Review: Toy Story OF TERROR!

The toys start out in the trunk of a car watching a vintage black and white vampire flick. As the car barrels down the rain soaked highway, a pothole punctures one of the tires, forcing the car to pull into a motel. The toys reference how this is the perfect set up for a scary movie and Prickle Pants even walk us (the viewers) through the basics of a “motel based” horror scenario, such as asking to borrow the phone and having to spend the night. Potato Head, noticing that the humans are asleep, decides to leave the overnight bag that they were stored I to check out some of the free stuff the hotel offers. That causes all the characters to leave the bag and also causes Potato Head to go missing. As the Toys Search for clues, Trixie falls down an air conditioning vent and disappears as well.

The team decides to follow Trixie down the vent with a little helpful push from Rex. As they traverse the crawlspace, Prickle Pants and Rex both disappear in a puff of smoke, apparently kidnapped by a ghost. The remaining team of Woody, Buzz, and Jessie encounter Potato Head’s arm, which directs them up through another vent. They end up in a bathroom and the hand directs them out the door, but soon after Woody and Buzz disappear in that same puff of smoke and Jessie is takes by Combat Carl. As Jessie and Carl try to escape, Carl is quickly plucked off and leaves Jessie all alone in the bathroom.

Jessie hides in the shower and is discovered by an iguana, which takes Jessie to the lobby. Turns out the hotel owner trained the lizard to snatch toys so he could sell them over the Internet. As this large collection of toys tries to free itself from a glass case, a new message pops up on the computer screen. Woody has been sold! He’s boxed up and ready for mailing. Another message hits the computer screen and this time it’s Jessie’s turn to be mailed. A tow truck driver distracts the innkeeper and Jessie is left on a countertop. She tries to free Woody but the delivery lady takes Woody to her truck. They devise a plan for Jessie (who fears boxes) to get into a box so she can also go the delivery van to free Woody. She undoes the tape on a box and climbs inside. The delivery driver notices that there’s no tape on the box and seals Jessie in.

Jessie struggles with a bout of claustrophobia but finds a paper clip and frees herself and Woody. They head back inside to free the others but the lizard picks off Jessie again. She fights back and is able to pull back the curtain, exposing the captured toys to their rightful owner. All the toys are freed and that’s the end of the story.

All in all this was a pretty fun little special. Kinda predictable, but when it comes to Toy Story and most other kid based animation, there isn’t usually very many swerves. The animation was all you could expect and more from a Pixar production, with textures and sheens that made even the most common of toy seem life like. It was also very nice to hear that the voice cast matched up with the cast from the movie. I personally don’t think there’s many things worse than hearing iconic characters voiced by others just because it’s a TV special. A great effort, but it’s no Mad Monster Party, so I’m going to give Toy Story OF TERROR a very respectable…