when andy leaves for cowboy camp , his mother holds a yard sale and scrounges in his room for old toys .
one of these toys is wheezy , a penguin with a broken squeaker .
woody ( tom hanks ) saddles up andy 's dog and rides out into the yard to rescue wheezy .
woody succeeds in his mission , but does n't make it back to the house before al , the unscrupulous owner of al 's toy barn , recognizes woody as a rare collector 's item and steals him .
buzz lightyear
( tim allen ) leads hamm ( john ratzenberger ) , mr .
potato head ( don rickles ) , slinky dog ( jim varney ) , and rex ( wallace shawn ) into the city to find their friend .
meanwhile woody discovers the reason he was kidnapped .
al has collected every piece of merchandising from the 1950 's tv puppet show " woody 's round - up " except for a woody doll .
now that the collection is complete , al plans to sell woody and his round - up gang - bullseye the horse , jessie the cowgirl ( joan cusack ) , and stinky pete the old prospector ( kelsey grammer )
-to a toy museum in japan .
the gang is happy about the move ; they 've been in storage for years waiting for woody .
if woody does n't go with them , they 'll be closed up in a dark box again , possibly forever .
trying to convince him to stay with them , jessie tells woody how she was abandoned when her owner grew up , and woody realizes that his days as a beloved toy are numbered . while woody ponders whether to go to japan or to go home to andy , buzz and the boys invade al 's toy barn , where the buzz we know is replaced by another buzz who does n't know he 's a toy .
the new buzz generates the movie 's biggest laughs as he leads the other toys in an assault on " zurg 's fortress " ( i .
e . , al 's apartment building ) .
the original " toy story " won me over because its central themes reflected a grown - up sensibility rather than the usual
this - is - what - we - think - kids - want - to - hear .
while most kids ' movies take the position that every person is special and has an extraordinary destiny to fulfill , in " toy story " buzz discovered that he was n't special , that he was just like everyone else .
buzz sank into a suicidal depression , but woody showed buzz that being a toy was worthwhile because a toy is loved and a toy makes a child happy .
in other words , it 's okay to be ordinary if you have love and a purpose in your life .
most of us probably come to the same conclusion when we realize that we 're not space rangers and we 're never going to be .
"
toy story 2 " addresses the question raised by the conclusion drawn by the first movie .
woody is forced to recognize that andy will grow up and forget him and that he will likely be discarded , abandoned , or sealed up in a dark box in the attic .
this is another big grown - up theme : everything ends .
the theme is introduced early in the movie when woody 's arm is torn and andy places him on a shelf rather than taking him to cowboy camp .
on the shelf , woody meets wheezy , who 's dusty , broken , and forgotten .
the other toys are shocked that woody has been " shelved , " and they worry that woody 's ride out to the 25-cent box at the yard sale is a suicide attempt .
after he 's stolen , woody has to decide between a long life in a display case and an uncertain future with andy and his pals .
of course , in spite of the heavy themes " toy story 2 " explores , it 's also very funny .
most of the laughs come from the toys ' assault on al 's toy barn and on the apartment building .
the brief substitution of a new , still delusional buzz was a welcome surprise ; i 'd wondered how a sequel could be as funny as the original without the pompous attitude buzz displayed in the original .
most of the vocal performances are first - rate .
tom hanks stands out for the level of enthusiasm he puts into his work .
however , one voice - over also stands out as horribly miscast .
kelsey grammer sounds nothing like an old prospector .
although he does a lot of voice - over work in commercials and on " the simpsons " ( as sideshow bob ) , grammer only makes slight variations on his own voice .
he does n't have the range to pull off a role like stinky pete .
the animation is even better than in the first .
especially impressive were the textures of the figures .
we can now see the difference between flesh and plastic ; in the first movie the people looked just like the toys , but now human skin looks soft and has a slight bluish tint .
we can also see that bo peep is porcelain .
as you can tell from the long - winded phrasing common in the merchandising -- " disney and pixar 's ' toy story 2 ' " -- this is pixar 's coming out party .
to celebrate they appended their first project , a hilarious short about two desklamps and a rubber ball , to the beginning of the movie .
they made the short in 1986 , which is incredible when one considers the relatively primitive level of computer technology available then .
on the downside , " toy story 2 " follows the formula of the original so closely that the sequel comes off a bit stale , and some sections tend to drag .
overall , though , i had a great time and found " story 2 " to be a worthy successor to the first " toy story .
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bottom line : this one really is fun for the whole family !
it 's also very funny a worthy successor first - rate especially impressive i had a great time even better than in the first a welcome surprise