Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Slinky (Jim Varney), Hamm (John Ratzenberger) and Mr. Potato Head (Ron Rickles) all come together again for a second adventure as Woody is accidentally put out in a garage sale and stolen by toy collector named Al (Wayne Knight). While the previous movie focuses a lot on helping Buzz realize he is just a toy, a similar transformation has to happen to Woody in Toy Story 2 as he learns that he is actually a highly prized collectible and has to decide between Andy and a life of preservation.
This bit of personal dilemma is kicked off when Woody's arm is torn while Andy is playing with him and Buzz, and instead of getting fixed right away, he is put up on a shelf to be dealt with later. His feelings of abandonment push him closer to his possible museum-display future, and he is egged onto that path by some new friends that heark from the show his toy was created by. Joining Woody in Al's office is Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl (Joan Cusack), Woody's trusty horse Bullseye and the never-removed-from-box Stinky Pete (Kelsey Grammer). All four characters were inspired by "Woody's Roundup," a 1950's kids' series involving marionettes that spawned tons of merchandise, and now that Al has the rare Woody toy, he can sell the whole collection to a Japanese museum for a pretty penny.
Meanwhile, Buzz and the rest of the guys make a mission out of tracking down Al and rescuing Woody from certain doom. The group is able to track Al to his store, Al's Toy Barn, and sneak into the facility, only to be overrun with everything from an isle of Barbies to the latest Buzz Lightyears (with anti-gravity belt) and even the evil Lord Zurg. While this side of the story offers a nice distraction, the real plot is with Woody and the others. In Al's apartment, we learn that Jessie is horribly afraid of going back into storage (based on abandonment issues with her previous owner), and if Woody decides to return to Andy, then they will all get locked up again. It's also on the Woody-side of the story that we get two new Randy Newman songs - one is the theme for "Woody's Roundup" and the other is about Jessie's previous owner called "When She Loved Me."
As with Toy Story: Special Edition, Toy Story 2 comes with tons of new special features (as well as all of the ones from the old DVD release). Where Toy Story's peek at the Toy Story 3 involved the movie's story, this one talks about the new characters like Ken (Michael Keaton), Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton), Lotso (Ned Beatty), Buttercup (Jeff Garlin) and Stretch the Octopus (Whoopi Goldberg). This release also contains a second part to Buzz's trip into space as he explains what life on the International Space Station is like and a "Paths to Pixar" segment that interviews Technical Artists about getting on at Pixar.
Toy Story 2: Special Edition's three "Studio Stories" shorts talk about having to re-write the entire movie day and night before production could get started, or the team's attempts to throw various toys at the ceiling insulation and trying to get them to stick (including a Pinocchio doll) and a short about the computer system going down and major parts of the film being lost. Other featurettes include a the group making a 3D zoetrope and an in-memory-of featurette on the late Joe Ranft.
Like the Toy Story: Special Edition release, Toy Story 2: Special Edition does not contain the original accompanying short ("Luxo Jr.), but again, it is in the Pixar Short Films Collection Vol. 1 Blu-ray. Also of note is the lack of a digital copy of the film, despite a menu option talking about how easy it is to use the digital copy.
Toy Story 2: Special Edition is a must have for any Disney/Pixar family. Not only does it offer 99% of what the previous release has (again, it's missing "Luxo Jr."), but as a Blu-ray and DVD combo where the DVD version has all of the new special features on it, the package is hard to pass up. As I mentioned in the first Toy Story review, it would have been nice for a package with both movies together instead of two separate boxes, but maybe we can expect a trilogy special edition release when Toy Story 3 leaves the theaters.
