But director John Lasseter (who was also behind the first two Pixar features) knows better than to simply remake Toy Story. The bad kid from next door and his freakish toys have been replaced with new characters.
Al (Wayne Knight) is a hygiene-impaired toy collector who steals Woody. It turns out that Woody is an antique, and part of a collection of toys based on a 1950s children's television show. Woody is to join his long-lost co-stars in a museum exhibit in Tokyo, Japan. These include excitable cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), trusty, silent horse Bullseye, and prospector Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer) who has an unexpected character turn. Woody has to choose between his new family and his old friends, whom led by Buzz have come to rescue him.
How others will see it. The Oscars were stingy to Toy Story 2, granting only a Best Song nomination. It would have received a Best Animated Feature Film nod, except that category did not exist in 2000. The Golden Globes, at that time regarded more lofty than today, did nominate Toy Story 2 for Best Comedy, a triumph for an animated feature.
Box office was big for the film, an estimated half-billion dollars worldwide, in Y2K dollars. That excludes video sales for the movie, which were big late in the VHS era.
Today at imdb.com, the movie has a whopping 620K user votes, and a lofty 7.9 (out of 10) user rating. The rating rises to 8.1 from U.S. viewers. One recurrent theme in the user reviews is that the sequel is better than the original. That is Toy Story 2 is even better than Toy Story 1, the most unlikely such occurrence since The Empire Strikes Back (1980), or perhaps even The Godfather Part II (1974).
How I felt about it. The first Toy Story film was not only a landmark in animation, as the first feature length computer animated film. It was also one of the best films from that year. It seemed impossible that the quality of the original could be duplicated in the sequel, especially after Pixar's follow-up A Bug's Life was overshadowed by DreamWorks' similar-themed Antz.
But Toy Story 2 is even better than its illustrious predecessor. And it succeeds in some areas that the original did not explore. Air-headed Barbie dolls are regularly and effectively milked for laughs. There are Simpsons-esque parodies of Jurassic Park and The Empire Strikes Back. There are jokes aimed at adults (e.g. Buzz Lightyear gives an comically inspirational speech, and suddenly a huge U.S. flag appears behind him.) As in A Bug's Life, there are 'outtakes' that appear in the closing credits. Most impressive of all, there's a sad song about a child forgetting her toy that will work over even the most cold-hearted viewer.
As in the original, the animation is outstanding. But it is the quality of the script, the tension in the story, and the depth of the characters that truly make Toy Story 2 the great film that it is.