Toy Story 2 (Exclusive Series Special) (Disney Plus)

Initial release date: November 24, 1999

Studios: Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation

Tagline: The boys are back in town

Plot: Woody is stolen from his home by toy dealer Al McWhiggin, leaving Buzz Lightyear and the rest of the gang to rescue him. But when Woody discover that he’s actually a valuable collectible from a once popular TV show called “Woody’s Roundup,” and is reunited with his horse Bullseye, Jessie the yodeling cowgirl and his faithful sidekick, Stinky Pete the Prospector, he doesn’t want to leave.

Cast

Tom Hanks - Woody

Tim Allen - Buzz Lightyear

Joan Cusack - Jessie

Kelsey Grammer - Prospector

Don Rickles - Mr. Potato Head

Jim Varney - Slinky Dog

Wallace Shawn - Rex

John Ratzenberger - Hamm

Annie Potts - Bo Beep

Wayne Knight - Al McWhiggin

John Morris - Andy

Laurie Metcalf - Andy’s Mom

Estelle Harris - Mrs. Potato Head

R. Lee Ermey - Sarge

Writer(s): Andrew Stanton (Toy Story 4; Finding Dory)

Rita Hsiao (Mulan - 1998; My Little Pony: The Movie)

Doug Chamberlain

Chris Webb

Director(s): John Lasseter

Ash Brannon (co-director) (Surf’s Up)

Lee Unkrich (co-director) (Coco; Toy Story 3; Finding Nemo; Monsters, Inc)

Rated G (92 minutes)

Time to continue on with taking another look at the beloved ‘Toy Story’ franchise from Pixar Animation!

‘Toy Story 2’ is one of those rare sequels that is actually more entertaining and more magical than its predecessor. The first film introduced us to all of our favorite characters, including Buzz Lightyear! The 1999 sequel fleshes the characters out more and shows how Woody and Buzz’s friendship deepened since the first movie.

This entertaining sequel is solid family fun and is simply one of Pixar’s best!! Catch all the ‘Toy Story movies and a couple of shorts on Disney Plus!

Here are several fun/interesting tidbits for ‘Toy Story 2’:

• For the scene where Woody looks at the merchandise from “Woody’s Roundup,” mock-ups of the toys were shown to Tom Hanks in the recording booth. Hanks’ spontaneous reactions to the toys were recorded and used for Woody’s dialogue.

• Many of the ideas that weren’t used in the 1995 movie appear in this film: the yard sale, and Woody’s nightmare as a couple examples.

• Originally Bullseye (Woody’s horse) was going to talk, until it was decided that she should act like a giant, adorable puppy.

• Due to such a tight schedule, the film’s editors would often work 36-48 hour shifts. Editorial Dept. Manager Lindsay Collins said that sometimes editors would burst into tears purely from exhaustion.

• This was the first sequel for both Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.

• Talk of a sequel to ‘Toy Story’ began around a month after the film’s opening.

• Disney chairman Joe Roth, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s successor, embraced the idea of a sequel. Disney had recently begun making direct to video sequels to its successful features, and Roth wanted to handle the ‘Toy Story’ sequel this way, as well. Prior releases, such as 1994’s ‘Aladdin’ sequel, ‘The Return of Jafar,’ had returned an estimated $100 million in profit.

• Disney and Pixar officially announced the sequel in a press release on March 12, 1997.

• As the story approached the production stage in early 1997, it was unclear whether Pixar would produce the film, as the entire team of 300 was busy working on ‘A Bug’s Life’ for a 1998 release.

• In November 1997, Disney executives viewed the film’s story reels with some finished animation, in a screening room at Pixar. They were impressed with the quality of work and became interested in releasing this sequel in theaters.

• The work done on the film to date was nearly lost in 1998 when one of the animators, while routinely clearing some files, accidentally entered the deletion command code on the servers. Associate technical director Oren Jacob was one of the first to notice as character models disappeared from their works in progress.

• They shut down the file servers but had already lost 90% of the last two years of work, and it was also found that the backups hadn’t been working for about a month. The film was saved when a technical director, who had been remote working to take care of her newborn child, revealed she had a backup copy of the film on her home computer. The Pixar team was able to recover nearly all of the lost assets save for a few recent days of work, allowing the film to proceed.

• Many of the creative staff at Pixar weren’t happy with how the sequel was turning out. Upon returning from the European promotion of ‘A Bug’s Life,’ Lasseter watched the development reel and agreed that it wasn’t working. Pixar met with Disney, telling them that the film would have to be redone.

• Disney disagreed, and noticed that Pixar didn’t have enough time to remake the film before its established release date. Pixar decided that they simply couldn’t allow the film to be released in its existing state, and asked Lasseter to take over the production.

• Lasseter agreed, and recruited the first film’s creative team to redevelop the story. To meet Disney’s deadline, Pixar had to complete the entire film in nine months.

• Pixar showed the complete film at CalArts on November 12, 1999, in recognition of the school ties with Lasseter and more than forty other alumni who worked on the film.

• The film was as successful as its predecessor commercially. It became 1999’s highest grossing animated film, earning $245.9 million in the US and Canada and $497.4 million worldwide - beating both Pixar’s previous releases by a significant margin.

https://youtu.be/xNWSGRD5CzU