Toy Story/Toy Story 2

Toy Story (1995)

100% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 64 reviews)

Runtime: 81 minutes

Directed by: John Lasseter

Starring: The voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn

From: Disney/Pixar

Would you believe that I hadn’t seen the first Toy Story since ’96 and I had never seen Toy Story 2 before? Sad but true. So, I figured that the double feature of the two movies in 3D is a great way for me to get to see both and in an awesome format.

Recently during the late evening I saw this. The crowd wasn’t large at all and yet of course some people there were Troglodytes. But, even though they were dumb they didn’t cause any problems when the movies started, so I really can’t carp too loudly. I definitely can’t carp about the presentation as the picture looked great (the 3D wasn’t overdone or distracting) and the inserts they had before the movies and during the 10 minute intermission were fun and fit perfectly.

I won’t describe the movie as I’m sure just about everyone knows what it’s about, but this tale featuring such stuff as friendship, jealousy, revenge, being happy with who you really are, childhood innocence, and other things is a classic and works great with both adults and children. As the first-ever feature-length computer animated film, it still looks great 14 years later and the story itself more than holds up, as it is timeless. The kid next door Sid is quite the villain and you enjoy his comeuppance. The climax involving Buzz and Woody still looks great in 2009. So, I’m happy that I finally saw this again in a great format and now I wish I would have seen it again much sooner than I did.

Toy Story 2 (1999)

100% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 130 reviews)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: John Lasseter/Ash Brannon/Lee Unkrich

Starring: The voices of Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Wayne Knight

From: Disney/Pixar

Like I said before I hadn’t seen this before so I had no idea what to expect. What I got was a bigger story in scope, a great opening segment, other great action sequences, and a story about loss, children growing up, losing touch with your friends as you get older, and all that jazz. The villains have motives that make logical sense and yet you still root against them and again you’ll enjoy their comeuppance. Everything is bigger in scope-as I said already-and it all looks great due to the improved technology. It was great seeing such an awesome flick in this way for the very first time. Many people say that it's better than the first (and it's a rare feat for a sequel to be better than the original) and I'll have to agree with them, although it's close and both are classics. I also enjoyed the end credits bit where it was like a Jackie Chan movie and you saw bloopers and outtakes.

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