Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014) Review
THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
When it’s time to express yourself, it’ll be all so worth it. You don’t think so? Look at Toy Story That Time Forgot.
PLOT
The 2014 short is a holiday special meant for Christmas, set during winter break. Bonnie Anderson (Emily Hahn) goes on a play date with one of her neighbors, Mason (RC Cope). Surprisingly, they play video games together rather than their mix of new and old toys. For the occasion, the toys she brought are: Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, Rex, Trixie, and the ornament Angel Kitty (Emma Hudak). For a while now, Trixie has felt a bit irritated she’s never done any role-play as the dinosaur she is based off of. That feeling changes when she meets Mason’s new Battlesaur play set that he hasn’t opened yet. The warrior figure Reptillus Maximus and the pteranodon shaman, the Cleric, are depicted as the leaders to the playset. Trixie & Rex fit in pretty well when they’re treated as warriors, but the joy ends when the former discovers they don’t even know they’re toys after destroying Mason’s other toys. Realizing they’re gonna do to the same to Woody & Buzz, she defends them and is deemed a heretic by the Cleric for still having her owner’s name on her foot. When Repitilius goes after her, he would be enraged when she shows him the truth of his purpose, finding his toy package. The Cleric tries control Rex’s armor to destroy Woody & Buzz via air vent so he can control the playroom, aware that Mason will be distracted with video games, being the only one of the Battlesaurs to know he’s a toy. Bonnie intends to pull the plug on Mason’s game and as she tries, she’s able to explain Reptilius the joy of playtime, resulting in him to turn off the game himself. When Mason finds them, he and Bonnie play with all the toys in the playroom, inadvertently stopping Cleric’s rule. When returning home, Trixie would tell the toys of how much fun she had and is proud to be Bonnie’s toy with whatever role she gives her. The special concludes with a message from Angel Kitty where she gives advice to be grateful for all gifts before vanishing.
THOUGHTS
It totally made sense that if Pixar was gonna make a Halloween special, a Christmas special was not that far off of an idea and thankfully, the wait for that wasn’t so long. This would be the last Toy Story adventure for over four years until the fourth movie finally happened and this was a general blast you would want to seek. The animation is great with all the Dino mania that the Battlesaurs are all about and you get a good laugh on how those characters having the same dilemma Buzz had. What made me laugh the most before the randomness of Angel Kitty was the fact Rex was in his element before he lost control of what made him cooler. You can tell Wallace Shawn enjoyed the change of pace for the usual anxiousness that’s defined the character. We’ll never get enough of the dynamic of what Tom Hanks & Tim Allen bring as Woody & Buzz, which made it another refreshing scenery how they’re both unaware of their surroundings when it came to facing a whole species of toys. Having said that, this is more Trixie’s story than theirs and I respect that because if Pixar is gonna keep introducing new characters, you might as well give them the spotlight. It’s through her perspective where we learn the message by writer/director Steve Purcell that it’s important all kinds of imagination otherwise you’ll stuck be with isolation rather than connection. Kristen Schaal does nail the optimism of Trixie, but this time, she just wanted to try something different as in go back to her roots as in how Woody & Buzz mostly are depicted in playtime on what they’re designed to be. Once she saw how it affected the Battlesaurs, she knew it wasn’t worth clinging onto such a request. Purcell voiced the villainous Cleric and showed how easy it is to manipulate everyone’s delusion and as for Reptilius, Kevin McKidd does make him charismatic yet is more willing to accept change compared to his supposed leader. Maybe the Cleric could’ve maintained the illusion had he destroyed the packages and it’s definitely problematic for him to destroy other toys like Woody & Buzz because Bonnie definitely would be suspicious at that point, but as long as Trixie was around to give Reptilius an important speech on why playtime is special, Destiny was set for Mason’s playset from then on. In return, a new friend was made. In short, Toy Story That Time Forgot is another entertaining story from Pixar for just being plain fun with what we learn from it. If you still love Pixar and want to change up your Christmas watchlist, check this out.
Comments