time, with Jessie in particular feeling resentful of Woody’s desire to go home to Andy.

Jessie’s sadness and resentment is revealed to have originated from being abandoned by her owner, Emily, who loved her dearly until she outgrew her and eventually donated her to charity. After he discovers this, Woody decides to go to Japan both out of fear of the same thing happening to him by Andy (a theme present throughout the film) and also to make Jessie, Stinky Pete, and Bullseye happy. Ultimately, Woody convinces Jessie and Bullseye to come with him back to Andy’s house and they are happy and loved by Andy, as Woody predicted. Stinky Pete, on the other hand was happy at the thought of being loved in Japan that his happiness soon become obsession and rage when Woody changed his mind, and Buzz and the other toys tried to rescue him.

Togetherness – The theme of togetherness presents itself in an interesting way in this film as Woody has to make the choice between going back to Andy with his fellow toy friends that he has always known, and going to Japan with Jessie, Stinky Pete, and Bullseye to be together and adored as a collection. Ultimately, Woody finds a happy medium between these themes by convincing Jessie and Bullseye to go back to Andy’s with him as he knows Andy will love them, and he is proven right. Stinky Pete doesn’t go with them as he is obsessed with going to Japan and ends up getting his comeuppance by being placed in the backpack of a young girl who loves to play with her toys by drawing on them.

The theme of togetherness is also explored with Buzz, Hamm, Slinky, Rex and Mr. Potato Head working together to find and rescue Woody.

My overall thoughts:

Full disclosure, I have seen Toy Story 2 a few times since its release, however when I watched it for this Analysis series, it had been the first time I had watched the film in several years.

Overall, I enjoyed the film and felt that it was the perfect sequel to not only Toy Story but also Pixar’s debut animated feature film as it showed how far their storytelling, attention to detail, and animation had come in a few short years. This evolution paid off as it’s regarded as better than the original film, and one of the greatest animated feature films ever made.

Some of the animation is bound to be dated, but to me this was far less obvious in comparison to its predecessor. I also appreciated the introduction to “outside toys” with Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete, and how the film’s villain was hidden.

The next part of the Pixar Era Analysis series to be released will focus on Monsters, Inc.

Fun Facts and Trivia:

• The film was nearly lost during production – whilst work on it was underway, someone entered a code “rm*,” which deletes everything on the computer as quickly as possible. Because of this, the creators lost 90% of the film. The animators tried to get the back-up animation, but it wasn’t working. Fortunately, supervising technical director, Galyn Susman had recently had a child, so she took a copy of the film home with her, so she could work remotely. Pixar employees who picked up the extra copy covered it in blankets and drove it back to the studio, and they were able to recover most of the film.
• The dust in the scene where Woody meets Wheezy set a record for number of particles animated for a movie by computer.
• Tom Hanks stated in an interview that he and Tim Allen sat down together and watched the “Jessie’s Song” sequence, and that both of them simultaneously broke down in tears.
• Despite a clear obsession with “Woody’s Roundup,” Al never actually says the name “Woody,” or the names of the Roundup Gang at any point in the movie.
• The Life Magazine issue with Woody and Bullseye on the cover is dated 12 January 1957.
• This was the first sequel for both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.
• The introduction of Jessie came about at the insistence of John Lasseter’s wife, Nancy, who wanted the film to feature a positive female character with a bit more substance than Bo Peep.
• Working on the film was so intense (due to its tight schedule) that many of the animators suffered from carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injuries.
• It took over a month for Pixar to digitally paint Al’s car.
• Jessie is the only female toy in Andy’s room who solely belongs to Andy, while the other female toys belong to Molly.
• Buster is one of the few non-toy characters who knows toys can come to life, and he can clearly understand what they are saying as he obeys commands Woody gives him.
• Wheezy’s singing voice at the end of the film is performed by Robert Goulet.
• Toy Story is the first computer-animated film to become a franchise and the only one released in the 20^th century to do so.
• Despite being released four years after the first film, this film is set one year later.
• Apparently, the lawn gnome next door can communicate with the toys.

References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toy_Story_2
• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120363/trivia/?ref_=tt_trv_trv