Toy Story of Terror

Voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Carl Weathers, Stephen Tobolowsky, Timothy Dalton, Wallace Shawn, Don Rickles, Kristen Schaal, Kate McKinnon, Ken Marino
Directed by: Angus MacLane
Rating: TV-G
Genre: Animation, Short, Adventure
Length: 22 minutes
2013

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Woody and his friends spend a night in a spooky motel, and they start disappearing one by one.

Review:

Tim: Although I loved the Toy Story movies, I never really took the time to search out the short films. Toy Story of Terror is the first one I watched. I felt somewhat mixed about this short film. On the one hand, I love these characters so much that it was genuinely exciting to see them in a new adventure. The world Pixar created and especially the iconic characters make any adventure with them worth seeing. Seriously, if they made dozens of short films, I'd want to watch them all. That's really positive and it's a testament to this film.

That aspect shouldn't be surprising. Woody, Buzz, and the others are great characters and it's always fun to see what crazy adventures they are up to now. The number of stories you could tell about toys who are alive is nearly endless, so it makes sense to pursue smaller scale stories via short films. This is a story that is too self-contained to make it into a feature-length film, but it's still worthwhile to watch.

Now, while I indeed enjoyed the story and seeing these characters again, I did have some small qualms with the short film. The biggest issue is that the movies are so good because of the emotional journey they take you on. With a feature film length, you can dig deep into those emotions and tell a well-rounded story that delivers the maximum impact. That simply can't happen in 22 minutes. So, this film is entertaining and mixes mystery and horror elements (while still being age-appropriate for children), it feels a little bit hollow. It's too much style and not enough substance. That's directly a result of the run time. The film does try to make this more than just a surface-level exploration, but there's only so much you can do in that amount of time. As a result, the story feels less memorable, less impactful than the films. That's not a surprise, but it's a little weird to watch something set in the world of Toy Story and not have it strike an emotional chord. Again, this is less a major criticism of the short film and more of a need to reset expectations.

I still enjoyed Toy Story of Terror it had quite a few meta jokes about horror movies and it was fun to see a spookier story set in this world. Like every single one of the movies, there are things here that will be a bit scary to younger viewers (my four year-old son was scared quite a few times). And yet, it always works out in the end. This was a fun, enjoyable film and it inspired me to check out the other short films.

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



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Hawaiian Vacation, Partysaurus Rex