TOY STORY 2
Disney-Pixar
Director: John Lasseter
Certificate U
There are very few sequel movies that are as good or better than the original. However, this one is an exception.
Of course, it works at more than one level. There is the child's ideal fantasy of the toys coming alive and having adventures when the child is out of the room. Here the computer animation is truly astonishing. Then there is the level for adults (who are accompanying their children to the cinema), and here the story of the toys raises questions about life (and makes tongue in cheek allusions to other films - watch out for Star Wars and Jurassic Park among others.) This film is brilliant at both levels.
The same crew, Woody the cowboy doll, Buzz Lightyear the space-trooper, and the others, are back, but their characters are developed. Things get going as Woody is sold by accident to an anorak toy-collector who owns a toy store. There he meets a new set of toys. Kept in display boxes, we are led to wonder what makes life worth living for a toy. The answer is to be played with and loved by a child, even though the toys realise that children grow up and will one day leave them behind.
For us, too, it is love that makes life worth living. Especially, the Christian can say, to find ourselves in Christ the objects of the everlasting love of God, who will never leave or forsake us.
