"The toys are back in town!" —Tagline

Toy Story 2 is Pixar's third film and the first sequel to their first film Toy Story. Toy Story 2 was released in theaters on November 24, 1999, and was directed by John Lasseter, the director of the first film. The film takes place about a few years after the first film. The film introduced an array of new characters.

Toy Story 2 was re-released in a double feature with Toy Story in 3D on October 2, 2009, ten years after its original release. Eleven years later, Toy Story 3 was released in theatres in 3D on June 18, 2010. Toy Story 4 was released in theaters in 2D and 3D on June 21, 2019. It was the last independent Toy Story film by Pixar before its purchase by Disney in 2006, and the last Toy Story film distributed by Buena Vista Distribution before it was renamed to simply just Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in 2007.

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Synopsis

In Toy Story 2, Woody is stolen by a greedy toy collector named Al McWhiggin who wants to sell him to a museum in Japan, and Buzz, Rex, Hamm, Mr. Potato Head, and Slinky Dog embark on a journey across the Tri-County Area to rescue him.

Plot

The film begins with scenes of Buzz Lightyear on an adventure, which turns out to be a video game that Rex has been playing. The game ends with him being pulverized by Evil Emperor Zurg, much to Rex's dismay. The film is set some time after the events of the first film, presumably about 4 years later, Andy is preparing to leave for Cowboy Camp with his favorite toy, Woody.

While playing with Woody, Buzz and all the other toys Andy almost tore Woody's arm off for linking his arms with Buzz, leaving him unable to take Woody to camp. Andy's mother places Woody on the shelf. Later, when Andy returns home from camp, he takes Woody from the shelf, but he sees his torn arm. Andy drops Woody to the floor, then lands in a garbage can that's full of severed toy arms. He tries to climb out, but was pulled into the can. Back on the shelf, Woody finds out that is was a dream and allusion. He hears coughing. He looks behind a dusty book, where he finds another broken toy, Wheezy, and begins to fear he'll soon be thrown away, and references a yard sale outside. After seeing this, Woody tells Sarge to have an emergency roll call. Before he can finish, Andy's mom comes in and takes a handful of items, including Wheezy. Woody calls Buster and rides on him to get to the yard sale to save Wheezy. Woody manages to rescue him but ends up in the yard sale himself. He is seen by an obsessive toy collector. He tries to buy Woody from Ms. Davis, but she refuses to sell him. After failing to negotiate a sale, the toy collector creates a distraction and steals Woody, causing Buzz to take action. He slides down the gutter into the yard sale, and sees the toy collector getting into his car after packing Woody in the trunk. Buzz manages to get to the car as the toy collector is driving away, but by the time he opens the trunk, Buzz loses his grip from the car as it escapes.

However, a clue is presented to Buzz as the car speeds away a feather from the toy collector's trunk lands in front of him. When Buzz informs the bad news to the toys, the toys try to investigate the culprit. However, Buzz is trying to type the license plate number that he briefly saw on the toy collector's car to track it and whoever he was, and the rest of the toys, including Etch, were having problems doing an identity portrait of the toy thief. When Mr. Potato Head gets fed up with Buzz trying to investigate the number with Mr. Spell and irritably tells the others to leave Buzz with his toys the word "toys" caused Buzz to decipher what the license plate said "Al's Toy Barn" and consequently tell Etch to draw the man in the chicken suit, whom they identify as the Toy Barn's founder, Al. They then try and locate an Al's Toy Barn commercial to trace a map to the shop. He encourages the other toys to launch a rescue mission using the clue as a basis for their search.

Meanwhile, Woody is taken to Al's apartment, where he is greeted by a yodeling cowgirl named Jessie , a horse named Bullseye , and 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,. Now that Al has a Woody doll, he has a complete collection and intends to sell the toys to a museum in Japan. Woody refuses to go to Japan and abandon Andy. Later, Al arrives and rips off Woody's torn arm by accident, making Woody attempt to recover his arm and then return to Andy which he fails. Al then gets a repairman who fixes Woody's arm. After that, a suddenly depressed Jessie tearfully tells Woody of how she once had an owner that loved her, but eventually outgrew and abandoned Jessie at a charity toy drive. The Prospector warns Woody that he faces the same fate as Andy ages. Woody agrees to go with the Roundup Gang to the museum. Buzz and his friends search for Al at Al's Toy Barn. They attempt to cross a busy freeway separating them from the store. Using traffic cones they navigate the freeway and only duck down when cars come near. After a second attempt to avoid being seen they formed a u-turn style pattern to which a car suddenly stops and immediately turns toward an oncoming truck towing a massive drain pipe. The truck slides violently and stops with the trailer tilting right and then crashing back down causing the pipe to roll of the trailer and rolling down the freeway, with Mr. Potato Head getting his foot stuck in fresh chewed gum. After Buzz orders his friends to split up and look for Al. He discovers a aisle full of newer Buzz Lightyear and gets in a scuffle with a new Buzz Lightyear , who, like Buzz in the first film, does not realizehe 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 breaks free and follows them to the apartment, but while leaving the store, he accidentally frees an Emperor Zurg toy, who follows to destroy him. 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, since he is now a collector's item. After the original Buzz arrives, in an ironic reversal of a scene from the first film, he reminds Woody "You're a child's plaything. You... are... a toy!". However, Woody turns his back on Buzz, and the group leaves without him.

However, Woody soon has a change of heart and, after calling Buzz and the group back, invites the Roundup Gang to come home to Andy with him. Jessie is uncertain about it, but Bullseye agrees. However, the Prospector traps them in the room, saying that the museum trip is his first chance since he was never sold and won't have Woody or anyone else mess it up for him. Al returns and packs the Roundup Gang, and the rest of the toys give chase, but are interrupted by the sudden appearance of the Emperor Zurg toy. The Utility Belt 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. The other toys resume the rescue mission and find a Pizza Planet truck and drive it to the airport. The second Buzz remains behind with Zurg who has hit his head so hard that he cannot remember he is Buzz's enemy and also has a bent horn, playing father and son games.

After arriving at the airport, Buzz and Slinky rush after the suitcase while the rest goes after another identical case which, however, turns out to be camera flashes. After Slinky is stuck on a different suitcase moving to another route and is pulled away, Buzz manages to open the Al's case on his own. However, the Prospector punches him away brutally due to Buzz's helmet being left open. Outraged, Woody fights the Prospector who then gains upper hand. Prospector has other plans though as he tears open Woody's arm using his pickax, even though this time, it still works. He threatens Woody to rip him into pieces if he doesn't join him to plane departure. Woody yelled: "Never!", which left the Prospector with no choice but to raise his pickax, getting ready to tear Woody apart. However, Buzz and his gang intervene for the rescue using camera flashes, blinding and capturing the Prospector. After Prospector's final execrations, 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. Bullseye is freed from the suitcase, but Jessie finds herself in trouble and remains trapped in the suitcase. Woody and Buzz ride Bullseye in order to rescue her from being taken to the museum on her own.

Woody manages to find Jessie inside the plane, but just when 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 which leads down to the landing gear wheel, and as they are doing so, he slips on tar. Jessie catches him before he could be run over by the wheels upon the ground, Woody's rip gets bigger and Woody's hat is flown away. Buzz and Bullseye appear in time to catch the hat. When the plane is at the main runway, Woody knows that time is running out, so he uses his pull string to perfectly stick on the wheel's bolt. He convinces a worried Jessie to jump in true "Woody's Roundup" style. As she did so, both of them swing down to safety on Bullseye's back just seconds before the plane takes off. Their mission accomplished, the toys now make their way home. Later that evening, Andy returns home and runs into his room and sees all the toys on his bed with Etch having written a Welcome Home Andy message. Andy then sees Jessie and Bullseye and mistakes them for new toys from his mother and starts playing with them immediately.

The next morning, Jessie with whom Buzz becomes a bit smitten and Bullseye are adopted into Andy's toy family. Woody's ripped arm is repaired by Andy himself before he goes off. The events of the airplane's cargo hold have a terrible and hilarious consequence for Al. After Hamm fails at the Buzz Lightyear video game, he flips through the channels and sees Al in an Al's Toy Barn commercial, sobbing since he lost his luggage and the money he was going to get for the delivery, which is why in the commercial he is selling everything for as Al says in the chicken suit, "For a buck, buck, buck." While Al is sobbing, Hamm says a somewhat humorous remark about Al and his scheme ("Well, I guess crime doesn't pay."). Meanwhile, a fixed Wheezy sings "You've Got a Friend in Me", and Buzz asks Woody if he was still worried about Andy giving him up. Woody replies that he isn't worried anymore, and that when it is all over, he will have Buzz to keep him company, for infinity and beyond.

Voice Cast

Voice Cast Introduced

Additional Voices

Production

Toy Story 2 wasn't originally intended for release in theaters. Disney asked Pixar to make a direct-to-video sequel for the original Toy Story with a 60 minute running time, to be released in the fall of 1998. When Disney executives saw how impressive the in-work imagery for the sequel was, they decided to create a theatrical movie, and the plot was reworked to be more epic and cinematic in scope. The duration of the movie was extended to just over 90 minutes. Immediately after the release of A Bug's Life and less than a year before scheduled release of Toy Story 2, Pixar decided that the plot was too predictable, the humor fell flat, and the film overall could not be released in theaters in its current state. Pixar decided to redo the film after redeveloping the plotline, and to start over with voice acting and animation. Disney did not think this was the right decision, but allowed Pixar to attempt to redo the movie. In a bid to save Toy Story 2, the Pixar employees spent the next 9 months working shifts exceeding 10 hours, 6 days per week desperately scrambling to complete the production on time. Edwin Catmull, president of Pixar, later disclosed that a full 30% of Pixar's staff at all levels of the hierarchy suffered some sort of repetitive stress injury during the final 9 months of production. The film ultimately was finished on time and was released in theaters to record-breaking box office performance and universal critical acclaim, making it one of the few movie sequels in the history of cinema to match or exceed the original film in quality. John Lasseter and Edwin Catmull announced to the Pixar team that although they were extremely proud of the crew's performance and dedication, they would never make a movie that way again, and would leave plenty of time between the beginning of production and release in the future. The crews received a few weeks to recover from the hectic nightmare before starting on Pixar's next feature, a Pete Docter film that would become Monsters, Inc.

Pixar and Disney had a five-film co-production deal and Pixar felt that with its change in status, Toy Story 2 should count as one of the pictures in the deal. Disney, however, felt that since the production of Toy Story 2 was negotiated outside of the five-picture deal, it should not count. This issue became a particularly sore spot for Pixar, leading to a falling out between Pixar CEO Steve Jobs and Disney CEO Michael Eisner, concluding in Pixar's 2004 announcement that it would not extend its deal with Disney and would instead seek other distribution partners. With Eisner's departure and Pixar's ultimate purchase by Disney, however, these problems have been overcome.

An original storyline for the film can be read here.

Reception

Box Office Results

Toy Story 2 made over $245.9 million in its initial US theatrical run according to Box Office Mojo, far surpassing the original, and in fact, every other animated movie to that date except for The Lion King, though both were later eclipsed by another Pixar film, Finding Nemo. Worldwide, Toy Story 2 grossed $485 million.

Reviews

The film was received with critical acclaim, with fans and critics claiming that it is just as good as if not better then the first film. Rotten Tomatoes reported 100% of critics gave it positive reviews and is one of the most critically praised films on the site.

During its release, John Lasseter received a letter from animation legend and hero Chuck Jones, praising the film, animation and the character of Jessie. Lasseter has had the letter framed on his wall ever since.

Trailers

One Pixar tradition is to create trailers for their films that do not contain footage from the released film. In one trailer, released theatrically with Doug's 1st Movie, the green alien toys come up to a center with the claw coming down. First the claw was carrying down Toy Story with the aliens doing their trademark "Oooh." Second the claw brings down a "2" and with the aliens turning around and looking at the audience and saying, "Two." Then Woody appears and is swiftly disappointed when Buzz shows up as well. He expresses his annoyance that Buzz is in the sequel. Buzz replies, "Excuse me, pull-string boy, what would Toy Story 2 be without Buzz Lightyear?" "A good movie," counters Woody.

Attached Short Film

Theatrical and video releases of this film include Luxo, Jr., Pixar's first short film released in 1986.

Sequels

Toy Story 3

Eleven years later, Toy Story 3 was released June 18, 2010. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, R. Lee Ermey and Jeff Pidgeon reprise their roles of Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head, Andy, Andy's Mom, Sarge and the Aliens. Jim Varney died shortly after the release of Toy Story 2 so the role of Slinky Dog went to Blake Clark. Bo Peep, Wheezy, and Zurg made silent cameos in the film. The sequel features Andy all grown and prepared to head for college and his remaining toys - Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Rex, Hamm, The Potato Heads, The Aliens, Slinky, and Bullseye - mistakenly being donated to a daycare center and then racing to get home before Andy leaves.

Toy Story 4

It was announced on November 6, 2014 that Pixar was working on Toy Story 4, which was released in theaters on June 21, 2019. The film focuses on a new "toy" that Bonnie creates named Forky, and Woody helping him realize what being a toy is all about.

Gallery

Posters

Titles

South Korean title. Russian title. Chinese title. Bulgarian title.

Stills

Other

Toy Story 2 in the Ultimate Toy Box Collection. Toy Story 2 Logo Card.





Trailers

Clips

Toy Story 2 - Buzz tied up in a display box. Buzz tied up in a display box