French postcard by Sonis, no. C.1119. Image: Disney / Pixar. Film image for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999).
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Film image of Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Walt Disney Art Classics, no. 1214264 Image: Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios. Film image of Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). Caption: Runaway Reunion.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Film image of Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Film image of Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
Stolen by a nerdy toy collector
Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999) opens with a James Bond-like vignette of Buzz Lightyear dodging aliens and lasers on a wondrous foreign planet, eventually facing the Evil Emperor Zurg, his nemesis.
It turns out to be a video game played by the toys in Andy's bedroom, in a sly commentary on Andy's changing interests. little do the neurotic toys know it, but video games will ultimately make them obsolete.
Andy, the little boy who owns the Toy Story toys, is going off to camp. Woody, the cowboy, is in bad shape with a torn arm and gets left behind.
This is crushing to Woody, but worse is to come when he gets scooped up at a garage sale by Big Al, a nerdy toy collector. He is repaired, mended, and repainted - and scheduled for sale to a toy museum in Japan.
At first, this adventure is kind of fun for Woody, who finds out for the first time that he is part of a set of toys, the Roundup Gang, that also includes a cowgirl named Jessie, a horse named Bullseye, and a prospector named Stinky Pete.
Woody is blown away to discover he even starred in a black-and-white TV puppet show in the 1950s and begins to think that since Andy might eventually abandon him, he might enjoy retiring as the star attraction in a toy museum.
Meanwhile, Buzz Lightyear and the other toys discover what has happened and lead a dangerous crosstown mission to rescue Woody.
German postcard by Edgar Medien GmbH. Image: Pixar / Disney. Publicity still for Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995). Caption: Buzz
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Jill Culton for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Storyboard by Jill Culton for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Storyboard by Rob Gibbs for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Bud Luckey for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
The enchanting three-dimensional feel of computer-generated animation by Pixar
Toy Story 2 once again featured the enchanting three-dimensional feel of computer-generated animation by Pixar and was directed by John Lasseter, the creator of the original Toy Story (1995).
Composer Randy Newman returned with a new score and two new songs. In 'When She Loved Me', sung by Sarah McLachlan, Jessie tells Woody how she too was once owned by a child, but that this child eventually outgrew her. 'Woody's Roundup' sung by Riders in the Sky is the title song of the TV series 'Woody's Roundup'. The film was nominated for an Oscar in 2000 in the Best Song category for 'When She Loved Me'.
Toy Story 2 was originally intended as a lowly direct-to-video release, a common fate even for sequels to Disney's more successful films. Disney commissioned Pixar for a 60-minute story. However, Disney was so impressed with what Pixar had made that they decided to make Toy Story 2 into a feature film after all. The story was extended to 90 minutes.
So, this isn't a made-for-video that they decided to put into theatres, but a version intended from the first to be theatrical, and more detail and complexity went into the animation.
During production in 1998, an incorrectly executed command caused the loss of almost all the project's files. A backup state was restored, but after a week this step proved to be a failure. The backup medium was already full and newer files had overwritten older ones, which went unnoticed until then. Fortunately, thanks to the home server of Galyn Susman, who worked at home, a week-old status was restored.
Having survived the crisis, the film was deleted again in the winter of 1998. This time, however, it was done on purpose, as the producers were not satisfied with the film. Within nine months, Pixar redeveloped the film from scratch.
Pixar and Disney had a contract for five joint films. When the decision was made to release Toy Story 2 in cinemas, Pixar wanted Toy Story 2 to count as one of these five films. Disney, however, argued that Toy Story 2 was agreed upon outside the contract, and therefore did not fall under the five films. This led to disagreement between the two companies and is still regularly cited as the reason why Pixar decided not to renew its partnership with Disney in 2004.
Like its predecessor, Toy Story 2 was well received, and some say did the impossible: it actually improved on the near-perfect Toy Story. The sequel earned a 245-million-dollar domestic gross, well outpacing the original.
The success of Toy Story 2 suggested that Woody, Buzz, and the other characters could have endless adventures beyond the toy chest, and indeed Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010), and Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019) would follow.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Jill Culton for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Randy Berrett for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Jill Culton for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Randy Berrett and Laura Phillips for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Concept art by Dan Lee for Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
American postcard by Disney Enterprises / Pixar Animation Studios, 2005. Image: Pixar Animation Studios. Film image of Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, Lee Unkrich, Ash Brannon, 1999). From 'The Art of Pixar: 100 Collectible Postcards, published by Chronicle Books.
Sources: Roger Ebert (RogerEbert.com), Derek Armstrong (AllMovie), Wikipedia (Dutch and German), and IMDb.
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