MovieChat Forums > Toy Story 2 (1999) Discussion > Retread of the first movie?

Retread of the first movie?

posted 9 years ago by Cristianos
4 replies | jump to latest

I have loved Toy Story 2 almost as much as the first film, though I usually rank it lower because the story comes off as a retread and rehashes the same ideas and hero's journey for Woody as the first movie did for Buzz.

Toy Story 2 copies how:

* Woody's arm was detached exactly how Buzz's arm was detached from his body, and both instances have their arms re-attached.
* Buzz tells Woody "You are a toy!"; it was the other way around in the first film.
* Woody scrubs the paint off that reveals "ANDY" written underneath his boot and has a change of heart; Buzz looks at "ANDY" written underneath his foot and has a change of heart
* Toy Story leads the audience to believe Sid's toys are "cannibals" (in Woody's words), but they turn out to be the good guys. Toy Story 2 does this in reverse with the Prospector starting out as a good guy, but he is revealed to be a villain.
* Woody climbs onto a leaving plane to save Jessie; in the first film, Woody climbs onto the moving truck to retrieve RC to save Buzz

Again, I'm not bashing the movie, but just pointing out the story similarities. Usually, sequels are bashed if they tell the "first movie in reverse", and I'm surprised Toy Story 2 escaped the criticism.

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[–] ZakkWyldeMyLittlePony 8 years ago

I kind of think those moments were meant to pay homage to the first movie. To be honest, I liked TS2 better than TS1.

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[–] WeirdRaptor 8 years ago

Because it did it so well and the callbacks were all obviously intentional. Not only that, but they all served a purpose to the story, instead of just being reused for the sake of reusing the cool parts of the first film.

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[–] A-zone 8 years ago

Well most of the similarities that you mentioned are really a stretch at best. You took them out of context when comparing them. For example:

* Buzz and Woody's arm got injured due to separate reasons. Also Buzz's arm was completely detached whereas Wood's was still stuck to his body by some threads.

* In the first film, Woody tells Buzz, "You are a toy!" because Buzz believes that he is a real life space ranger. Buzz tells it to Woody because Woody wants to happily go to a museum and remain as an item of display instead of remaining as Andy's toy. It's like taking one movie in which a guy tells his friend "Get in the car!", before the two escape from a dangerous situation, and then taking another movie in which a guy points a gun at a girl an says the same line to her before kidnapping her. I wouldn't consider those to scenes as being similar just because they share a dialogue.

* In TS2, Woody climbs onto the plane to rescue Jessie because she is stuck there. In TS1, Woody climbs onto the moving truck to get RC to help Buzz but Buzz actually isn't in the moving truck like Jessie was. Also the moving truck was their target, they wanted to get on it while they did not want to get on the plane.

* Andy's name written on Buzz and Andy's feet gives them a change of heart. That point I agree is similar.

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[–] AndrewGS 8 years ago

The "You are a toy!" and Buzz climbing to see Buzz are brief and great homages/reversals, the seeing Andy written is a bit of a rehash but still great and the others seem pretty slight, more like coincidences. Woody being fairly fragile was a big part of the movie and the prospector being bad was also a lot bigger and different kind of part than Sid's toys not being bad.

There's obviously a little similarity in the plot being about toy(s) being away from the house but the story and characters and style felt, while true to the first film, really different. I did think Toy Story 3 had a bit too much rehashing.