Guest written by:
Andy the Panda Bear

 My human doesn’t play around with her reviews. That’s why she asked me to write this. You see, “Toy Story 2” is one of her favorite movies. And I can give you several reasons why. She won’t let me say exactly HOW long, but Linda and I have been together her entire life.

You’ll have to excuse my appearance. I know I’m a little threadbare, my mouth is a tad lopsided, and these aren’t my original eyes. But that’s because Linda loves me so much. And that has a lot to do with why she enjoyed this movie so much ... but I’ll get to that in a while. I know she was impressed with the animation, because the Pixar people did an even better job than they did the first time around. The wonderful toys are back, but they look even better than before. Now the Pixar folks have perfected texture, which means that you actually can see the fur on a dachshund.

You need not have seen the original to enjoy this one (you should, though, see it sometime, my human reminds me). Even if you haven’t seen the first one, you’re probably familiar with the stars, including Buzz Lightyear (the voice of Tim Allen) and Woody the cowboy (Tom Hanks), the two toy pals whose human is Andy. When Andy’s mom has a yard sale, she sets out a little penguin, Wheezy (Robert Goulet), who has lost his squeaker device. Woody saves the penguin, but ends up being stolen by a collector.

The collector recognizes Woody as a highly sought after doll from a 1950s marionette series. He plans to sell Woody and the other dolls from the set to a museum in Japan. While Woody discovers that he once was a TV personality, he makes the acquaintance of Jessie the cowgirl (Joan Cusack), Bullseye the horse and Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer), who all want Woody to stay and complete their set so that they can go to Japan and be loved by millions. If Woody leaves, the other Western toys will be put into storage again, and they don’t want that dark, lonely fate.

In the meantime, Buzz leads the other toys in a search for Woody. My human says not to tell you too much more, except to say that the movie is fast-paced, clever and thoroughly enjoyable for all ages. The kids will just plain love the toys (and want some of their own, no doubt). For grown-ups there are references to “Star Wars” and other bits of pop culture. Most of the movie is bright and funny, but there are some touching moments, too, and one of them made my human cry. At one point, Jessie sings a very sad song (by Sarah MacLachlan) about how happy she was when a little girl loved her. That reminded my human of her favorite book, “The Velveteen Rabbit.” And I know it reminded her of me, too. My human was very ill as a child, but I stayed through it all with her, in oxygen tents and on hospital pillows, and she loves me for that. This movie, she says, is for anyone who ever loved a toy. I feel sorry for any human who hasn’t. 

Rated G