- “The toys are back!”
- ―Tagline
Toy Story 2 is a 1999 American computer-animated adventure comedy film, which was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and directed by John Lasseter. Co-directed by Lee Unkrich and Ash Brannon, the film is a sequel to Toy Story and the first of any Pixar film and the third movie made by Pixar, as well as Pixar's first sequel film. In the film, while Andy is away at Cowboy Camp, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector named Al McWhiggin, prompting Buzz Lightyear and his friends to rescue him. However, Woody finds the idea of immortality in a museum tempting. The film returns many of the original characters from Toy Story, with their respective actors reprising their roles, and introduces several new characters, including Jessie, Bullseye, Stinky Pete, Barbie, Zurg, and Mrs. Potato Head, although Zurg and Mrs. Potato Head were only mentioned in the first Toy Story movie. Toy Story 2 is the last Toy Story film in which Jim Varney, who provides Slinky Dog's voice, appears before his death of lung cancer in 2000.
Disney initially envisioned the film as a direct-to-video sequel and Toy Story 2 began production in a building separated from Pixar and was much smaller scale, with most of the main Pixar staff working on A Bug's Life (1998). When story reels proved promising, Disney upgraded the film to theatrical release, but Pixar was unhappy with the film's quality. Lasseter and the story team re-developed the entire plot in one weekend. Although most Pixar features take years to develop, the established release date could not be moved and the production schedule for Toy Story 2 was compressed into nine months.
Despite production struggles, Toy Story 2 opened in theaters November 24, 1999 to wildly successful box office numbers, eventually grossing over $497 million, and highly positive critical reviews. Toy Story 2 has been considered by critics and audiences alike to be one of few sequels that outshine the original, and it continues to be featured frequently on lists of the greatest animated films ever. In honor of its 10th anniversary, the film saw and a 3-D re-release in 2009 along with the original movie. The film's success led to the production of a second sequel, Toy Story 3, which was released in theaters on June 18, 2010. After the third film's success, Toy Story 4 was released in theaters on June 21, 2019. After the fourth film's success, Toy Story 5 is slated for a theatrical relase on June 19, 2026.
Plot[]
The film begins with scenes of Buzz Lightyear on an adventure in outer space. He finds a cluster of red laser beams landing on him, which turns out to be hostile robots. Buzz fires his laser at a series of rock crystals, creating an explosion. The robots are blasted into several pieces. Then, Buzz runs to the wall as a robotic camera pops out. The camera trains its sights right on him. After he blows up the camera, an earthquake occurs, as the platform Buzz is on turns into an underground cave when a Z-shaped pit opens. Buzz is forced to jump into the cave and turns on his glow-in-the-dark system. The pit closes, putting the area into total darkness. Buzz then traverses through Zurg's Fortress, dodging several obstacles. At the end, he comes face-to-face with Evil Emperor Zurg, who kills him, but it turns out this was all a video game that Rex has been playing. He is upset about losing the game, mostly because of his small arms. Meanwhile, Woody and the other toys are searching for Woody's lost hat, until Slinky Dog finds it. As soon as Woody retrieves his hat, Buster breaks into Andy's room, terrorizing the toys. Buster stalks Woody and licks him in the face, becoming great friends. Andy then comes into his room, preparing to leave for Cowboy Camp with Woody.
Unfortunately, during his playtime (five minutes before departure), Andy accidentally rips Woody's arm, and is unable to take him to camp. After being placed on the shelf, Woody watches Andy leave without him and becomes dismayed. That night, he has a nightmare of Andy coming home from camp early and throwing him into a trash can because of his torn arm. When he wakes up the next morning, he hears coughing from behind some dusty books, and finds another broken toy, Wheezy the Penguin. Wheezy tells him that Andy's mom was supposed to get Wheezy's squeaker fixed but instead put him on the shelf. Sadly, the dust makes his broken squeaker worse, and he begins to fear he'll soon be thrown away. When Wheezy is set out for a yard sale, Woody manages to rescue him, but ends up in the yard sale himself. He is seen by Al, an obsessive, greedy toy collector and proprietor of Al's Toy Barn. He tries to buy Woody from Andy's mother, but she refuses to sell him. Having failed to negotiate a sale, Al creates a distraction and steals Woody, prompting Buzz to take action. He slides down the gutter into the yard sale and sees Al getting into his car after packing Woody in the trunk. Buzz manages to get to the car as Al is driving away, but by the time he opens the trunk, Buzz loses his grip from the car and Al escapes.
However, a clue is presented to Buzz as the car speeds away: a feather from Al's trunk lands in front of him. Buzz tells the other toys the bad news, so they try to investigate the culprit. However, Buzz is trying to type the license plate number that he briefly saw on Al's car - "LZTYBRN" - to track it and whoever he was, while the rest of the toys, including Etch A Sketch, were having problems doing an identity portrait of Al. When Mr. Potato Head gets fed up with Buzz trying to investigate the license plate message with Mr. Spell and irritably tells the others to "leave Buzz to play with his toy," the word "toy" causes Buzz to decipher what the license plate said - "Al's Toy Barn" - and consequently order Etch to draw the man in a chicken suit (which Al wears in the commercials he films for his store). The toys realize that the man in the commercial was the kidnapper. They later manage to find an Al's Toy Barn commercial playing on TV to trace a map to the shop. Buzz then heads out to Al's Toy Barn with Rex, Potato Head, Hamm, and Slinky Dog to rescue Woody.
Meanwhile, Woody is taken to Al's apartment, where he is greeted by a yodeling cowgirl named Jessie, an affectionate horse named Bullseye, and Stinky Pete the Prospector, an unsold toy still in its original box. They reveal to Woody that he is a vintage Sheriff Woody collectible doll and the star of a forgotten children's TV show Woody's Roundup. Along the way, Woody discovers that his show had been cancelled due to the launch of SPUTNIK and children finding more interest in space than the Wild West, which Woody replying how he knows how that feels. Now that Al has a Woody doll, he has a complete collection and while playing with some of the toys, Woody learns that Al intends to sell the whole collection to a museum in Japan, but Woody tells them he can't go as he is still Andy's toy. This shocks the others, and Jessie starts to panic about going back into storage. The Prospector explains that up until Woody's arrival the three of them have been in storage as Al needed the entire collection, and without Woody, they will be placed back into storage. Later, Al arrives and accidentally rips off Woody's torn arm completely, making Woody attempt to recover his arm and then return to Andy, but his plan fails. Al then gets a repairman who fixes Woody (and overpaints the name "Andy" on his boot). After that, a suddenly depressed Jessie tearfully tells Woody of how she once had an owner, named Emily, who loved her, but eventually outgrew and abandoned Jessie at a charity toy drive. The Prospector warns Woody that he will face the same fate as Jessie when Andy grows up. Woody decides to stay with the "Roundup Gang" to go to the museum, now believing that all toys eventually get discarded by their owners.
At the same moment, Buzz and his friends search for Al at Al's Toy Barn. After Buzz orders his friends to split and look for Al. He discovers an aisle full of newer Buzz Lightyears and gets in a scuffle with a new Buzz Lightyear, who, like the real Buzz in the first movie, does not realize he is a toy. The real Buzz then ends up being tied up and repackaged in a box and set on the shelf for sale by the Deluded Buzz who then sets off with the other toys for Al's apartment, genuinely believing that he is attempting to rescue a hostage from his arch-enemy, Emperor Zurg.
The original Buzz frees himself and follows them to the apartment, but he accidentally frees an Emperor Zurg toy, who follows to destroy him while exiting the store, not realizing he is a toy. The toys make it to the apartment and climb up the elevator. Meanwhile, Al packs up for his trip to Japan, and after he leaves the four Roundup Gang members put on a show. When the toys reach the apartment, Woody tells them he does not want to be rescued and intends to go with his new friends to Japan. After the original Buzz arrives and proves to Woody and the other toys that he is the real Buzz by showing Andy's name on his foot, in an ironic reversal of a scene from the first movie, he reminds Woody, "You're a child's plaything. You... are... a toy!" He also said that the reason he came to save Woody was that Buzz believed in him. Woody (figuratively and literally) turns his back on Buzz, telling him that he intends to go to the museum with his Roundup gang so they won't go back into storage and that Buzz has wasted his time coming over to the rescue. Disappointed that Woody doesn't want to go home, Buzz's group leaves without Woody with Rex telling the group that Andy is coming home tonight, but not before Buzz says a rather upset farewell to Woody, warning him that in the museum, he will end up spending the rest of his life watching kids from behind glass and never be loved again, and leaves him to contemplate his decision.
However, Woody soon has a change of heart after seeing his tv self singing "You've Got a Friend in Me" to a boy that looks like Andy, realizing that Buzz is right as he tells the Prospector that he can't stop Andy from growing up, but he wouldn't want to miss it for the world, shocking the Prospector, and, after calling Buzz and the group back, invites the "Roundup Gang" to come home to Andy with him. Bullseye agrees to go while Jessie was nervous about the choice, but the Prospector escapes from his box and locks them in the room, revealing that he framed Jessie for turning on the TV to prevent Woody from escaping last night and desperately wanting to go to the museum, since he was never sold or played with, he will not have Woody mess it up for him. Al returns and packs the Roundup Gang, and the rest of the toys give chase but when arrive at the elevator, the Emperor Zurg toy shows up. The second Buzz battles him, and in a showdown mimicking a similar scene from The Empire Strikes Back, Zurg reveals himself to be Buzz's father, shortly before his defeat at Rex's hands (or tail). The other toys resume the rescue mission and hijack an unattended Pizza Planet delivery truck and chasee Al to the airport in it along with three Aliens. The second Buzz remains behind with Zurg, playing father and son games and the original Buzz bids farewell.
After arriving at the airport, Buzz and his group free Woody and Bullseye from the suitcase. The Prospector has other plans, though, and he re-tears Woody's arm, even though it still works. However, Buzz and his group come to Woody's rescue. After the Prospector rants at the group, telling them that children destroy toys and they'll end up being forgotten and spend eternity in a landfill, they stick him in a little girl's backpack so he can "learn the true meaning of playtime". The Prospector is terrified to learn that the little girl likes to draw on all of her toys before sobbing in despair. Woody then concludes, "Happy trails, Prospector." Jessie, however, finds herself in trouble and remains trapped in the suitcase. Woody and Buzz ride Bullseye to rescue her from being taken to the museum on her own.
Woody manages to find Jessie inside the plane, but just as they're about to escape, the door closes, and the plane heads for the runway. Woody finds another way out of the plane through a small hatch that leads down to the landing gear wheel, and as they are doing so, he slips on tar, but Jessie catches him. When the plane is on the main runway, Woody knows that time is running out. In true "Woody's Roundup" style, he uses his pull string to swing him and Jessie down to safety on Bullseye's back - just seconds before the plane takes off. Their mission accomplished, the toys now make their way home using a luggage cart from the airport.
Just then, Andy returns home from Cowboy Camp. Seeing Jessie, Bullseye, and the Aliens, he decides to add them to his toy collection. Woody's ripped arm is repaired by Andy himself as he is glad that he decided to not take Woody to camp as his whole arm might've come off before leaving. The events of the airplane's cargo hold have a terrible (and hilarious) consequence for Al as he is now depressed. After Hamm fails at the Buzz Lightyear video game, he flips through the channels and sees Al in an Al's Toy Barn commercial, crying since he lost the Roundup gang and the money he was going to get for the delivery, which is why in the commercial he is selling everything for "a Buck, Buck, Buck". As Al cries over his loss of money, Hamm says a somewhat humorous remark about Al and his scheme ("Well, I guess crime doesn't pay"). Meanwhile, Buzz becomes a bit smitten with Jessie, Mrs. Potato Head adopts the aliens to Mr. Potato Head's dismay, while a fixed Wheezy sings a Frank Sinatra-style version of "You've Got a Friend in Me" as Buzz asks Woody if he is still worried about Andy giving him up. Woody replies that he isn't worried about Andy discarding him anymore and that when it is all over, he will have Buzz to keep him company, for "infinity and beyond".
Cast[]
- Tom Hanks as Woody
- Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear and Ultra Buzz Lightyear (uncredited)
- Joan Cusack as Jessie
- Mary Kay Bergman as Jessie (yodeling)
- Kelsey Grammer as Stinky Pete the Prospector
- Wallace Shawn as Rex
- Jim Varney as Slinky Dog
- John Ratzenberger as Hamm
- Wayne Knight as Al McWhiggin
- Annie Potts as Bo Peep
- Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
- Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head
- Frank Welker as Bullseye and Buster
- John Morris as Andy Davis
- R. Lee Ermey as Sarge
- Joe Ranft as Wheezy (speaking voice)/Heimlich (outtakes)
- Robert Goulet as Wheezy (singing voice)
- Hannah Unkrich as Molly Davis
- Jodi Benson as Tour Guide Barbie
- Andrew Stanton as Zurg
- Laurie Metcalf as Andy's Mom
- Jonathan Harris as Geri
- Jeff Pidgeon as Little Green Men/Mr. Spell
- Andi Peters as Luggage Handler and Male Baggage handler 2
- Corey Burton as Woody's Roundup Announcer
- Lee Unkrich as Red Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot
- John Lasseter as Blue Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robot
- Jack Angel as Rocky Gibraltar, Shark
- Bob Bergen as Green Army Man and Passenger #2
- Nicolette Little as Little Girl at Yard Sale
- Mickie McGowan as Mom at Yard Sale
- Phil Proctor as Sign-off voice/Airline rep/Mr. Konishi
- Jan Rabson as Japanese Businessman
- Jessica Evans as Woman #2
- Debi Derryberry as Amy
- Bill Farmer as Man #1
- Pat Fraley as Toy Store Buzz Lightyears
- Jess Harnell as Man #2
- Sherry Lynn as Barbie Girl
- Rodger Bumpass as Passenger #1
- Madylin Sweeten as Woman #1
- Dave Foley as Flik (outtakes)
Additional voices[]
- Rachel Davey
- Carly Schroeder
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 traveling with his family and found a young boy clutching a Woody doll at an airport. Lasseter described the boy's excitement to show it to his father as touching him deeply. Lasseter then realized that his character no longer belonged to him only, 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 who loved the characters. Ed Catmull, Lasseter, and Ralph Guggenheim visited Joe Roth, successor to recently-ousted Jeffery Katzenberg as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, shortly afterward. Roth was pleased and embraced the idea. 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 hundred million dollars in profits.
Initially, everything regarding the sequel was uncertain at first: whether 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 at Disney. Lasseter regarded the project as a chance to groom new directing talent, but top choices were already immersed in other projects (Andrew Stanton in A Bug's Life and Pete Docter in early development work for a film about monsters). 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. Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studios officially announced the sequel to a press release on March 12, 1997.
In 1998, they announced it would see a theatrical release.
Story[]
Lasseter's intention with a sequel was to respect the original film and create that world again. The story originated with Lasseter pondering what a toy would find upsetting. Lasseter wondered how a toy would feel if they 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 recognizes Woody as a rare artifact. 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 known as 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.
“ | The story of Toy Story 2 is based a lot on my own experience. I'm a big toy collector and a lot of them are like antiques, or one-of-a-kind toys, or prototypes the toy makers have given me. Well, I have five sons, and when they were little and they loved to come to daddy's work, and come in into daddy's office and they just want to touch and play with everything. And I sitting there saying 'Oh no, that's uh, you can't play with that one, oh no play with this one, oh no....' and I found myself just sitting there looking at my self and laughing. Because toys are manufactured, put on this earth, to be played with by a child. That is the core essence of Toy Story. And so I started wondering, what was it like from a toy's point of view to be collected. | ” |
Secondary characters in Woody's set emerged from viewings of 1950s cowboy shows for children, such as Howdy Doody and Hopalong Cassidy. 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 very basic and only consisted over two residential homes, whereas Toy Story 2 has been described by Unkrich as "all over the map."
To make the project ready for theaters, Lasseter would need to add twelve 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 a "story summit," as he called it - 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 beginning to end.
Story elements were recycled from the original drafts of 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 open 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 showing 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: The Toy Story Animated StoryBook 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 did, however, freely borrow 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.
Whilst producing Toy Story, the crew was very careful in creating new locations due to technology at that time. By 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 visibly 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[]
"When we went from a direct-to-video to a feature film and we had limited time in which to finish that feature film, the pressure really amped up. Forget seeing your family, forget doing anything. Once we made that decision [on the schedule], it was like, 'Okay, you have a release date. You're going to make that release date. You're going to make these screenings.'" — Karen Jackson, co-producer of Toy Story 2.
Production problems were evident from the beginning. Disney soon 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 to the role 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 theaters. 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 weren't working as well as hoped thanks to 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 entered the deletion command code /bin/rm -r -f *
on 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 already lost 90% of the last two years of work, and it was also found that the backups had not been working for about a month. The film was saved when technical director Galyn Susman, who had been remote working to take care of her newborn child, revealed she had a backup copy of the film 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. Lasseter, upon returning from European promotion of A Bug's Life, 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, however, 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. However, in order to meet Disney's deadline, Pixar had to complete the entire film in nine months. Unkrich, concerned with the dwindling amount of time left, 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, modeling, and lighting, and Unkrich oversaw editorial and layout. Since they met daily to discuss their progress with each other (they wanted to make sure they were all going in the same direction), the boundaries of their responsibilities overlapped.
As 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. Pixar did not encourage long hours, and, in fact, set limits on how many hours employees could work by approving or disapproving overtime. An employee's self-imposed compulsion to excel, however, often trumped any other constraints, and was especially common to younger employees. In one instance, an animator had forgotten to drop his child off at day care one morning and, in a mental haze, forgotten the baby in the backseat 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.
Release[]
Pixar showed the completed film at CalArts on November 12, 1999, in recognition of the school's ties with Lasseter and more than forty 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's - and released across the United States on November 24.
Box office[]
The film was no less successful than its predecessor in a commercial perspective; it became 1999's highest-grossing animated film, earning $245 million domestically and $485 million worldwide - beating both of Pixar's previous releases by a significant margin. It was the second highest-grossing animated film of all-time for a time, behind Disney's The Lion King (1994). Toy Story 2 opened over the Thanksgiving Day weekend at #1 to a three-day tally of $57,388,839 from 3,236 theaters averaging $17,734 per theater over three days, making $80,102,784 since its Wednesday launch, and staying at #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 made $245,852,179 domestically and $239,163,000 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $485,015,179, becoming 1999's third highest grossing film, and far surpassing the original. Toy Story 2 is classified as the third highest-grossing film of 1999 behind The Sixth Sense and Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace and the third highest-grossing animated film of the 1990's behind Aladdin and The Lion King.
Video games[]
Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue, a video game for the PC, PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast, was released. The game featured original cast voices and clips from the film as introductions to levels. Once earned, these clips could be viewed at the player's discretion. Another game was released for the Game Boy Color.
Home media[]
- Main article: Toy Story 2 (video)
Toy Story 2 was released on 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 both films and a third disc of bonus materials. The standard VHS and DVD and the DVD two-pack and "Ultimate Toy Box" sets returned to the vault on May 1, 2003. There was a brief controversy with the marketing of "Ultimate Toy Box" at Costco stores, as a glitch occurred in one of the 1,000 copies, which featured a sequence from a R-rated movie High Fidelity featuring the multiple use of the F-bomb. These copies were replaced after the recall. 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.[1]
On December 26, 2005, it was again re-released as a "2-Disc Special Edition" alongside the first film's 10th Anniversary Edition, which came out on September 6. Both editions returned to the vault on January 31, 2009.
The film was available on Blu-ray Disc for the first time in a Special Edition Combo Pack that was released on March 23, 2010, along with the first film. There was a DVD-only re-release on May 11, 2010.
On November 1, 2011, along with the DVD and Blu-ray release of Cars 2, Toy Story 2 and the other two films were released on each Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D/DVD/Digital Copy combo pack (4 discs each for the first two films, and 5 for the third film). They will also be released on Blu-ray 3D in a complete trilogy box set. Toy Story 2 was released on 4K UHD Blu-ray on June 4, 2019 with part of the outtake sequence showing Stinky Pete enticing a pair of Barbie dolls removed due to the #Me-Too controversy.
Re-releases[]
In 2009, Toy Story 2, alongside its predecessor, was converted to 3D for a two-week limited theatrical re-release. The film was released with Toy Story as a double feature for a two-week run which was extended due to its success. In addition, the film's sequel, Toy Story 3, was also released in the 3D format. Lasseter commented on the new 3D re-release: "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 3-D 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.
Unlike other countries, the U.K. and Argentina received the films in 3D as separate releases. Toy Story 2 was instead released January 22, 2010, in the U.K., and February 18, 2010, in Argentina. The double feature was opened in 1,745 theaters on October 2, 2009, and made $12,491,789 in its opening weekend, coming in third place at the box office. The feature(s) closed on November 5, 2009, with a worldwide gross of $32,284,600.
Television broadcasts[]
On June 12, 2010, in its broadcast on Disney Channel, the film received 7.479 million viewers, making the number one show or film of the week.
Critical response[]
Toy Story 2 was universally acclaimed by critics. Reviewers found the film to be a sequel that managed to equal or even outshine the original. "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."
Review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 100% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 172 reviews, with an average score of 8.7/10. The film is currently #1 on Rotten Tomatoes' list of best-rated films. Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the critical consensus thus: "Toy Story 2 employs inventive storytelling, gorgeous animation, and a top notch voice cast to deliver another rich moviegoing experience for all ages, one that's arguably even better than its predecessor." Toy Story, Toy Story 2, and Toy Story 3 are all Pixar's highest-rated films to date. It currently holds a 100% approval from critics, and 92% from the community, while the original holds a 96% community rating and the best rated animated film. The film also holds an 88 out of 100 on Metacritic. It joins the rare number of sequels judged to be "as good as or better than the original." Roger Ebert 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." Entertainment Weekly said, "It's a great, IQ-flattering entertainment both wonderful and wise."
American Film Institute[]
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Buzz Lightyear – Nominated Hero
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
- "When She Loved Me" – Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Animated Film
Legacy[]
Lee Unkrich regarded the film with pride while remembering the difficulty of meeting its due date. "Even though Toy Story 2 really killed us in a lot of ways - it was really, really hard - I probably look back on that film the most fondly in terms of how we all came together and did this impossible thing."
Awards[]
Awards for Toy Story 2 | ||||
Year | Association | Award Category | Recipient (if any) | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
2000 | ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards | Top Box Office Films of 2000 Award | Randy Newman | Won |
Academy Awards | Best Original Song (for "When She Loved Me") |
Randy Newman | Nominated | |
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films | Best Fantasy Film | |||
Best Music | Randy Newman | |||
Annie Awards | Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Theatrical Feature | Won | ||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Character Animation | Doug Sweetland | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Directing in an Animated Feature Production | John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, and Ash Brannon | Won | ||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Music in an Animated Feature Production | Randy Newman | |||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Production Design in an Animated Feature Production | William Cone and Jim Pearson | Nominated | ||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production | Dan Jeup and Joe Ranft | Won | ||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Female Performer in an Animated Feature Production | Joan Cusack | |||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Voice Acting by a Male Performer in an Animated Feature Production | Tim Allen | |||
Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Feature Production | John Lasseter, Pete Docter, Ash Brannon, Andrew Stanton, Rita Hsiao, Doug Chamberlain, and Chris Webb | |||
Blockbuster Entertainment Awards | Best Family Film (Internet Only) | |||
Bogey Awards | Bogey Award | |||
Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards | Best Animated Film | |||
Casting Society of America | Best Casting for Animated Voiceover - Feature Film | Ruth Lambert | Nominated | |
Golden Globes | Best Picture – Musical or Comedy | Won | ||
Best Original Song (for the song "When She Loved Me") |
Randy Newman | Nominated | ||
Kansas City Film Critics Circle | Best Animated Film | Won | ||
Kids' Choice Awards | Favorite Movie | Nominated | ||
Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Tim Allen | |||
Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie | Tom Hanks | |||
Las Vegas Film Critics Society | Best Animated Film | |||
Best Song (for "When She Loved Me") | Randy Newman | |||
MTV Movie Awards | Best On-Screen Duo | Tim Allen and Tom Hanks | ||
Motion Picture Sound Editors | Best Sound Editing - Animated Feature | Michael Silvers, Mary Helen Leasman, Shannon Mills, Teresa Eckton, Susan Sanford, Bruce Lacey, and Jonathan Null | ||
Best Sound Editing, Music - Animation | Bruno Coon & Lisa Jaime | |||
Online Film Critics Society | Best Film | |||
Best Screenplay, Original | John Lasseter and Pete Docter | |||
Satellite Awards | Best Motion Picture, Animated or Mixed Media | |||
Best Original Song (for "When She Loved Me") | Sarah McLachlan | |||
Young Artist Awards | Best Family Feature Film - Animated | Won | ||
2001 | Grammy Awards | Best Song (for "When She Loved Me") | Randy Newman | |
Best Instrumental Composition | Randy Newman | Nominated | ||
2005 | Satellite Awards | Outstanding Youth DVD (2-Disc Special Edition) |
Won |
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trivia[]
General[]
- Rex was playing Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg on a Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which is probably a reference to how the first Toy Story video game was released on it.
- The game itself uses stock sounds from Star Wars, like Blaster fire and Darth Vader's breathing.
- In Zurg's fortress in the video game, Lightsaber waving sounds can be heard when Buzz moves his hand through the hologram. In addition, X-Wing laser sounds are heard when Buzz deflects the lasers with the platform. Also, when Buzz steps on the platforms before they fall, the rhythm and the notes of the "Sunrise" fanfare from Richard Strauss' Also sprach Zarathustra (which is best known as the main theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey) can be heard.
- Zurg's robots that appear in Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg have the well-known Cylon scanner from the Battlestar Galactica franchise.
- During Woody's nightmare, the playing cards are the ace of spades, which is commonly referred to as the "death card" and was used in the Vietnam War.
- In the above nightmare, when Woody is thrown into a trash container, some of the severed arms belong to Rocky Gibraltar, Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Emperor Zurg, Mr. Potato Head, a baby doll, and a robot.
- In addition the nightmare scene is a reference to the 1958 James Stewart film Vertigo (Tom Hanks, who voices Woody is often referred to as a present day James Stewart).
- In the United States and English-speaking Canada, when Buzz gives his speech, it shows the US flag with "The Star-Spangled Banner" playing in the background. Outside these two countries and in French-speaking Canada, it shows a globe with fireworks, with "The Star-Spangled Banner" replaced with a new anthem by Randy Newman called the "One World Anthem".
- On the English audio track of some international DVDs (except for the UK/Ireland and Australia/New Zealand), as well as international Disney+ (unless the UK English audio track is selected), the flag is replaced with the globe, but "The Star-Spangled Banner" is still played in the background.
- In some US releases of the Latin American Spanish dub, the "One World Anthem" plays over the US flag due to the audio not being edited to match. The inverse happens in all releases of the Taiwanese Mandarin dub for unknown reasons.
- When Woody is trying to get his arm back from Al without waking him up is similar to when Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark is trying to get the idol without triggering any darts.
- The car that Andy's toys ride to navigate Al's Toy Barn is seen earlier as a Hot Wheels-sized car being pulled out of Andy's toy box by the Green Army Men in their search for Woody's hat.
- The Barbies sing "How low can you go?" in the party scene where they are doing the limbo, which is a line taken from the song "Born to Hand Jive" from Grease.
- The background music at the Barbies' party is the surf-rock classic "Wipe Out".
- The scene where Rex is left behind and starts chasing after the car, and then Mr. Potato Head spots him in a side-view mirror, is an homage to the 1993 movie Jurassic Park. Coincidentally, Al McWhiggin's voice actor Wayne Knight also starred in that live-action movie, specifically as the scientist Dennis Nedry (who happens to be greedy, as well).
- When Utility Belt Buzz thinks that the vent walls are closing in and grabbing Mr. Potato Head to prevent himself and the other toys from getting crushed after hearing the elevator sound, this is the reference to Star Wars where the walls in the trash compactor closing in and Han Solo grabbing something to prevent himself and the others from getting crushed.
- In Al's Toy Barn, the barcode "54682301009" is seen on multiple boxes, including Zurg's (minus the 9). The real world corresponding item for the barcode is an Action Figure from The Mask: Animated Series.
- It turns out that Zurg is Buzz's father, a parody on the relationship between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars film The Empire Strikes Back.
- Mr. Potato Head throwing his hat to jam a door is reference to the James Bond villain Oddjob who used his hat as a throwing weapon.
- The plane that takes off at the Tri-County International Airport has similar colored wing tips compared to Buzz Lightyear's.
- The toy car that Jessie rides to help Buster is the same as her previous owner Emily's as seen in her flashback, sans the wood side paneling.
- In the Korean dub of this film, the producers moved the toy museum to Seoul, South Korea instead of Tokyo, Japan. Due to tensions between the two countries, all Japanese media was banned in South Korea from August 15, 1945 until August 1998 and foreign media often had mentions of Japan removed, a practice which continued into the early 2000s, hence the change.
- This was the last Toy Story film released on VHS.
- The song "Atomic Dog" by George Clinton, "Hold On, I'm Comin" by The Nevellie Brothers and "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang were all heard in the trailers, but not in the film itself.
- This was the second and last Toy Story film that featured Jim Varney as the voice of Slinky Dog, as Varney himself died on February 10, 2000, three months after the film's theatrical release. Varney's good friend, Blake Clark voiced Slinky in Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4.
- This is first Pixar film to be co-directed by Lee Unkrich, Followed by Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo.
- This was the only CGI-animated film released in 1999.
- This is the last Pixar feature film to be released in the 20th century, as well as being the last one released in the 1990s.
- This is the last Toy Story film to be directed by John Lasseter.
- This is the only film in the franchise with no rain at all.
- The film's plot starts on Monday, August 15th as shown by Andy's calendar on the wall, though this is not accurate to real life as the film is said to take place the summer after the end of the first film which is set in 1995. August 15, 1996 was a Thursday.
- This is the first Toy Story film to have least a toy as an antagonist (and in this case, it's both Stinky Pete and Zurg).
- Coincidentally, the voice actors of this film's main antagonists were both born in 1955 (which, interestingly enough, was 40 years before the first Toy Story film's release).
- This is the only Toy Story film were its opening title does not include a fading effect.
- This is so far the only Toy Story film where its ending doesn't have a zoom-out effect, not counting the in-universe bloopers (since they're depicted as being non-canonical).
- This is the first Pixar film to be a non-original one in the studio's history, given that this is the sequel to the original film.
- This is also the only non-original Pixar film to be originally released in the 1990s, as well as the one to be from the 20th century overall.
- Additionally. this is the only non-original Pixar film to be released before The Walt Disney Company aquired the studio itself.
- This is the only Toy Story film where the original version of "You've Got a Friend in Me" by Randy Newman was never heard, being instead performed in two different versions.
- This is also the only Toy Story film in which there is no other song besides "You've Got a Friend in Me" that was originally performed by Newman himself.
- The first film has "Strange Things" and "I Will Go Sailing No More".
- Toy Story 3 has "We Belong Together".
- Toy Story 4 has "I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away".
- This is also the only Toy Story film in which there is no other song besides "You've Got a Friend in Me" that was originally performed by Newman himself.
- This film was released in the same year as The Green Mile, which also stars Tom Hanks. Coincidentally, in that live-action film, he played another legally themed character named Paul Edgecomb (who is a philanthropic prison guard himself).
- Interestingly, Bonnie Hunt has also starred in that live-action film as Paul's wife Jan, and she would later go on to voice Dolly (one of Bonnie Anderson's toys) much later in the Toy Story franchise, starting with the third film.
- This is the only Toy Story film where its opening sequence does not primarily involve playtime with the toys. Ironically, it's been substituted with Rex playing a Buzz Lightyear-related video game.
- This is the last Toy Story film where Andy is presently a kid. However, he is also seen as a kid at the beginnings of both Toy Story 3 and Toy Story 4, albeit in flashbacks.
- This is the only Toy Story film to not introduce any baby-themed toy (the first film has Babyface; the third film has Big Baby; the fourth film has Gabby Gabby).
References to the first film[]
- The Buzz Lightyear: Attack on Zurg opening states that Buzz is in the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4, which is where Buzz said he was stationed when Hamm asked him where he was from. Also, after Buzz lands on Zurg's planet, he looks around exactly the same way he did when he "landed" on Andy's bed (breathing included) and talked to Star Command. (This time, however, he used his wrist communicator. In the previous film, he used one of his talk buttons.)
- Toy Story 2 intentionally reuses scenes from the original Toy Story, with many of Buzz and Woody's roles switched. The prime example of this being when Buzz is trying to convince Woody he's not a collector's item by saying "You are a TOY!" as Woody did at the Dinoco gas station.
- Andy setting up a stage with his toys for Dr. Porkchop is similar to what he did for One-Eyed Bart at the beginning of the first film.
- When Woody is riding Buster down the stairs to rescue Wheezy from the yard sale, Buster bumps into the front door, which causes it creak open. It makes the same creaking sound Andy's bedroom door made when the toy soldiers were going downstairs to see what Andy was getting for his birthday in the first film.
- After Woody learns that "Woody's Roundup" was cancelled and Stinky Pete tells him that soon children only wanted to play with space toys, Woody responds to this by saying, "I know how that feels". He is referring to his jealousy toward Buzz in the first film.
- Woody losing his arm is similar to when Buzz lost his (although Buzz lost his left, and Woody lost his right).
- Woody having his arm reattached by the cleaner is similar to Buzz having his arm reattached by the Mutant Toys.
- Buzz encountering Utility Belt Buzz standing tall on the display stand at Al's Toy Barn is done in the same fashion when Woody encountered Buzz standing tall on Andy's bed in the first film (and similar background music is used).
- After Utility Belt Buzz threatens to use his laser on Buzz, Buzz sarcastically asks, "You mean the laser that's a light bulb?" similar to when Woody called Buzz's laser out in the first film, describing it as "a little light bulb that blinks."
- When Zurg is battling Utility Belt Buzz in the elevator shaft and smashing the buttons on his chest, it is done in the same way Woody was fighting Buzz, skipping the line "Buzz... Buzz... Buzz Lightyear to the rescue."
- When Jessie was fighting with Woody after he accused her of turning on The TV, she had him in the same position Buzz had him when they fought at the gas station.
- Buzz telling Utility Belt Buzz that he is not a space ranger and that he's a toy while being confined to the Buzz Lightyear packaging references Woody telling the other toys that Buzz is not a space ranger from Toy Story.
- Utility Belt Buzz realizing that his thrusters on his jet pack aren't working after he and the other toys tried to escape Al's car to follow Al references how Buzz realizes that his laser isn't working after aiming it at the Mutant Toys from Toy Story.
- Utility Belt Buzz saying to the other toys, "Then we have no time to lose!" while trying to chase Al is similar to Buzz's line when Woody was about to use RC to knock him behind the desk in Toy Story.
- Utility Belt Buzz referring to Hamm as "Slotted Pig" is very similar how Buzz referred to Rex and Slinky as "Lizard" and "Stretchy Dog", respectively in Toy Story.
- Utility Belt Buzz aiming his laser in front of the other toys in the Buzz Lightyear toy aisle of Al's Toy Barn is very similar to Buzz aiming his laser in front of Woody in Andy's room in Toy Story.
- Tour Guide Barbie mentioning the Buzz Lightyear action figures being ordered in different retail stores references the Buzz Lightyear toy commercial that Buzz saw in Sid's house from Toy Story.
- The Pizza Planet delivery truck Woody and Buzz hitched a ride on in Toy Story was used again in Toy Story 2 by Buzz and the rest of Andy's toys to get to the airport to save Woody (Pizza Planet's trademark aliens where also seen in the car).
- Buzz and Andy's other toys chasing Al in the Pizza Planet delivery truck references Woody and Buzz chasing the Moving Truck from Toy Story.
- The Little Green Men say "Strangers from the Outside", just like they did to Buzz in the first movie while in Pizza Planet.
- Once again, a dog is in action, but a friendly personality.
Scud was vicious, Buster is friendly and loyal.
- Like in the first movie where Woody struggles to shut Sid's bedroom door to prevent Scud from pushing his way through, the Green Army Men and Rocky try to shut Andy's bedroom door to prevent Buster from pushing his way through. But Unlike Scud, Buster was successful.
- Buzz looking at the window of the Pizza Planet delivery truck to search for Al with his briefcase looks similar to what he did when he sees the robot guards at the Pizza Planet restaurant from Toy Story.
- Buzz and Andy's other toys disguised as a puppy in a dog kennel to enter the airport is very similar to Woody and Buzz disguising themselves as discarded food-cartons to enter Pizza Planet from Toy Story.
- When Andy's toys are leaving, Buzz gives Utility Belt Buzz the same Vulcan salute he gave Woody.
- Buzz opens the helmet of Utility Belt Buzz, who gasps for air, similar to when Woody opened Buzz's helmet in the first film. Woody looks down at Utility Belt Buzz weirdly as he did to Andy's Buzz in the first film (but this time, the rest of the toys do the same thing, before Buzz reveals his identity by showing Andy's name under his boot).
- Utility Belt Buzz tackles Woody and says "Watch yourself!" after entering Al's room much like Buzz did when he first met Woody and noticed the other toys coming.
- Buzz surfing on the toy car ramp to help Woody get up looks similar to what he did to prove that he can fly in the previous film.
- When Mr. Potato Head tries to open the window and falls out his arms is a nod to Toy Story when he tries to lift a "weight" his arms fall off.
- Slinky Dog looking at Woody in a sad expression while leaving Al's apartment looks similar to what he did after seeing Woody exposing Buzz's severed arm in Sid's house in the previous film.
- Both films end with a final dialogue between Woody and Buzz if they are worried about something.
- Jessie outgrowing her owner in a flashback is similar to when Buzz discovered that he's a toy in the previous film.
- During Jessie's flashback, Jessie watches the cowgirl-themed items in Emily's room change much like when Woody watched the cowboy-themed items in Andy's room change to spaceman-themed items in the previous film.
- Woody realizing that he is a toy while watching "Woody's Roundup" and seeing how much Andy loves him before choosing to escape with Buzz and the other toys references Buzz hearing what Woody has said about being a toy and choosing to escape Sid's house with Woody from Toy Story.
- Buzz refers to events from the first movie to the other toys like when Sid strapped him to a rocket or reminded the toys of how they deliberately threw Woody out of the back of the moving van, making them feel guilty, especially Potato Head who regretted it even more than the rest because he gave the order.
- Buzz and the other toys sneak to Al's Toy Barn by wearing cones, with the aftermath being a traffic jam. The traffic jam looks similar to the one caused by Scud chasing Buzz on RC in the first film.
- In the luggage chase scene, Slinky struggles to hold on to one end of the conveyor belt and gets pulled away by the other end. This is similar to the moving truck chase scene, when Woody and Slinky try to hold on to each other, only for the latter to struggle and get pulled back into the truck when RC's batteries ran out.
Cameos[]
- Early in the movie when everyone is looking for Woody's hat, Mr. Potato Head finds Mrs. Potato Head's ear. The scene cuts to Mrs. Potato Head reading a book version of A Bug's Life.
- The ball from Luxo, Jr. is shown in the Al's Toy Barn TV commercial. It can also be seen when Buzz Lightyear and the toys enter the toy store, and a container of those balls can be seen to the left of the door when exiting.
- As Hamm flips through the TV channels looking for the Al's Toy Barn commercial, frames from several Pixar projects go by, including Tin Toy, Knick Knack, Red's Dream, The Adventures of André & Wally B., Luxo, Jr., Pixar's Listerine commercial, and their old logo from the 1980s.
- Flik and Heimlich from A Bug's Life can be seen close-up in one of the outtakes, returning the favor, after Woody made a cameo in in one of the outtakes for A Bug's Life.
- Heimlich can also be seen in the actual movie, when he is crawling on a branch just before Buzz Lightyear cuts through.
- Also in the same scene, the Bug Bar from A Bug's Life is also visible.
- The Cleaner who comes in to fix Woody is Geri from the short film Geri's Game. In one of his drawers, his chess pieces can be seen.
- Some merchandise from A Bug's Life can be seen in Al's Toy Barn before Buzz discovers the Buzz Lightyear aisle.
- A113 still appears on Andy's mother's license plate on her car like the first film.
Toys and games references[]
- Hamm and Etch A Sketch were standing on the game box for the 1961 version of the board game Clue.
Recycled animation[]
- The tree in Jessie's flashback is the same as that from A Bug's Life.
- The canyon from A Bug's Life is re-used for Zurg's planet. Note: the floating rocks in the canyon were inserted by accident, but John Lasseter liked how it looked, so it was used in the final version of the film.
- Wheezy has the same feet as the Aliens.
Miscellaneous[]
- The dust in the scene where Woody meets Wheezy set a record for number of particles animated for a movie by computer.
- Toy Story is the first Pixar film to become a franchise, followed by Cars, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Inside Out.
- Out of them, Toy Story and Inside Out are the only ones not to feature a switch role between its main characters on any of its sequels/prequels.
- Due to its release in 1999, Toy Story 2 was the only Pixar sequel to be made before Disney brought the company on January 24, 2006.
- Toy Story is also Disney's eighth animated film to become a franchise, after Saludos Amigos, The Rescuers, Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas, and The Lion King (which got a direct-to-video release along with Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas).
- This is also Disney's third theatrical sequel, after The Three Caballeros and The Rescuers Down Under.
- This is the first sequel for both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.
- This is the last Pixar film to be made in the Point Richmond office before moving to Emeryville in 2000.
- The controller that Rex uses when playing the Buzz Lightyear video game scene is a recolored Super Nintendo controller.
- During the bloopers reel in the end credits, a few characters mentioned the existence of Toy Story 3. It came true 11 years later after Toy Story 2.
- This is the only Toy Story film with outtakes at the end. It was added to the end credits of the theatrical release on December 25, 1999.
- The NTSC 2000 and 2005 DVDs use the original credits in widescreen, and a reformatted end credits with the outtakes at the top and the credits on the bottom in 4:3. However, the PAL release uses a widescreen version of the latter.
- The 2019 UHD release uses the bloopers at the end credits has a credits with the bloopers on the left and the credits on the right just like the 2010 Blu-ray and DVD, but the clip of Prospector chatting with the Barbies in his box has been removed. It was also removed from the versions available digitally.
- According to Pixar's Studio Stories: The Movie Vanishes, Oren Jacob and Galyn Susman tell the story of when someone entered a "/bin/rm -rf *" command on the Unix server that Toy Story 2 was on. This command deletes everything "as fast as it can." It made all the data disappear in front of their eyes. 20 to 30 people who worked for a really LONG time had their work erased in 20 seconds. The machine was unplugged and plugged back in. This stopped the deletion, but still, most of the film was gone. Fortunately Galyn had a copy of the whole movie on her home computer. The computer was carefully driven to the Pixar office and restored to the servers.
- When the Barbie backpack containing Stinky Pete arrives on the conveyor belt, the announcer in the background announces the arrival of a flight named LassetAir Flight A113. The LassetAir part is a reference to director John Lasseter, and A113 is the easter egg that has appeared in several Pixar films to date. However, in the DVD version, the part is misinterpreted by the subtitles as Atlantic Air Flight 810.
- In the scene where Hamm is threatening Stinky Pete with his kung fu, Pork Chop is the only dialogue exchanged directly between actors John Ratzenberger (Hamm) and Kelsey Grammer (Pete), both of which are most well known for playing Cliff Clavin and Frasier Crane, respectively, on the 80s TV Series Cheers. Another main character of Cheers was Woody Boyd, played by Woody Harrelson. Ironically, in A Bug's Life, Ratzenberger (as P.T. Flea) exchanged much more dialogue with David Hyde Pierce (as Slim) who plays Frasier Crane's brother, Niles, in Frasier's spin-off series. In the Season 9 episode of Frasier, "Cheerful Goodbyes", several actors from Cheers reprise their roles, which results in all three of them together for the majority of the episode.
- In the Cheers episode "One Hugs, the Other Doesn't", Frasier's first wife, Nanny G., is played by Emma Thompson, but 12 years later in the Frasier episode "Caught in the Act", she is played by Laurie Metcalf since Thompson had been cast as Nanny McPhee.
- In the Frasier episodes "Momma Mia" and "Don Juan In Hell: Part Two", Frasier and Niles' mother and a look-a-like of their mother are played by Rita Wilson, Tom Hanks' wife.
- When the toys fall into the luggage room on the conveyor belt, Slink pulls off a label that says LHR, which are the airport initials for London Heathrow, an airport in London, England.
- In the scene where the toys travel through the Buzz Lightyear aisle, Tour Guide Barbie says this quote: "Back in 1995, shortsighted retailers did not order enough dolls to meet demand." This quote is actually a true fact. Back in 1995, when the original Toy Story came out, business owners underestimated the sale of Buzz Lightyear toys to keep up with demand because they also underestimated the movie's box office performance. Of all the dolls bought by toy stores in the US and Canada, they only ordered 60,000 Buzz Lightyear toys, whereas the company that made them made over 9 million toys.
- The French trailer for the film ends with for four 2, and they eventually spell "le 2 février 2000 Toy Story 2", which translates to "February 2nd 2000 Toy Story 2" the release date for the movie in France.
Deleted Scenes[]
Godzilla Rex[]
This is another way of getting Woody into the yard sale box. It shows some of the characters getting in position for Godzilla Rex (Who is played by Rex) to come. When Godzilla Rex appears the Green Army Men "shoot" with their guns but it doesn't work. Everyone runs away from him except Buzz Lightyear who has a plunge and shoots it at Godzilla Rex's face causing Godzilla Rex to go on a Hot Wheel car and knock over some things until he holds on to a chair making it fall on the Toddle Tots Fire Truck which Woody is on and makes Woody fly off the fire truck and goes outside the window from Andy's room and slides down from the roof into the box. They deleted this scene because they thought it was too coincidental. It's likely that this scene was animated during the film's direct-to-video production since in the original storyline, Woody falls into the yard sale in a much similar way.
Changed Scenes[]
- Originally, when the toys were crossing the road, they were in a different area. It has looked more like a suburb than the city.
- The original animation had Al not only steal Woody but also restore and repair him on his own. However, as the story went on, it became clear that this could not be possible and the decision was taken to add another character, hence the use of Geri from Geri's Game.
- In the film's climax when Woody and Jessie escape from the plane via the wheel hatch, the first animation shot had Jessie slip and Woody catching her from falling. Joan Cusack, who provided the voice for Jessie, came up with the idea of having it being switched around and that Jessie saved Woody from falling off.
Goofs[]
- RC's eyes are blue. However, in this movie, they are colored black.
- In the beginning of the movie, the Buzz Lightyear video game that Rex is playing appears to be a 3D game and for a gaming platform similar to the Nintendo SNES circa 1990-1997. In real life, Nintendo's first 3D gaming platform was the Nintendo 64 released in 1996.
- The scene is probably just a fantasy sequence rather than supposed to depict the actual game.
- Utility Belt Buzz is seen missing his utility belt for a brief moment right before the toys find Woody in the air vents.
- When Mrs. Potato Head put Mr. Potato Head's angry eyes in his back compartment the eyes are connected. If the viewer looks in the back while Mrs. Potato Head is holding them, the stems are slanted than straight. This was definitely an animation mistake because Mr. Potato Head's angry eyes are later seen in the movie and are not connected.
- When the gang reached Al's Toy Barn, Slinky mentioned that it's closed and Mr. Potato Head said, "We're not preschool toys, Slinky. We can read.". But in the first Toy Story, Mr. Potato Head mentioned that he came from Playskool, which is a company that produces toys for preschool-aged children.
- It is probably possible for toys to learn to read.
- It's uncertain how Ultra Buzz's big climbing magnets manage to fit inside the Utility Belt (though the concept art claims they inflate, which is physically impossible to do with metallic elements).
- When Ultra Buzz points his laser at Andy's Buzz, his bicep sinks into the side of his suit when pressing the laser button of his other hand.
- Towards the end, when the toys are in the dog crate at the airport, Mr. Potato Head's angry eyes no longer look angry after they spill out of his hatch, along with his spare feet.
- When Buster sniffs Roly Poly Clown and the Toddle Tots fire truck, RC can be seen at the Lincoln log house, but when Buster runs over there, RC is not seen.
- In Toy Story 2, Mr Shark's color has changed from blue to gray.
- When Hamm turns off the TV, his and Rex's reflections are not seen on the screen.
- In the first film, Mr. Spell's voice is lower, but in this film, it's higher.
- During the second half of the film, Al wears a green shirt, but wears a red one in one shot while he is driving to the airport with the toys chasing him.
- The inscriptions on the poster behind the Rock-em-Sock-em Robots change between two shots. When Slinky Dog addresses the two toys, the bottom of the poster reads "Big Robots, Little Robots, and more!". When the same poster is seen when Al is talking to Mr. Konishi, this is replaced by a block of text.
- When Andy sees Jessie and Bullseye for the first time, he acknowledges them as new toys and starts to play with them. However, he never acknowledges the Aliens as new toys, nor even plays with them.
- He also finds out their real names with no explanation how, though the real-life Jessie and Woody toys have pull-string phrases that say "Howdy, I'm Jessie!" and "Where's my trusty steed Bullseye?", so the in-universe Jessie and Woody probably have the same ones.
- When Woody turns Stinky Pete's box round to ask him if he wants to join the gang, the television has already been turned off in the background.
- The word "Andy" on Woody's boot is on different sides in random parts of the film.
- Al's Toy Barn was mentioned in a commercial with an aisle of Buzz Lightyear action figures in the first movie, and now both are seen again in this film for real, even though the toys are newer versions.
- Al's commercial where he sobs over the loss of fortune was shown the next morning after Woody and the other toys returned to Andy's house. Al would never have returned from Japan the next morning, due to Japan being far away from the Tri-County Area. (The DVD Commentary admits this, but stated that they just wanted to show that Al got what he deserved).
- It's uncertain why Al didn't recieve a compensation for the loss of his luggage (the Roundup Gang) as the airport staff would likely be accused for being responsable for the loss of the toys.
- It's unknown why none of the other drivers (seemingly) saw the toys (such as Rex) driving the Pizza Planet truck, because of how recklessly it was driving and it how it distracted the other drivers beeping their hornes, they would most likely look at the cab as to who is driving.
- In addition, one of the most surprising times is that none of them got caught might be when Buzz and the other toys hid under traffic cones to cross the street. Changing traffic patterns on a major street is a big deal. If the moving cones didn't give them away, then the slinky going between two cones should have. Anyone walking on the sidewalk or looking out of their window in the countless skyscrapers around them should have noticed these odd things happening.
- When Ultra Buzz begins to deploy his climbing magnets via grabbing the handels at the sides of his Utility Belt, his fingers sink into the sides, meaning it wouldn't be possible for him to pull them out since the handel bars are sunk inside.
- In some scenes when Ultra Buzz and the Toys are climbing the wall, the grip of Buzz's Utility Belt can be seen at the back of it's compartment when it shouldn't be since the rest of the toys are holding onto it down below.
- Throughout the franchise, there are a handful of things that the toys do that don't make a lot of sense, and truly shouldn't work, but since it is an animated kid's movie, it does. When Buzz and the other toys work together to drive the Pizza Planet truck to the airport, the joint effort could work in theory, but truly it shouldn't have worked; Bullseye's most iconic scene in the Toy Story franchise is when he chases the plane. This is another thing that should not, in any circumstance, have panned out. How he was able to keep up with the plane made no sense, and even if he was a remote control horse, he probably still wouldn't have been fast enough. It's a good thing he was though, otherwise, they would've lost Jessie and Woody.
- It's unknown why the Davis family at the end didn't seem to hear Wheezy loudly singing in Andy's room, and if they did (which, in reality, they really should have), either Andy or Mrs. Davis would have gone up to see who or what is making all the singing.
- When Ultra Buzz was trying to escape Al's room with Woody, there is a brief clip where his climbing magnets are in his Utility Belt when he discarded them when letting go off the elavator wall.
Pixar themes[]
Trailers[]
One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. In one trailer for Toy Story 2 (released theatrically with A Bug's Life, Doug's 1st Movie, and Tarzan), the aliens watch the metal claw they worship coming down. The claw first brings down the words Toy Story, and the aliens react with their trademark "Oooooh." The claw next brings down the number '2'; in reaction, the aliens turn to face the camera and parody themselves with a "Twoooo." Then Woody appears, saying "Hey howdy hey, folks! It's good to be back." He is swiftly disappointed when Buzz shows up as well and expresses his annoyance that the Space Ranger is also in the sequel. Buzz retorts, "Excuse me, Pullstring Boy, what would Toy Story 2 be without Buzz Lightyear?" "A good movie," counters Woody.
Another trailer (released theatrically with Muppets from Space and The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland) shows shots from the film that are featured. Also, the second music in the second trailer is the main theme from Men in Black.
Attached short film[]
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 message states: "In 1986 Pixar Animation Studios produced their first film. This is why we have a hopping lamp in our logo".
Sequels[]
- Main article: Toy Story 3
Toy Story 3 was released in theaters and 3D June 18, 2010, eleven years after Toy Story 2. Most of the cast members of the first two movies returned, however, because of Jim Varney's death, Slinky Dog was voiced by Blake Clark. Toy Story 3 centers on Andy growing up and his remaining toys - Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Slinky, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Bullseye, and The Aliens - getting donated to a daycare center where they run into an evil strawberry scented teddy bear.
Toy Story 4 was released on June 21, 2019.
External links[]
- Toy Story 2 on Wikipedia
- Toy Story 2 on Pixar Wiki
- Toy Story 2 on Disney.com
- Toy Story 2 at the Big Cartoon DataBase
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