Toy Story 2: Special Edition

While attempting to rescue Wheezy the squeaky penguin from a yard sale, Woody inadvertently finds himself being abducted by megalomaniac toy collector Al. As it turns out, Woody is the missing piece in a rare collection of memorabilia from the 1950s television series Woody's Roundup, of which he was the star, and with the collection now complete it can be sold to a museum at an extortionate price. Forced to choose between being shipped off to Japan as part of a complete set and returning home to his owner, Andy, and the other toys, Woody quickly comes to realise that there are no easy answers to life and that toys don't last forever. Meanwhile, Buzz Lightyear and the other toys, shocked that Woody has fallen into the hands of a kidnapper, set out to retrieve him no matter the cost.

Toy Story 2 is a truly bizarre phenomenon. Despite starting its life as a cheap direct to video sequel in the tradition so common for Disney's animated properties, it was upgraded to a theatrical release and not only went on to gross more than $100 million more worldwide than the original Toy Story but was proclaimed, by critics and audiences alike, to be one of the rare sequels that was actually superior to its predecessor. It goes without saying that these are some pretty impressive accomplishments for what was originally intended to be a quickie side project while the bulk of the effort and money went into A Bug's Life. Then again, it wouldn't be the first time that a side project in the animated world ended up being a much bigger hit than the supposed A-picture. It happened four years prior to Toy Story 2 with The Lion King, which despite initially being the feature no-one wanted to work on because it had been predicted to fail, it not only became the (then) highest grossing animated feature of all time but trounced its more prestigious stablemate, Pocahontas, both critically and financially.


This thing is, though, that, as is so often the case, I just so happen to disagree with the majority, in that I think Toy Story 2 is inferior to Toy Story. Don't get me wrong, I still consider it a brilliant film, and I would rank it above both A Bug's Life and Monsters, Inc. in the Pixar canon, but for several reasons I can't enthuse about it to the same degree as some critics.

First, although the film's budget was significantly increased and the entire storyline substantially reworked after the decision was made to upgrade it to a theatrical release, its direct to video origins are, at least in the first act, readily apparent. These problems abate to some extent once the story proper gets underway, but I don't particularly like the first 25 minutes, which, in my eyes, aren't much better in terms of writing than any of Disney's ungodly cheapquels. All the requisite 'i's are dotted and boxes checked as characters spout their usual catchphrases and generally give the impression that everyone is simply going through the motions. The visuals have admittedly been improved, particularly with regard to the lighting, and the human characters no longer look quite as much like porcelain dolls as they did before, but it's far from the monumental leap forward in technology that garnered the original so much attention, so it lacks what made its predecessor a major technological breakthrough as well as an excellent film. It would also be fair to say that the dialogue doesn't quite match the razor-sharp wit of the original (much of it, I suspect, courtesy of co-writer Joss Whedon), although that's not to say that it's completely devoid of funny dialogue. In particular, the lines delivered by Buzz Lightyear's "evil twin" (a thoroughly satisfying riff on an age-old movie cliché) are a hoot. Likewise, the entire film is filled with accurate and affectionate send-ups of all manner of cinematic and televisual icons, my favourite being the Woody's Roundup show, a rickety, cheesy, black and white marionette-based serial filled with deliberate mistakes and corny one-liners.

The slight sense of banality in the plot can perhaps be explained by the fact that a number of key concepts - for instance Woody's nightmare, and indeed the whole concept of him being a collector's item who is kidnapped by a toy collector - are actually left-over ideas from the original Toy Story. The Pixar team more or less admit this, and indeed on his introduction to this DVD, director John Lasseter claims, only half jokingly, that the entire reason for making a sequel was so they could put these rejected ideas to use.


This may sound like I'm ragging on on the film unfairly or condemning it outright, but in fact nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, once Woody has been abducted and Buzz leads the other toys out into the unknown to track him down, the pace picks up and the film becomes much better. This is one of those rare sequels where the characters not only grow but learn things they didn't previously know about both themselves and each other. In particular, Woody's discovery that he had another life as the star of his own TV show literally turns his world upside down, and tempts him with the prospect not only of being with his own kind but also of a new life as a museum piece where he will be idolised by millions and be preserved for all eternity. The writing is good enough that, even if you never for a moment really believe that Woody would abandon his friends (and of course Andy), we can genuinely understand how conflicted he is and realise that whatever decision he makes will result in a compromise. The ending, a highly extravagant affair featuring sparkling lights, dancing Barbie dolls and a rousing rendition of You've Got a Friend in Me by Robert Goulet, also has a brief but powerful interlude in which Woody admits to Buzz that he knows that he is living on borrowed time, and that sooner or later Andy will grow up and forget about him. Writing this mature is extremely rare in a family-oriented animated film, and this is one of the few elements of Toy Story 2 that is genuinely better than the original.

Pixar are, beyond any doubt, the best animation studio in business today, and their films come as close as we are likely to get to the spirit embodied by Walt Disney's animated features during that studio's golden age. If Toy Story 2 is not quite up to the same standard as the original, then that should in no way be taken as a bad thing. Toy Story set the bar so high that it must have been an extraordinarily tough act to follow, and despite the criticisms I have laid out, I still consider Toy Story 2 to be one of the best animated films of the 1990s, Western or Eastern, CG or traditional.


DVD Presentation

Like the 10th Anniversary Edition of the original Toy Story, released in September 2005, this special edition of Toy Story 2 comes on two discs which essentially repackage much of the material that was previously available in the 3-disc Ultimate Toy Box set in a slightly different form. The film gains a new transfer and audio mixes, both of which constitute a minor improvement on the previous release, but are far from the night-and-day difference that the marketing campaign would suggest.

At one point, I considered the Ultimate Toy Box transfer of Toy Story 2 to be worthy of the coveted 10/10 accolade, but in recent years I have grown more critical of it. Crucially, it seems to be quite heavily filtered, lacking the razor sharpness of, say, the PAL transfer of The Incredibles, and also suffers from some noticeable compression artefacts when viewed on a larger display. To this day it's still a very nice transfer, but not a perfect one. The new transfer on this special edition improves slightly in both these areas, seeming noticeably crisper and with less macro-blocking (the opening sequence with Buzz Lightyear in space is a strong litmus test for both of these issues). Still, though, when all said and done the change is so subtle that I suspect a lot of viewers won't even notice it.

Like Toy Story, new Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS-ES 5.1 mixes have been created, this time by Gary Summers rather than Gary Rydstrom, the original audio designer. Again, the difference isn't immediately apparent, and indeed to my ears there seemed to be little, if any difference, between the DD 5.1 EX track on the Ultimate Toy Box and the supposedly "all-new" one presented here. The DTS track, though, is a definite (if still subtle) improvement, demonstrating punchier bass and an overall crisper quality. Once again, Disney have generously provided subtitles in English, French and Spanish for the film and for all of the extras, as well as English, French and Spanish Dolby Surround 2.0 audio tracks (although, as far as I'm concerned, the latter three are simply taking up space that could have been better used to increase the bit rate available for the transfer).


Extras

Disc 1:

As per usual for Disney, the first disc begins with a bunch of sneak peeks for various upcoming releases, including Pixar's latest movie, Cars, which once again seems to be the main selling point of this release. I'm still not overly enthused by this film, but given that Pixar have yet to release a dud, I see no reason to begin doubting them now.

Director John Lasseter provides a brief (94 second) introduction in which he enthuses about the image and audio quality and cracks a few cheap jokes about the characters.

This is followed by the audio commentary that was also included with the version released in the Ultimate Toy Box. It features Lasseter, co-writer Andrew Stanton, co-director Ash Brannon and co-director/co-editor Lee Unkrich. This was one of the first commentaries I ever listened to, and it remains one of my favourites. It's lighthearted and energetically paced but consistently enlightening throughout. The four speakers have a good rapport and play off each other nicely, delivering not only laughs but also a vast amount of solid information. In a nice touch, the subtitles for the commentary identify each speaker, first by their full name and role on the film, and then subsequently by their initials. Given that both Stanton and Brannon have very similar voices, I found this to be extremely useful.

Finally, the Dolby Digital 5.1 effects-only track, showcasing Gary Rydstrom's impressive foley work in all its glory, has been ported over from the Ultimate Toy Box. Given that Disney neglected to include this feature for the 10th Anniversary Edition of Toy Story, it's surprising to see it turn up here, but it's a welcome inclusion nonetheless.


Disc 2:

The sheer volume of different menu options on the second disc is initially a little off-putting, but it quickly becomes apparent that the vast majority of the extras are fairly brief affairs. There are essentially four main sections, all but one of which, Making Toy Story 2, are divided into sub-sections. An index has been provided to allow easy access to the various sections, although for some reason it is incomplete. The Toy Box section, for example, lists only the outtakes and interactive game.

Making Toy Story 2 runs for only 8 minutes and, for the most part, simply recycles material that was already available. This is, for the most part, John Lasseter talking about the issues that had to be addressed when creating a sequel to such a major film, interspersed with clips from the film, behind the scenes footage and comments from other crew members. Compared with the retrospective materials provided for Toy Story, this is a real let-down, although it's not as if Toy Story can really be considered as important an accomplishment as its predecessor.

The Toy Box section features various catch-all features that wouldn't really fit anywhere else, including the outtakes that played over the end credits during the latter half of the film's theatrical run; a Who's the coolest toy? featurette in which cast and crew members discuss, you guessed it, their favourite characters; "Which toy are you?", one of those infuriating interactive games that Disney insists on putting on its DVDs; a Ponkickies game from a popular Japanese TV show (a similar feature was also included on the Monsters, Inc. DVD); a Riders in the Sky music medley; and a collection of autographed pictures of the characters. All but the two interactive games were previously featured in the Ultimate Toy Box.

Deleted scenes contains two sequences that were removed or altered for the final cut, as well as a brief introduction from co-director Ash Brannon. All of this was included in the Ultimate Toy Box, so there's nothing particularly noteworthy worth mentioning here.

By far the biggest section, Behind the Scenes features the usual mish-mash of materials relating to the production. Everyone waxes lyrical about the film's director in a John Lasseter profile, while a Cast of characters featurette provides a rather redundant rundown of the film's major personalities. The Design, Story, Production, Music & sound and Publicity sections are rather more meaty in terms of their content, providing an array of galleries, character model turnarounds, 3D flyaround tours of the sets, storyboard to final film comparisons, production progression demonstrations, sound demos, trailers and so on. There's a lot of material here, and to discuss each feature in depth would be not only time consuming but also a bit pointless, given that it has all been carried over from the Ultimate Toy Box and has therefore already been discussed ad nauseam elsewhere.

By far my biggest criticism of the presentation of these extras, which in my opinion also marred the Ultimate Toy Box, is the haphazard organisation. There's a vast amount of material here to work through, but viewing it all requires navigating through a seemingly insurmountable array of menus and sub-menus, which makes it all a bit of a chore. Personally I would much rather have been given a decent, sensibly structured documentary and a collection of galleries rather than all these bite-sized pieces.

Finally, as was the case with the 10th Anniversary Edition of Toy Story, a number of extras included in the Ultimate Toy Box haven't made the journey on to this new release. Given the vast amount of material included in both releases (and the aforementioned maze-like menu structure), I'm sorry to say that I can't provide a blow by blow account of every single item that is missing, but I definitely missed Pixar's Luxo Jr. short and the "guide to hidden jokes", a neat slideshow-based feature that pointed out various background gags that most viewers wouldn't have noticed.


Overall

The caveat I provided for the 10th Anniversay Edition of Toy Story applies to the Toy Story 2 Special Edition as well, so allow me to quote it verbatim: "There is not a whole lot in this new 2-disc set that viewers who previously bought the Ultimate Toy Box will not already have seen." Yes, there is a slight increase in the quality of the transfer and the audio mixes, and yes, there are a handful of new bonus features, but for the most part, there is very little here that wasn't already available. In its own right, it's an excellent release, but is there any reason for previous customers to upgrade? I'll leave that up to you, but I'll simply say that I very much doubt I would have picked up this release if I hadn't been offered a free review copy.