Director – Angus MacLane (Finding Dorry)
Starring – Tom Hanks (Toy Story, Forrest Gump), Tim Allen (The Santa Clause, Toy Story), and Joan Cusack (Toy Story 2, Addams Family Values)
Release Date – 2013
Rating – 3.5/5
Tagline – “One toy gets left behind”
In 1995 I turned 9 and the film Toy Story was released. This film was very impressive for the time and helped make Pixar a family name just as common as Disney. The film was brilliant and cute for a children’s movie but it just never really clicked with me and my tastes. In 1999 the sequel, Toy Story 2, was released and it gave the viewer much of the same but this one just did not click either. After Toy Story 2 Pixar took a break from the TS series and returned 11 years later in 2010 with Toy Story 3. This flick did nothing for me what-so-ever and made me wish they would stop pushing the same story down our throats.
Then, last year Pixar and Disney hit us with the news that they would be releasing a Toy Story short for the Halloween season. Color me intrigued. I wanted to check it out but I had to work and immediately forgot about it. That was until this year when I saw a TV spot for it and made my wife record it on the Hopper (nifty little device). Now, after waiting a year I was finally able to give it a go.
**Spoiler Alert**The film picks up right after Toy Story 3 (watch that film first). The toy’s new owner Bonnie and her mother are traveling. They stop at a small motel for the night and the toys get out of their bags. Once inside the motel the toys then learn that things are not as they seem. Something has been kidnapping toys and starts picking off Bonnie’s toys one by one like a true slasher film (just no one dies). We quickly learn that it is the desk clerk’s lizard who he has trained to nab the toys of the visitors so he can sell them online.
He nabs all of Bonnie’s toys and learns that Jessie, who is afraid of being boxed, is the first to get sold and is boxed but her toy brethren refuse to let her go and break her out right in the nick of time. Bonnie and her mother find them and are able to put them back in their bags where they belong.**Spoiler Alert**
When I was younger I loved children’s specials that focused on Halloween as a holiday versus the films that take place on Halloween and involve a body county. I like them both but with Halloween approaching I like to watch the kid friendly films that I normally don’t watch year round. Films like The Worst Witch, Boltneck, The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t, Mr. Boogedy, and Bride of Boogedy are films I watch every October. I love these films but I sometimes want to watch something a little newer that I can watch with my daughter when she is a little older like I did a lot of these movies with my grandmother. That is what Toy Story of Terror did perfectly. It was able to make a spooky and atmospheric film that is perfect for children of the modern age.
The voice acting in this one is what you came to expect from the other Toy Story series. The characters were cast perfectly but Joan Cusack’s voice is crippling. I, for the life of me, can not understand who thought it was a good idea to cast her for anything and not dub her voice. The story for this one is more of what was already done in the other films but with horror cliches making this film brilliant. It has a great opening homage to the Universal monsters age and then followed the pace of a classic slasher film.
Finally, the animation looks great and so does the visual images. The technology used in this short is obviously updated when compared to the other films. Overall, Toy Story of Terror is a modern classic that has earned a rotation in my annual Halloween viewing. If you have not seen this one then do yourself a favor and check it out!
