It's good, BUT. . .

Rating: 6/10 (22 February 2000)

Don't have any major axe to grind with this one; it's an enjoyable and entertaining movie, perfect for the whole family. Go see it. But please don't make the ridiculous claim that it's better than the first one. The first one had the true spark of originality - this one is a mere updating, a scrupulous ploy to revisit all the good bits pioneered by its predecessor. Don't get me wrong - it does an exceedingly good job of this, and finds creative and imaginative ways to recycle the material without making the audience feel that it's just seeing the same old thing again (I particularly liked the way it worked in a *second* Buzz Lightyear action figure, so that we could have the fun all over again of a Buzz totally clueless as to his own doll-hood). But, really, when you get right down to it, we *are* seeing the same old thing again: the characters haven't expanded or grown any (how can they, after all - they're TOYS!!) and the plot mechanism is exactly the same - a daring rescue mission to save a toy in trouble. And it suffers the same malady which infects every sequel, the desire to do everything bigger and more opulently, which undermines the low-key charm the original had; instead of staying within the parameters of the neighborhood and a back-yard world, TS2 takes its heroes, more improbably (and impersonally), through crowded city streets, local shopping malls, high-rise office buildings, and finally into the bowels of a large modern airport. All of this is done with wit and originality, but it seemed to contradict the fundamental premise of the first one, which is that any step outside of the bedroom is a dangerous and unlikely one for a toy to make. What's more, the egregious Sarah McLachlan song in the middle of the movie is one of the most lachrymose bits of over-stated sentimentality ever seen in a Disney movie and almost made me want to bolt from the theater in disgust. The first movie had nothing so wildly embarrassing (the Randy Newman songs being utterly perfect).
The moral quandary Woody faces here is interesting, but it's almost too big a theme to introduce into a story of this nature. I was left unconvinced that he would choose the road of built-in obsolescence, represented by going back to Andy, as opposed to the assured ever-lasting fame of being enshrined in the museum. I ended up feeling sorry for the Stinky Pete character, who was supposed to be the villain but in actuality made some pretty good, hard-to-refute points about the ephemeral nature of being a mere child's plaything. You might say I was thinking about this too hard, but the story premise is an intriguing one, and seems to invite more allegorical and philosophical speculation than it delivers; it pulls back in the end and reverts to its big adventure chase mechanics. It seems to me that the first Toy Story did not make this fundamental mistake of biting off more than it could chew; plot, theme, and action were all perfectly integrated in that movie, making it truly one of the minor classics of our age.
Anyway - just needed to get that all off my chest. TS2 is an enjoyable movie, no question about it, one of the best of the year. But because of the absolute perfection of its predecessor, I just couldn't help feeling it was somewhat hollow and regurgitated. Here's hoping that Pixar does the smart thing and puts Woody, Buzz and the rest of the gang permanently away in some digital toybox somewhere, letting them live on forever in the shimmering perfection of our memories.