MY MOVIE SHELF: Toy Story 2

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 149  Days to go: 101

Movie #289:  Toy Story 2

The original Toy Story is fantastic, truly. Toy Story 2 is better, I think.

In the first film, the toys’ troubles are largely insular, instigated and aggravated within their own community — and within their own insecurities. In the sequel, there are clear and identifiable nemeses — outside forces working against the toys of Andy’s room, villains for them to defeat. This makes for higher stakes, greater perils, and a more thrilling story.

This time Al (Wayne Knight), proprietor of Al’s Toy Barn, steals Woody (Tom Hanks) from the family’s yard sale when Woody goes to rescue one of the toys Andy’s mom (Laurie Metcalf) has placed for sale. Woody, see, is a rare collectible — a toy from an old-timey TV show starring Woody himself. Al needs Woody to complete his set, which includes cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack), horse Bullseye, and Old Prospector Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer), so he can sell the whole kit and kaboodle to a toy museum in Japan. Woody tries to escape on his own, but he’s injured (his arm seam popped) and both Jessie and Bullseye are loath to go back into storage. Plus someone is undermining Woody’s efforts. Woody’s friends, meanwhile, are also on a mission to rescue him. Led by Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), a group of Andy’s toys made up of Mr. Potato Head (Don Rickles), Slinky (Jim Varney), Hamm (John Ratzenberger) and Rex (Wallace Shawn) head out into the wilds of suburbia to find and bring home their friend — with their own share of snags and pitfalls along the way.

The movie is as clever as the first, but it also features tons of hilarious and winking references to other movie blockbusters. (Probably far more than I notice, even.) There’s Slinky saying, “I may not be a smart dog, but I know what road kill is,” in homage to Hanks in Forrest Gump. There’s Rex chasing after the car that Tour Guide Barbie (Jodi Benson) is driving and being seen through the side mirror, à la Jurassic Park. There’s Evil Emperor Zurg channeling Darth Vader in all sorts of ways. And there’s Mr. Potato Head pulling an Oddjob (from Goldfinger) by flinging his hat at the closing condominium doors to hold them open.

Toy Story 2 also brings back some old favorites — like the Pizza Planet aliens Mr. Potato Head saves from certain death. (“We are eternally grateful!”) Plus Bo Peep (Annie Potts) is still around to be Woody’s girl (and to be thoroughly impressed by his new arm muscle once Andy repairs his ripped seam). And they add some new favorites as well. The end of Toy Story saw Andy’s baby sister receiving a Mrs. Potato Head (Estelle Harris), and in Toy Story 2 she and her husband are sweet and passionate lovers. And Barbie herself gets a chance to dig the original Toy Story retail marketers for not making enough Buzz Lightyear dolls to meet demand.

There are cute moments, sweet moments and, in the case of Jessie’s lost little girl Emily, quite sad moments. But the best moments are, as always, the daring rescues, the thrilling escapes, and the overwhelming excitement of playing with Andy again. Well, that and Buzz’s spontaneous wing erection when Jessie courageously helps Buster out of the room. He gets literally sprung, and that’s a reference right up my alley.

MY MOVIE SHELF: Toy Story

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 150  Days to go: 101

Movie #288:  Toy Story

Pixar probably would’ve been a sensation just by virtue of their advances in digital animation. Finally there was something to really compete with hand-drawn animation — something that could be just as beautiful, just as graceful, just as moving — without looking amateurish. Pixar really broke the barrier between the computer animation of old and the slick, seamless animation you see today. But that’s not all they did. They produced great stories too.

Toy Story explores a world long-imagined by kids everywhere: What if your toys were alive? What if they could walk and talk and think and play? What if they came to life as soon as you left them alone? What if that’s the reason they’re never where you left them? Or how they become lost?

The toys in Andy’s room are kind of forever having an existential crisis, with Woody (Tom Hanks) being a leader and the voice of reason most of the time. But when shiny new space ranger toy Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) comes on the tails of Andy’s birthday, Woody loses his mind. Not only is Woody replaced as the favorite toy in Andy’s young heart, he’s also no longer looked up to and listened to by the other toys, who are far too impressed with Buzz’s flash and pizzazz and are easily influenced by Andy’s obvious change of preference. (Mr. Potato Head — voiced by notorious grump Don Rickles — is particularly instigating.) This change in Woody’s circumstances would be bad enough, but add to it that Buzz doesn’t actually realize he’s a toy, and Woody finds himself at a complete loss. Not only does he have to compete for position and favor, he has to combat Buzz’s delusions about his mission, his laser, his flying ability, and about a hundred other things.

It’s such an original, imaginative concept. Toys are so easily replaced and discarded over the span of someone’s childhood, that of course if they were sentient they would worry about the constant threat of becoming obsolete, of being replaced. Additionally, some toys would undoubtedly believe their own hype, perhaps not even realizing they’re toys. It’s brilliant.

The rivalry between Woody and Buzz escalates horribly, leading to Buzz being pushed out of a window near the evil neighbor boy’s yard and the rest of the toys — led by Mr. Potato Head, of course, but with additional inciting words from Hamm (John Ratzenberger), Slinky (Jim Varney)  and the army men (R. Lee Ermey), plus the fretful nonconfrontationalism of Rex the dinosaur (Wallace Shawn) — accuse him of being a heartless villain. Woody is reluctantly taken to Pizza Planet with the family, and has a chance at redemption when Buzz shows up in the car, only Buzz is set on revenge and the two toys wind up being left in a Dinoco gas station lot and wind up being found by evil neighbor boy Sid and brought back to his house. It takes an act of daring and an unlikely pairing of the rivals to escape destruction and teach Sid a traumatizing but important and lasting lesson, before triumphantly returning to the folds of Andy’s room (in his new house), now best friends forever.

It’s a heartwarming, thrilling and funny tale that set a new standard for animated films. It’s a serious accomplishment, even if it is about silly toys.

MY MOVIE SHELF: The Princess Bride

The Task: Watch and write about every movie on my shelf, in order (Blu-rays are sorted after DVDs), by June 10, 2015.  Remaining movies: 168  Days to go: 164

Movie #215:  The Princess Bride

Back in the earlier days of IMDb, if you clicked on “Quotables” for The Princess Bride, it said “The whole script,” and it wasn’t wrong. Everyone I know knows every word in this movie. As far as I’m concerned, it’s the only way to watch it. So when the local AMC theater had those midnight showings of old school flicks maybe fifteen years ago (one of which was naturally The Princess Bride), I sat with a group of friends and we all quoted right along with it. Someone next to me was apparently irked by this behavior, but if you want to watch The Princess Bride in silence, watch it at home by yourself. I am not a crackpot.

“Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something.”

Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) loves to toy with her farm boy Westley (Cary Elwes), until she realizes he loves her and she loves him back. (“Is this a kissing book?”) Separated when Westley goes to make his fortune and his ship is attacked by the Dread Pirate Roberts (“Murdered by pirates is good”), Buttercup falls into a deep depression but still Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon) chooses her for his bride. When Buttercup is kidnapped by a trio of “poor lost circus performers” — Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), Inigo (Mandy Patinkin) and Fezzik (Andre the Giant) — in order to start a war, a mysterious Man in Black follows them and steals her back from them. (“Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line! A-HAHA HAHAHA HAHA! A-HAHA HA HAHA HAHA! A-HAHA HA –!”) The man’s “cruelty reveals everything,” however, and Buttercup knows he’s the Dread Pirate himself. He admits it “with pride.” But there’s so much more ahead, including murder, revenge, deception, miracles, torture, true love, and a lot of excellent lines. (“My brains, his steel and your strength against sixty men and you think a little head shake is supposed to make me happy, hmm?”)

The framing of the film is of a grandfather (Peter Falk) coming to visit his sick grandson (Fred Savage) and read the kid a book the grandfather’s father always used to read to him when he was sick. When I found out (by reading the credits, like I’d never heard of that before) — sometime in my mid-teens, after the movie had been out 3 or 4 years and I’d seen it probably a hundred times — that it was actually based on a book, I went out and borrowed it from the library immediately. And the book is framed in a similar way, that a father was always read this book by his father, but when he bought it for his son the son was unimpressed. The father went to read it himself and realized that his father had embellished it outrageously from the dry original text, so the father rewrote it to highlight those things that made his father’s telling of it so great, while removing the boring parts. This is all fiction, a complete fabrication, and yet I totally bought it. I believed every word, and really thought there was some sort of person named S. Morgenstern out there in the past who’d written a history of his beloved homeland of Florin and Guilder — places I’d never heard of before or since, but I was kind of gullible and also really desperate to believe magical things. The idea that there really was this father who made this story better to tell to his kids, and that his son rewrote it to make the reading of it as thrilling and great as the embellished telling, was such a sweet sentiment to me. It’s the kind of heartfelt gesture you always wish your parents to do for you, even though by definition you’d never know they did (at least not at the time).

After I read the book, I was really caught up in the idea that Peter Falk’s character was embellishing a boring book for his grandson in this same way — a fact I kind of clung to by virtue of the “evidence” of the sort of improvisational way the grandfather seemed to read it (which is either ridiculous on my part or a brilliant stealth move by the filmmakers). I wanted to share it with everyone, and as my stepfather is sort of the same way (always pushing food and movies and shows and books he likes on anyone who will sit still), we showed it to a lot of people who came over to the house. I still remember one particularly religious family getting all bunched up over Fred Savage exclaiming “Jesus, Grandpa, what’d you read me this thing for?!” I also still think that’s a ridiculous overreaction, but to each his own, I guess. (Personally, I still think in my head “Jesus, Grandpa, what’d you read me this thing for,” anytime I come across some pointless bit of crap I was forced to sit through. I also frequently tell people “Yes, you’re very smart. Shut up.” Because I can.)

In college, though, is where my love for this movie really got out of hand, because if you happened to say anything untrue in my presence during that time I absolutely would start yelling “Liar! Liaaarrrrrrr” at you (and maybe perform the whole scene, whatever), just like I was Valerie (Carol Kane) and you were Miracle Max (Billy Crystal). (Yes, I really did this. No, I’m not sorry.) But nowadays I’m much more likely to just tell you to “have fun storming the castle,” so I’ve clearly mellowed.

“There’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. ‘Twould be a pity to damage yours.”

Honestly, you can definitely endear yourself to me by quoting this movie, but mostly I just want someone to follow me around saying “As you wish.” I don’t think that makes me all that unusual. Unfortunately, most people just say “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”