They've done it again.

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2000)

Yesterday I attended an advanced screening for this film in London's West End; it was screened in a large theatre full of students, not kids, because the company running the preview were testing out the film on our age bracket particularly (ie people in their 20s). An recipe for disaster? A case of a theatre full of people watching the wrong film? The hell it was...
Each and every person in the theatre loved it. Being a Brit who's lived abroad, I'm used to the idea of people cheering and clapping at the parts they particularly enjoy... but only in America. This film was enough to provoke such a response from even us non-emotive Brits however, and on a great many occasions. We laughed loud, broke into cheers regularly, and actually applauded at least five times. I was too busy enjoying the film to keep count.
Why? Well, the humour in it is NOT exclusively aimed at for kids; that's not to say they won't find it funny, but I defy an parent to watch it without at some point saying 'my kid's not going to get that', or even, in the case of a couple of surprisingly risque gags, 'I HOPE my kid's not going to get that'...
Also, it was basically an action film. After a comfortable few opening scenes which establish that all is well, it doesn't take long for things to go a bit awry, and then more so, and soon there are toys all over the city and the tension becomes genuine. The laughs keep on coming however, and there is (with the exception of a single concession to the notorious Disney Song) not a single unentertaining moment to be found.
There's a different take on the Toy idea (what if you're outgrown?) and almost any possible inclusion you could wish for as far as references to the first film, or others, or scenarios that are dying to be explored (like a now wisened Buzz meeting another Buzz who still thinks he's a toy). And then there's all the new characters (the implied arrival of a Mrs Potato head at the end of the first movie is gloriously realised, for example) are as amusing as all the old favourites, who all enjoy large roles in the limelight.
It's also comforting to see that they've kept to the overall look of the original. You can't help but think that they could draw people a lot more realistically if they wanted to, but they don't; because then it wouldn't feel like the same world. This is an excellent example of how Pixar treat their movies with a lot more importance than they attach to their (also spectacular) visuals.
If you loved the first film, go and see this one. There is nothing they could have done that they have not, and nothing they shouldn't have done that they have. Once again Pixar have remembered the most important thing about filmmaking; all the computer visuals are very well and good, but if there's no substance to the movie you're wasting your time. This is clearly a movie that was sat down and thought about, and the results are breathtaking.