Toy Story 2

**Toy Story 2** is an American film that was released on November 24, 1999. It is the second instalment in the Toy Story Franchise.

The film was written by Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlin and Chris Webb, and directed by John Lasseter.

## Plot

Andy prepares to go to cowboy camp with Woody, but while playing with Woody and Buzz, he accidentally tears Woody's arm. Andy's mother puts Woody on a shelf and Andy leaves without him. On the shelf, Woody finds a squeeze toy penguin named Wheezy, who has been shelved for months due to a broken squeaker. Andy's mother puts Wheezy in a yard sale. Woody rescues him, but is stolen by a greedy toy collector named Al McWhiggin. Buzz, Hamm, Mr. Potato Head, Slinky Dog and Rex set out on a mission to rescue Woody. At Al's apartment, Woody learns he is based on the main character of a 1950s TV show called Woody's Roundup, and along with Jessie, Bullseye and Stinky Pete the Prospector (the other people in his show), he is set to be sold to a museum in Japan, but Woody intends to return to Andy, earning him Jessie's ire. Stinky Pete explains the museum is only interested in the collection if it is complete and without Woody, they will be returned to storage. Al accidentally rips Woody's arm off completely while planning a photograph of the Roundup gang, so he calls a toy cleaner to come the next morning to try and fix him. That night while Al is sleeping, Woody attempts to retrieve his arm and escape, but his escape is sabotaged when Al's television turns on, waking up Al in the process and he angrily blames Jessie when he finds the TV remote in front of her. The next day, the toy cleaner arrives and fixes Woody's arm. Woody discovers that Jessie once belonged to a girl named Emily, who eventually outgrew her and gave her away. Stinky Pete warns Woody the same fate awaits him when Andy grows up, whereas he would last forever in the museum. Woody decides to stay, much to the delight of the others. Meanwhile, Buzz and the others reach Al's Toy Barn. While searching for Woody, Buzz is imprisoned in a cardboard box by a Utility Belt Buzz Lightyear action figure, believing Buzz is a rogue space ranger. Utility Belt Buzz then joins the other toys, who mistake him for Andy's Buzz. After discovering Al's plan, they head for his apartment. Andy's Buzz escapes and pursues them, but inadvertently frees an Evil Emperor Zurg action figure, who follows Buzz with the intent of destroying him. The toys find Woody and Buzz rejoins them, but Woody refuses to go home.

Buzz reminds Woody a toy's true purpose is to be played with, which he would never experience in a museum. After seeing a boy hug him on TV, Woody realises Buzz is right and asks the Roundup gang to come home with him and the other toys. However, Stinky Pete refuses and reveals he was actually responsible for foiling Woody's earlier escape attempt by turning on the TV and framed Jessie for it, as he wants to go to the museum having never been sold to children, loved, or played with. Al then returns, puts the gang in a suitcase and leaves for the airport. Andy's toys pursue Al, but are caught by Zurg, who battles Utility Belt Buzz and reveals himself to be his father. Rex knocks Zurg off the elevator. Utility Belt Buzz chooses to remain behind with Zurg, while Andy's toys, accompanied by three toy Aliens, steal a Pizza Planet delivery truck and follow Al to the airport, where they sneak into the baggage handling system and find Al's suitcase. Stinky Pete rips Woody's arm again, but Andy's toys subdue him and place him inside a little girl's backpack. They free Bullseye, but Jessie ends up on the plane bound for Japan. Assisted by Buzz and Bullseye, Woody enters the plane and frees Jessie, allowing them to escape before it takes off and they return home. Andy returns from camp and accepts Jessie, Bullseye and the Aliens as his new toys, then repairs Woody's arm, while Wheezy's squeaker has been fixed as well. Meanwhile, Al is upset in a new commercial after losing the Roundup gang. Woody tells Buzz he is no longer worried about Andy outgrowing him because they will still have each other for company.

## Cast and Characters

* Tom Hanks as Woody
* Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Utility Belt Buzz Lightyear
* Joan Cusack as Jessie
* Kelsey Grammer as Stinky Pete
* Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
* Jim Varney as Slinky Dog
* Wallace Shawn as Rex
* John Ratzenberger as Hamm
* Annie Potts as Bo Peep
* Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head
* Wayne Knight as Al McWhiggin
* John Morris as Andy Davis
* Laurie Metcalf as Mrs. Davis
* R. Lee Ermey as Sarge
* Jodi Benson as Barbie
* Jonathan Harris as The Cleaner / Geri
* Joe Ranft as Wheezy
* Jeff Pidgeon as Little Green Men
* Andrew Stanton as Emperor Zurg
* Frank Welker as Bullseye / Buster
* Hannah Unkrich as Molly Davis

## Sequels

The film had two sequels:

* Toy Story 3 (released June 18, 2010)
* Toy Story 4 (released June 21, 2019)

## Production

### Development

Talk of a sequel to Toy Story began around a month after the film's opening, in December 1995. A few days after the original film's release, Lasseter was travelling with his family and found a young boy clutching a Woody doll at an airport. Lasseter described how the boy's excitement to show it to his father touched him deeply. Lasseter realided that his character no longer belonged to him only, but rather it belonged to others, as well. The memory was a defining factor in the production of Toy Story 2, with Lasseter moved to create a great film for that child and for everyone else who loved the characters.

Ed Catmull, Lasseter and Ralph Guggenheim visited Joe Roth, successor to recently ousted Jeffrey Katzenberg as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, shortly afterward. Roth was pleased and embraced the idea of a sequel. Disney had recently begun making direct-to-video sequels to its successful features and Roth wanted to handle the Toy Story sequel this way, as well. Prior releases, such as 1994's Aladdin sequel, The Return of Jafar, had returned an estimated $100 million in profits.

Initially, everything regarding the sequel was uncertain at first. Wether stars Tom Hanks and Tim Allen would be available and affordable, what the story premise would be and even whether the film would be computer-animated at Pixar or traditionally hand-drawn at Walt Disney Feature Animation. Lasseter regarded the project as a chance to groom new directing talent, as top choices were already immersed in other projects (Andrew Stanton as co-director in A Bug's Life and Pete Docter as director of what would eventually become Monsters, Inc.). Instead, Lasseter turned to Ash Brannon, a young directing animator on Toy Story whose work he admired. Brannon, a CalArts graduate, joined the Toy Story team in 1993. Disney and Pixar officially announced the sequel in a press release on March 12, 1997.

### Story

Lasseter's intention with a sequel was to respect the original film and create that world again. The story originated with him wondering what a toy would find upsetting, how a toy would feel if it were not played with by a child or, worse, a child growing out of a toy. Brannon suggested the idea of a yard sale where the collector recognises Woody as a rare artefact. The concept of Woody as a collectible set came from the draft story of A Tin Toy Christmas, an original half-hour special pitched by Pixar to Disney in 1990. The obsessive toy collector named Al McWhiggin, who had appeared in a draft of Toy Story but was later expunged, was inserted into the film. Lasseter claimed that Al was inspired by himself.

Secondary characters in Woody's set were inspired by 1940s-1950s Western and puppet shows for children, such as Four Feather Falls, Hopalong Cassidy and Howdy Doody. The development of Jessie was kindled by Lasseter's wife Nancy, who pressed him to include a strong female character in the sequel, one with more substance than Bo Peep. The scope for the original Toy Story was basic and only extended over two residential homes, roadways and a chain restaurant, whereas Toy Story 2 has been described by Unkrich as something "all over the map".

To make the project ready for theatres, Lasseter would need to add 12 minutes or so of material and strengthen what was already there. The extra material would be a challenge, since it could not be mere padding, it would have to feel as if it had always been there, an organic part of the film. With the scheduled delivery date less than a year away, Lasseter called Stanton, Docter, Joe Ranft and some Disney story people to his house for a weekend. There, he hosted what he called a "story summit", a crash exercise that would yield a finished story in just two days.

Back at the office that Monday, Lasseter assembled the company in a screening room and pitched the revised version of Toy Story 2 from exposition to resolution. Story elements were recycled from the original drafts of the first Toy Story. The original film's original opening sequence featured a Buzz Lightyear cartoon playing on television, which evolved into the Buzz Lightyear video game that would be shown in the opening Toy Story 2. A deleted scene from Toy Story, featuring Woody having a nightmare involving him being thrown into a trash can, was incorporated in a milder form for depicting Woody's fear of losing Andy. The idea of a squeak-toy penguin with a broken squeaker also resurfaced from an early version of Toy Story.

### Animation

As the story approached the production stage in early 1997, it was unclear whether Pixar would produce the film, as the entire team of 300 was busy working on A Bug's Life for a 1998 release. The Interactive Products Group, with a staff of 95, had its own animators, art department and engineers. Under intense time pressure, they had put out two successful CD-ROM titles the previous year, Disney's Animated Storybook: Toy Story and The Toy Story Activity Center. Between the two products, the group had created as much original animation as there was in Toy Story itself. Steve Jobs made the decision to shut down the computer games operation and the staff became the initial core of the Toy Story 2 production team.

Before the switch from direct-to-video to feature film, the Toy Story 2 crew had been on its own, placed in a new building that was well-separated from the rest of the company by railroad tracks. "We were just the small film and we were off playing in our sandbox," co-producer Karen Jackson said. Lasseter looked closely at every shot that had already been animated and called for tweaks throughout. The film reused digital elements from Toy Story but, true to the company's "prevailing culture of perfectionism, it reused less of Toy Story than might be expected". Character models received major upgrades internally and shaders went through revisions to bring about subtle improvements. The team freely borrowed models from other productions, such as Geri from Pixar's 1997 short Geri's Game, who became the Cleaner in Toy Story 2. Supervising animator Glenn McQueen inspired the animators to do spectacular work in the short amount of time given, assigning different shots to suit each animators' strengths.

While producing Toy Story, the crew was careful in creating new locations, working within available technology at that time. By the time of production on Toy Story 2, technology had advanced farther to allow more complicated camera shots than were possible in the first film. In making the sequel, the team at Pixar did not want to stray too far from the first film's look, but the company had developed a lot of new software since the first feature had been completed. To achieve the dust visible after Woody is placed on top of a shelf, the crew was faced with the challenge of animating dust, an incredibly difficult task. After much experimentation, a tiny particle of dust was animated and the computer distributed that image throughout the entire shelf. Over two million dust particles are in place on the shelf in the completed film.

### Controversy and Troubled Production

Disney became unhappy with the pace of the work on the film and demanded in June 1997 that Guggenheim be replaced as producer and Pixar complied. As a result, Karen Jackson and Helene Plotkin, associate producers, moved up into the roles of co-producers. Lasseter would remain fully preoccupied with A Bug's Life until it wrapped in the fall. Once available, he took over directing duties and added Lee Unkrich as co-director. Unkrich, also fresh from supervising editor duties on A Bug's Life, would focus on layout and cinematography, while Brannon would be credited as co-director.

In November 1997, Disney executives Roth and Peter Schneider viewed the film's story reels, with some finished animation, in a screening room at Pixar. They were impressed with the quality of work and became interested in releasing Toy Story 2 in theatres. In addition to the unexpected artistic caliber, there were other reasons that made the case for a theatrical release more compelling. The economics of a direct-to-video Pixar release were not working as well as hoped thanks to the higher salaries of the crew. After negotiations, Jobs and Roth agreed that the split of costs and profits for Toy Story 2 would follow the model of a newly created five-film deal but Toy Story 2 would not count as one of the five films. Disney had bargained in the contract for five original features, not sequels, thus assuring five sets of new characters for its theme parks and merchandise. Jobs gathered the crew and announced the change in plans for the film on February 5, 1998.

The work done on the film to date was nearly lost in 1998 when one of the animators, while routinely clearing some files, accidentally started a deletion of the root folder of the Toy Story 2 assets on Pixar's internal servers. Associate technical director Oren Jacob was one of the first to notice as character models disappeared from their works in progress. They shut down the file servers but had lost 90% of the last two years of work and the backups were found to have failed some time previously. The film was saved when technical director Galyn Susman, who had been working from home to take care of her newborn child, revealed she had backups of the assets on her home computer. The Pixar team was able to recover nearly all of the lost assets save for a few recent days of work, allowing the film to proceed.

However, many of the creative staff at Pixar were not happy with how the sequel was turning out. Upon returning from the European promotion of A Bug's Life, Lasseter watched the development reels and agreed that it was not working. Pixar met with Disney, telling them that the film would have to be redone. Disney disagreed and noted that Pixar did not have enough time to remake the film before its established release date. Pixar decided that they simply could not allow the film to be released in its existing state and asked Lasseter to take over the production. Lasseter agreed and recruited the first film's creative team to redevelop the story. To meet Disney's deadline, Pixar had to complete the entire film in nine months. Unkrich, concerned with the dwindling amount of time remaining, asked Jobs whether the release date could be pushed back. Jobs explained that there was no choice, presumably in reference to the film's licensees and marketing partners, who were getting toys and promotions ready.

Brannon focused on development, story and animation, Lasseter was in charge of art, modelling and lighting, and Unkrich oversaw editorial and layout. Since they met daily to discuss their progress with each other (they wanted to ensure they were all progressing in the same direction), the boundaries of their responsibilities overlapped. As was common with Pixar features, the production became difficult as delivery dates loomed and hours inevitably became longer. Still, Toy Story 2, with its highly compressed production schedule, was especially trying. While hard work and long hours were common to the team by that point (especially so to Lasseter), running flat-out on Toy Story 2 for month after month began to take a toll. The overwork spun out into carpal tunnel syndrome for some animators and repetitive strain injuries for others. Catmull would later disclose that "a full third of the staff" ended up with some form of RSI by the time the film was finished. Pixar did not encourage long hours and, in fact, set limits on how many hours employees could work by approving or disapproving overtime. Employees' self-imposed compulsions to excel often trumped any other constraints, and were especially common to younger employees. In one instance, an animator had forgotten to drop his child off at daycare one morning and, in a mental haze, forgot the baby in the back seat of his car in the parking lot. "Although quick action by rescue workers headed off the worst, the incident became a horrible indicator that some on the crew were working too hard," wrote David Price in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch.

## Broadcast

Pixar showed the completed film at CalArts on November 12, 1999, in recognition of the school's ties with Lasseter and more than 40 other alumni who worked on the film. The students were captivated. The film held its official premiere the next day at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles, the same venue as Toy Story and was released across the United States on November 24, 1999. The film's initial theatrical and video releases include Luxo Jr., Pixar's first short film released in 1986, starring Pixar's titular mascot. Before Luxo Jr., a disclaimer appears reading, "In 1986 Pixar Animation Studios produced their first film. This is why we have a hopping lamp in our logo". On December 25, 1999, within a month of the film's theatrical release, a blooper reel was added to the film's mid-credits, which features the characters, Flik and Heimlich, from A Bug's Life.

### Re-releases

In 2009, both Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-release, which was extended due to its success. Lasseter said, "The Toy Story films and characters will always hold a very special place in our hearts and we're so excited to be bringing this landmark film back for audiences to enjoy in a whole new way, thanks to the latest in 3D technology. With Toy Story 3 shaping up to be another great adventure for Buzz, Woody and the gang from Andy's room, we thought it would be great to let audiences experience the first two films all over again and in a brand new way".

Translating the films into 3D involved revisiting the original computer data and virtually placing a second camera into each scene, creating left-eye and right-eye views needed to achieve the perception of depth. Unique to computer animation, Lasseter referred to this process as "digital archaeology". The lead stereographer Bob Whitehill oversaw this process and sought to achieve an effect that impacted the film's emotional storytelling. It took four months to resurrect the old data and get it in working order. Then, adding 3D to each of the films took six months per film.

The double feature was opened in 1,745 theatres on October 2, 2009 and made $12.5 million in its opening weekend, finishing in third place at the box office. The features closed on November 5, 2009, with a worldwide gross of $32.3 million. Unlike other countries, the UK and Argentina received the films in 3D as separate releases. Toy Story 2 was released January 22, 2010 in the UK and February 18, 2010, in Argentina.

## Release

### Critical Response

Reviewers judged the film as a sequel that equaled or even surpassed the original in terms of quality. "Toy Story 2 does what few sequels ever do," The Hollywood Reporter proclaimed. "Instead of essentially remaking an earlier film and deeming it a sequel, the creative team, led by director John Lasseter, delves deeper into their characters while retaining the fun spirit of the original film".

On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 100% based on 169 reviews, with an average rating of 8.68 out of 10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The rare sequel that arguably improves on its predecessor, Toy Story 2 uses inventive storytelling, gorgeous animation and a talented cast to deliver another rich moviegoing experience for all ages." The film is 69th on Rotten Tomatoes' list of "Best Rated Films" and is the seventh best rated animated film. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 88 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and said in his print review "I forgot something about toys a long time ago and Toy Story 2 reminded me". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said "Toy Story 2 may not have the most original title, but everything else about it is, well, mint in the box". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said "It's a great, IQ-flattering entertainment both wonderful and wise".

Upon seeing the film, animator Chuck Jones wrote a letter to Lasseter, calling the film "wonderful" and "beautifully animated" and telling Lasseter he was "advancing the cause of classic animation in a new and effective way." Lasseter, a personal admirer of Jones, has the letter framed in his house.

### Box Office

The film was as successful as its predecessor commercially. It became 1999's highest-grossing animated film, earning $245.9 million in North America and $497.4 million worldwide, beating both Pixar's previous releases by a significant margin. It became the second highest-grossing animated film of all-time, behind Disney's The Lion King (1994). Toy Story 2 opened over the Thanksgiving Day weekend at No. 1 to a three-day tally of $57.4 million from 3,236 theatres, averaging $17,734 per theatre over three days, making $80.1 million since its Wednesday launch and staying at No. 1 for the next two weekends. By New Year's Day, it had made more than $200 million in the U.S. alone and it eventually became 1999's third highest-grossing film and far surpassing the original. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 47.8 million tickets in North America.

## Home Media

Toy Story 2 was released on both VHS and DVD and as a DVD two-pack with Toy Story on October 17, 2000. That same day, an "Ultimate Toy Box" set was released containing the first and second films and a third disc of bonus materials. The standard VHS, DVD, DVD two-pack and the "Ultimate Toy Box" sets returned to the vault on May 1, 2003. On December 26, 2005, it was re-released as a "2-Disc Widescreen Special Edition" alongside the first film's 10th Anniversary Edition, which came out on September 6, 2005. Both editions returned to the Disney Vault on January 31, 2009.

A brief controversy involving the Ultimate Toy Box edition took place in which around 1,000 copies of the box set that were shipped to Costco stores had a pressing error which caused a scene from the 2000 R-rated film High Fidelity to play in the middle of the film. The scene in question, which featured the use of the word "fuck" multiple times, prompted a number of complaints from consumers, causing Costco to eventually recall the defective units from shelves and later go on to replace them. The defect was caused by a "content mix" error according to Technicolor, which manufactured the discs and only affected the U.T.B. Box set copies of Toy Story 2 which were included with the two-pack were not affected by the manufacturing error. According to Buena Vista Home Entertainment, less than 1% of the discs shipped were printed with the glitch.

The film was available for the first time on Blu-ray Disc in a Special Edition Combo Pack released on March 23, 2010, along with the first film. On November 1, 2011, the first three Toy Story films were re-released, each as a DVD/Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/Digital Copy combo pack (four discs each for the first two films, and five for the third film). Toy Story 2 was released on 4K Blu-ray on June 4, 2019. For the 2019 home media reissue, Disney removed a blooper scene from the film's mid-credits mock blooper reel that featured the Prospector suggestively enticing a pair of Barbie dolls with a role in Toy Story 3. Media outlets inferred this change was a result of the Me Too movement.