The Bots are Back in Town

Rating: 9/10 (31 March 2008)

A fine fine movie that really is a rarity in many ways. It's an animated movie which works on both the levels intended. Yes as expected it is great for children but unusually it succeeds with the jokes aimed at adults to (and as we adults know most of its competitors fail miserably there). Then we have the double whammy of a sequel that lives up to and in many cases surpasses the original (hard to think of many other candidates for that past the mighty duo of 'The Godfather Part II' & 'The Empire Strikes Back'), and that is even with Toy Story 2's story not being that far removed from that of the original! This time it is Buzz that has to save Woody but from a much more evil perpetrator than the kid next door, this time it is from an adult and not even a normal one at that a toy shop owner who intends to ship woody of to a toy museum in Japan and make himself a tidy sum in doing so. This results in a number of great set pieces which have great elements of action and comedy binding them together. As one expects from Pixar the animation is superb, but as with most of their other movies (and where so many of their competitors fail) it is the quality of the script that is the bedrock of this movie. A tight story with a cracking script that has endless one liners and equal amounts of action, comedy and pathos all welded together by some superb direction make this a timeless classic.