212 | Toy Story 2

About this episode

The episode discusses the evolution and impact of Toy Story 2 within the Pixar franchise.

Once again the gang turns back the clocks to follow up our episode on Toy Story with our discussion on 1999's Toy Story 2, a film that really kickstarts the Pixar meme of "so what if ____ had feelings?" and sets the foundation for the entire Toy Story franchise...that's still going on to this day! This movie introduces Jessie and Woody's Roundup, the evil Emperor Zurg, and the philosophical conundrums of identity, mortality, and immortality! It's a fantastic evolution of the foundational idea of Toy Story , shows significantly improved computer-generated animation made in 4 years of progress, raises the stakes significantly for Woody and Buzz and doesn't retread their character arcs from the first film, and does all this while still being a fantastically fun children's movie to watch even as an adult. That all being said, it's still not a better sequel than Shrek 2 . Content warning: strong language.

People in this episode

Hosts: Alex, Iris, Marcus, Michael

Topics covered

• Toy Story 2
• Pixar
• animation
• character development
• philosophical themes
• sequel analysis

Keywords

• Toy Story 2
• Pixar
• animation
• Jessie
• Woody
• Emperor Zurg
• sequel
• philosophy
• identity
• mortality

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Toy Story 2, Toy Story, Shrek 2

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