Herald rating: * * * * *
Running time: 85 mins
Rental: Today
Review: Ewan McDonald
True story, too: this video arrived on an afternoon when Luc was visiting. He's a big fan of the 1995 original (has three Buzz Lightyears on his bedroom shelf) so I put it on and he watched it
all the way through, entranced, without moving.
Any movie that can captivate an under-3 for almost an hour and a half has to be something special. And it is.
Andy, the boy who owns the Toy Story toys, is going to camp. Woody, the cowboy, has a torn arm and is left behind.
Worse, he's stolen from a garage sale by Big Al, a nasty toy collector, repaired and scheduled for sale to a Tokyo toy museum.
In Al's apartment Woody finds out that he is part of a set of toys, the Roundup Gang, that includes a cowgirl named Jessie, a horse named Bullseye and a prospector named Stinky Pete.
He even starred in a black-and-white TV puppet show in the 50s. And he thinks he might enjoy retiring as the star attraction in a toy museum.
Back home Buzz Lightyear, the Space Ranger, and the other toys discover what has happened and plan a dangerous mission across the city to rescue Woody. (Adults will love these moments: a Barbie beach-party send-up, a knowing spoof of Star Wars.)
Many of the voices from the first movie are back: Tom Hanks (Woody), Tim Allen (Buzz), Don Rickles (Mr Potato Head) and John Ratzenberger (the piggy bank). Newcomers include Joan Cusack (Jessie), Kelsey Grammer (Stinky Pete) and Wayne Knight (Seinfeld's Newman) as Al; so is the stunning computer-generated animation.
A movie for every child who ever had a toy, and for the child in every adult.
