Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation

Voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Garlin, Estelle Harris, Don Rickles, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Jeff Pidgeon, Emily Hahn, Michael Keaton, Jodi Benson, Bonnie Hunt
Directed by: Gary Rydstrom
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Short, Comedy
Length: 6 minutes
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Barbie and Ken are devastated when Bonnie doesn't take them on vacation, so the other toys band together to give them a Hawaiian vacation in Bonnie's room.

Review:

Tim: The Toy Story movies are so good and there's nearly an infinite number of adventures the toys could engage in, so it makes a lot of sense to branch out into short films. Toy Story Toons: Hawaiian Vacation is the first short film for this franchise. It's a cute little movie that tells a self-contained story while managing to be fairly entertaining.

This story was a nice opportunity to see all the toys together. The movies rightly focus mostly on Woody and Buzz, so it was great to see the supporting characters get a chance for more screen time here. They're still supporting characters, but it was nice to see the story revolve around Ken and Barbie. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head got some nice moments, as did Rex. These characters are just so wonderful, it's exciting and fun to see them do anything. The story here is not something that would ever make it to a feature film, so it felt like a nice treat, to get a smaller scale story with these great characters.

The one downside to a film like this is that it doesn't feel essential. It's like a snack- tastes good going down, but there's not a whole lot of substance. Besides giving us perhaps a slightly better understanding of the Ken-Barbie relationship, you won't miss anything by not seeing this short. That's probably the nature of the beast, but it's not a positive. You might not miss out by skipping this film, but that doesn't take away from it being enjoyable.

I do think there's an opportunity for future shorts to be longer. This one felt so quick- by the time the scenario is set up, a third of the short film is already over. Still, I'll never complain about getting more Toy Story films, whatever format they take.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- N/A



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