Toy Story 2 (1999) Feed And Activity

myers changed their review for Toy Story 2 Aside from its dark themes of child abandonment and immortality, aside from its amazing character development and non-stop entertainment scene after scene, Toy Story 2 is also an excellent sequel and a great anti-thesis to the points made in the first movie (What if Woody gets broken? What if Andy doesn't want to play with him anymore?)..

myers

myers changed their review for Toy Story 2 My favorite movie ever..

myers

myers changed their review for Toy Story 2 "How long will it last, Woody? Do you really think Andy is going to take you to college, or on his honeymoon? Andy's growing up, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's your choice, Woody. You can go back, or you can stay with us and last forever. You'll be adored by children for generations." How do you continue a story that's been wrapped up nicely? For many, the first Toy Story was the perfect Pixar movie, the best of the lot. The first computer animated feature film in cinema history, Toy Story not only changed the face of the animation industry with its groundbreaking animation, it reinvented the animation medium with its inventive storytelling. While toys that come alive wasn't an original idea first conceived by Pixar alone, the ingenuity lies with the relationship presented here between child and toy. It was a quirky portrayal of toys going about their day-job as play-things, and how they would react if their position in the "company" is getting replaced. As a clever and imaginative adventure for young and old, Toy Story set the foundation for what seemed to be a promising future. For Pixar, it was truly "to infinity and beyond." But for the 5 year old me at the time of the film's release, Toy Story was just another cartoon. What I could remember of my experience with the first film was through its "video game" (and I'm using the term loosely), and it wasn't even the action game first released on the Super NES and the Sega Genesis, but this interactive story adventure titled, "Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story". That was how I learned the plot of the first film, if memory serves, not through the actual film itself. But then something wonderful happened in the year of 1999. I watched Toy Story 2 at the theater and fell in love with Pixar. In my opinion, Toy Story 2 did something very few other films have done - it was a sequel that surpassed the original, but that's an over-simplification. Unlike the original Star Wars trilogy, the Toy Story trilogy wasn't planned. Pixar had a policy (which some would now consider to be loose) that they wouldn't go with a sequel unless they had a good story. In fact, Toy Story 3 wasn't even suppose to happen, but Pixar was forced by Disney's hands when Michael Eisner, chairman of Disney at the time, threatened to take the Toy Story movie rights to another animation company, Circle 7 Animation. Eventually, Pixar had to step up to finish the job. Yet, Toy Story 2 pulled off the difficult task of not just making an amazing sequel, but also one that would become an ideal template on how to make a sequel for decades to come. The template is simple, but difficult to imitate. Take the ideals and beliefs of the characters from the first movie and turn it against them, challenging them in an interesting and engaging manner. In the first movie, Woody believed that there was nothing more wonderful than to be loved by a child. In the sequel, however, his mortality comes into question when his arm is ripped. A broken toy is often an abandoned one. Thus came the interesting question of whether if Woody's faith and loyalty still hold true. Such conflict in ideals nurture interesting character growth. Whereas the first movie's role is often to establish and introduce us to the characters, the sequel is where we probe deeper into what makes them tick. Woody's "You are a toy!" line is thrown back at him by Buzz this time, when the latter reminds him what it means to be loved by a child, a lesson Buzz was taught by Woody himself. There are two important themes in the movie that made the movie awesome for me: abandonment and mortality. Let's look at the first one. The idea of toys being replaced or abandoned were played around with in the first movie, but Toy Story 2 held no punches in reinforcing the despair and loneliness of abandonment. When I was a kid, I thought the message was about parental abandonment. I was a lonely child who didn't get along well with my folks, so by the time Sarah McLachlan's "When She Loved Me" rolled around, I was bawling - and that's an understatement. I would tear up everytime at the Jessie confession scene, no exaggeration. The pain of having someone you had expect to love you eternally abandon you, hurt you, forget you, and betray you, that kind of pain scars the deepest. And then I would realize something after pulling myself back from the tears: it's a cartoon about talking toys. Yet here I am, pondering on such heavy issues, as if these drawings were living beings we could relate to. In later years, I would also come to realize that I had it backwards, that it was more about children leaving their parents once they grow up. Rewatching that Jessie scene, listening to the lyrics again, and just reexamining the universe of Toy Story under this context made more sense. That's when I understood that terrifying notion for parents, that we would see our own children move on, forgetting us in their older years, putting us in retirement homes like a 25 cents yard sale junk. There's an amazing scene where Woody stares into the cold and empty darkness of the air vent as he ponders the unknown and vulnerable future that awaits him. This is a key scene that probes the second theme of mortality and asks, "How long will it last?" How long will our vulnerable relationships last before the cruelty of time snatches away everything as it always does? But despite the seeming doom and gloom discussed here, the second theme of mortality actually makes the movie much more life-affirming, believe it or not. This is best exemplified by the aforementioned confrontation where Buzz convinces Woody to come home with them. However, Woody was offered a chance to be displayed at a museum as a collectible item, forever immortalized and beheld by millions of kids worldwide. After hearing Jessie's story, he is convinced that staying with Andy is a short and possibly painful lifespan not worth living, that one more rip would seal his fate in the garbage bin, that it was "his only chance". To which Buzz replied, "To do what, Woody? Watch kids from behind glass and never be loved again? Some life." It's at this point that the film reminds us through Woody that old adage, that a short but meaningful life is far worth living than one living in comfort. As Woody himself magnificently put it after realizing his mistake, "You're right. I can't stop Andy from growing up. But I wouldn't miss it for the world." It's a beautiful and hard-hitting truth about life. All this coming from a cartoon about talking toys. Aside from its impressive layers of philosophies and subverted character ideals, there are other things that made Toy Story 2 a great sequel, one of which being the effective use of parallels. In the first movie, there was a stronger focus on Buzz and Pizza Planet, on how high-tech toys have taken over the market, leaving old-fashioned cowboy dolls like Woody behind. In the sequel, this is mirrored in Woody's Roundup, a cancelled puppet TV show that's part of a series of collectible merchandise promoting a breakfast cereal. We are brought to Woody's world, as if we are watching a retro western filled with adventure and derring-do. This is further mirrored at the end of the movie. In the first Toy Story, Buzz gets his moment of glory when he actually flew through the sky for real (or "falling with style") like an actual space man. Here in the sequel, Woody gets a similar moment of glory at the end when he swings beneath a plane with his pull-string and leaps onto his horse like an actual cowboy. Such parallels is an effective way to develop a sequel by giving insight to characters that were not explored in the first movie. In this case, it shows "Woody's side of the story" and how his line of Woody toys came to be. Another great use of parallel is between Jessie and Stinky Pete. Pete's hatred of the "spaceman" toys that replace old-fashioned dolls like him and Woody is mirrored in Jessie when she becomes more intimate with Buzz at the end of the movie. It's an interesting parallel that shows the different choices both characters took - Pete remains bitter and resentful, blaming others for his fate while Jessie chooses a more hopeful approach at the end. If there is one weak point in this movie, it's perhaps Stinky Pete as the antagonist. He serves largely as a plot-device and isn't an effective foil to Woody's character. However, he did make an ominous prediction that would be more accurate than it seemed at the time. "You'll all be ruined! Forgotten! Spending eternity rotting in some landfill!".

myers

myers added their review for Toy Story 2: "How long will it last, Woody? Do you really think Andy is going to take you to college, or on his honeymoon? Andy's growing up, and there's nothing you can do about it. It's your choice, Woody. You can go back, or you can stay with us and last forever. You'll be adored by children for generations." How do you continue a story that's been wrapped up nicely? For many, the first Toy Story was the perfect Pixar movie, the best of the lot. The first computer animated feature film in cinema history, Toy Story not only changed the face of the animation industry with its groundbreaking animation, it reinvented the animation medium with its inventive storytelling. While toys that come alive wasn't an original idea first conceived by Pixar alone, the ingenuity lies with the relationship presented here between child and toy. It was a quirky portrayal of toys going about their day-job as play-things, and how they would react if their position in the "company" is getting replaced. As a clever and imaginative adventure for young and old, Toy Story set the foundation for what seemed to be a promising future. For Pixar, it was truly "to infinity and beyond." But for the 5 year old me at the time of the film's release, Toy Story was just another cartoon. What I could remember of my experience with the first film was through its "video game" (and I'm using the term loosely), and it wasn't even the action game first released on the Super NES and the Sega Genesis, but this interactive story adventure titled, "Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story". That was how I learned the plot of the first film, if memory serves, not through the actual film itself. But then something wonderful happened in the year of 1999. I watched Toy Story 2 at the theater and fell in love with Pixar. In my opinion, Toy Story 2 did something very few other films have done - it was a sequel that surpassed the original, but that's an over-simplification. Unlike the original Star Wars trilogy, the Toy Story trilogy wasn't planned. Pixar had a policy (which some would now consider to be loose) that they wouldn't go with a sequel unless they had a good story. In fact, Toy Story 3 wasn't even suppose to happen, but Pixar was forced by Disney's hands when Michael Eisner, chairman of Disney at the time, threatened to take the Toy Story movie rights to another animation company, Circle 7 Animation. Eventually, Pixar had to step up to finish the job. Yet, Toy Story 2 pulled off the difficult task of not just making an amazing sequel, but also one that would become an ideal template on how to make a sequel for decades to come. The template is simple, but difficult to imitate. Take the ideals and beliefs of the characters from the first movie and turn it against them, challenging them in an interesting and engaging manner. In the first movie, Woody believed that there was nothing more wonderful than to be loved by a child. In the sequel, however, his mortality comes into question when his arm is ripped. A broken toy is often an abandoned one. Thus came the interesting question of whether if Woody's faith and loyalty still hold true. Such conflict in ideals nurture interesting character growth. Whereas the first movie's role is often to establish and introduce us to the characters, the sequel is where we probe deeper into what makes them tick. Woody's "You are a toy!" line is thrown back at him by Buzz this time, when the latter reminds him what it means to be loved by a child, a lesson Buzz was taught by Woody himself. There are two important themes in the movie that made the movie awesome for me: abandonment and mortality. Let's look at the first one. The idea of toys being replaced or abandoned were played around with in the first movie, but Toy Story 2 held no punches in reinforcing the despair and loneliness of abandonment. When I was a kid, I thought the message was about parental abandonment. I was a lonely child who didn't get along well with my folks, so by the time Sarah McLachlan's "When She Loved Me" rolled around, I was bawling - and that's an understatement. I would tear up everytime at the Jessie confession scene, no exaggeration. The pain of having someone you had expect to love you eternally abandon you, hurt you, forget you, and betray you, that kind of pain scars the deepest. And then I would realize something after pulling myself back from the tears: it's a cartoon about talking toys. Yet here I am, pondering on such heavy issues, as if these drawings were living beings we could relate to. In later years, I would also come to realize that I had it backwards, that it was more about children leaving their parents once they grow up. Rewatching that Jessie scene, listening to the lyrics again, and just reexamining the universe of Toy Story under this context made more sense. That's when I understood that terrifying notion for parents, that we would see our own children move on, forgetting us in their older years, putting us in retirement homes like a 25 cents yard sale junk. There's an amazing scene where Woody stares into the cold and empty darkness of the air vent as he ponders the unknown and vulnerable future that awaits him. This is a key scene that probes the second theme of mortality and asks, "How long will it last?" How long will our vulnerable relationships last before the cruelty of time snatches away everything as it always does? But despite the seeming doom and gloom discussed here, the second theme of mortality actually makes the movie much more life-affirming, believe it or not. This is best exemplified by the aforementioned confrontation where Buzz convinces Woody to come home with them. However, Woody was offered a chance to be displayed at a museum as a collectible item, forever immortalized and beheld by millions of kids worldwide. After hearing Jessie's story, he is convinced that staying with Andy is a short and possibly painful lifespan not worth living, that one more rip would seal his fate in the garbage bin, that it was "his only chance". To which Buzz replied, "To do what, Woody? Watch kids from behind glass and never be loved again? Some life." It's at this point that the film reminds us through Woody that old adage, that a short but meaningful life is far worth living than one living in comfort. As Woody himself magnificently put it after realizing his mistake, "You're right. I can't stop Andy from growing up. But I wouldn't miss it for the world." It's a beautiful and hard-hitting truth about life. All this coming from a cartoon about talking toys. Aside from its impressive layers of philosophies and subverted character ideals, there are other things that made Toy Story 2 a great sequel, one of which being the effective use of parallels. In the first movie, there was a stronger focus on Buzz and Pizza Planet, on how high-tech toys have taken over the market, leaving old-fashioned cowboy dolls like Woody behind. In the sequel, this is mirrored in Woody's Roundup, a cancelled puppet TV show that's part of a series of collectible merchandise promoting a breakfast cereal. We are brought to Woody's world, as if we are watching a retro western filled with adventure and derring-do. This is further mirrored at the end of the movie. In the first Toy Story, Buzz gets his moment of glory when he actually flew through the sky for real (or "falling with style") like an actual space man. Here in the sequel, Woody gets a similar moment of glory at the end when he swings beneath a plane with his pull-string and leaps onto his horse like an actual cowboy. Such parallels is an effective way to develop a sequel by giving insight to characters that were not explored in the first movie. In this case, it shows "Woody's side of the story" and how his line of Woody toys came to be. Another great use of parallel is between Jessie and Stinky Pete. Pete's hatred of the "spaceman" toys that replace old-fashioned dolls like him and Woody is mirrored in Jessie when she becomes more intimate with Buzz at the end of the movie. It's an interesting parallel that shows the different choices both characters took - Pete remains bitter and resentful, blaming others for his fate while Jessie chooses a more hopeful approach at the end. If there is one weak point in this movie, it's perhaps Stinky Pete as the antagonist. He serves largely as a plot-device and isn't an effective foil to Woody's character. However, he did make an ominous prediction that would be more accurate than it seemed at the time. "You'll all be ruined! Forgotten! Spending eternity rotting in some landfill!"

parrypannu89

parrypannu89 added their review for Toy Story 2: Loved this movie.