Toy Story Toons: Partysaurus Rex

Voices of: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Estelle Harris, Don Rickles, Timothy Dalton, Corey Burton, Tony Cox, Emily Hahn, Lori Alan, John Ratzenberger, Timothy Dalton, Teddy Newton
Directed by: Mark A. Walsh, Dylan Brown
Rating: G
Genre: Animation, Short, Comedy
Length: 7 minutes
2012

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Rex is left in the bathroom after Bonnie's bath and decides to embrace his inner party animal.

Review:

Tim: The third Toy Story Toon is a clever one. This short film puts the spotlight on Rex, a character who is often overshadowed. He's definitely a strong supporting character in the movies, but he usually only get a scene or two in which to really shine. It was fun to see him the main focus here, albeit for 7 minutes.

The film starts out with his friends making fun of him, most noteworthy Mr. Potato Head calling him a "party pooper". This fuels his actions the rest of the movie. Bonnie comes in and brings him into the bath. As a parent of young kids, this scene resonated so powerfully for me. My kids have their normal toys, and then they have bath toys, and the two groups rarely ever meet. The same thing happens here- Rex goes into the bathroom, where he meets a whole group of toys who live in the bath. They have their own hopes and disappointments. Rex seizes this opportunity to transform himself into "Partysaurus Rex". It's legitimately great fun to see one of the most cautious characters force himself to be the center of the party. The bath toys respond in kind. There might be a bit of peer pressure going on, as well.

I have to say, in addition to being entertaining, this movie was surprisingly intense and nerve-wracking. The story involves Rex filling up the bath tub, making a series of decisions that lead to a potential overflow situation. Maybe it was me being a parent that caused such anxiety (an overflowing bath would create a ton of damage and be a major headache that I would never want to deal with), but man, this short is intense. The quick cuts, the slowly rising water level, Rex making arguably bad decision after bad decision- it's fun, but it raises your level of anxiety.

Like all these shorts, I really enjoyed getting more time with these characters. While I'd always prefer favorites like Woody or Buzz to feature more prominently, it's nice to see the secondary characters get a few minutes in the limelight. Partysaurus Rex was a different story, but one that was well worth seeing.

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



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