Toy Story 2 (1999)

After the highly populated success of the first Toy Story in 1995, Disney originally wanted PIXAR to release TOY STORY 2 direct-to-video, but the executives of Disney were so impressed with the film’s imagery, they decided to covert it as a theatrical film release after all. Picking right up after they left off, the next chapter follows Woody (Tom Hanks) being ‘toy napped’ by an overweight, very impatient, and greedy Toy collector named Al McWhiggin (voiced by Wayne Knight), who’s also the chicken suited mascot and owner of Al’s Toybarn. Al takes the pull-string talking cowboy to his apartment where he discovers he’s a valuable collectable from a famous 1950’s children television show called “Woody’s Roundup” and meets three other toys from the franchise: Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (voiced by Joan Cusack), his trusted horse companion Bullseye, and the Prospector Stinky Pete (voiced by Kelsey Grammar). It’s up to Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) and his friends Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Rex (Wallace Shawn), and Slinky Dog (Jim Varney, in one of his final films) to stop Al from sending Woody and the rest of his Woody’s Roundup memorabilia from going to a toy museum in Tokyo, Japan before it’s too late. For this film, We are also introduced to some other new toy characters like Mr. Potato Head’s wife and counterpart Mrs. Potato Head (voiced by Estelle Harris), Wheezy the squeeze toy penguin with a red bow tie (voiced by PIXAR’s legendary animator Joe Ranft), the smooth-talking Barbie doll (voiced by Jodi Benson), and Buzz’s evil archenemy Emperor Zurg (voiced by Finding Nemo director Andrew Stanton). I never saw this in the theater when it came out on November.24th, 1999. But I finally did when it came out on video when I was twelve and like the first one, I really enjoyed it. When the film was released, it eventually made $245,852,179 domestically and $239,163,000 overseas for a total worldwide gross of $485,015,179, becoming the third highest grossing film of 1999, and far surpassing the original. TOY STORY 2 is one of the greatest animated movies of all time and as I said in the first Toy Story review, it’s a childhood classic for all ages to love, whether you’re a kid or an adult. You’ll go to Infinity and Beyond with this one!