expansive and poignant

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2005)

Pixar's brilliant TOY STORY 2 is not merely an unusually good sequel, an exceptionally good cartoon, or a great movie, it's a genuine thrill... one of those moments when regardless of your age or experience, you may be caught utterly off-guard.
John Lasseter had already defined himself as one of the great animation directors with the amusing TOY STORY and superior A BUG'S LIFE, but here he outdoes himself with a thoroughly absorbing and extremely clever film that doubles as a powerhouse of strong writing and characterization. Other than "The Simpsons," when before has a cartoon explored such rich emotional territory with such subtlety and so little pandering? The concerns of this film are universal, with appeal that crosses the boundaries of age, something so-called "family films" with their pseudo-hip humor and dumbed-down dramatics rarely do anymore.
TOY STORY was a fun movie and a technically astonishing one, but it couldn't shake the veneer of an Event Picture for the movie-brat set, and its depth was somewhat confined, at least in comparison to the five subsequent Pixar efforts, all of which have surpassed it. What's so impressive about the sequel is how much it stands on its own, and the fact that it explores every conceivable avenue of its story. Even the basic plot line is brilliant -- broken toy Woody is left behind and turns out to be a collectible, cherished by cynical fatso Al of Al's Toy Barn.
That the Pixar crew could craft something entertaining out of this is no shocker. A BUG'S LIFE was also leaps and bounds above their feature debut, full of setpieces and performances on a par with classic Disney material. But TOY STORY 2 one-ups basically everything that came out of feature animation in the preceding ten years (possible exceptions, at least from the U.S., are limited to BEAUTY AND THE BEAST and THE IRON GIANT). It has a spark, an energy, an enthusiasm and assurance, ingredients that have become precious.
It seems as if this purely joyous movie marked the point when Pixar went from the cool little CG place out west to the legit ground-zero of Quality Cartoons. If I had to pinpoint the moment when I became convinced, it would be the "When She Loved Me" scene. I have always admired Pixar's resistance to feature-animation conventions, particularly musical sequences, and this deeply sincere bit exemplifies their own devotion to storytelling. In weaker hands it could have easily been maudlin, sappy and irritating. It never breaks that line and yet it's still extraordinarily sad and somehow real. When you can get that out of an inanimate object's emotional distress, you're witnessing some kind of remarkable talent.