This is, admittedly, very difficult in the internet age, where the amount of information we have to process is inversely proportional to the time which we have to process it before forming opinions. I have continually stressed in my reviews the importance of not judging a film by its reputation - whether it comes to us with a bulging entourage of awards, or dragging behind it the stench of negative press. But here we are, with a sequel which both improves on and compliments the first film, and which is a masterpiece of animation in its own right. But when you take into account both the tortuous production saga before its release and the series' role as the jewel in PIXAR's crown, the idea of it being as good if not maybe better than Toy Story shifts from the impressive towards the inconceivable. This in itself makes it impressive that Toy Story 2 ever got made at all the original was such a high water mark in animation that it would not have been considered foolish if PIXAR had put up their hands and said 'we can't top this'. Any sequel worth its salt would have to do both. In making a sequel to Toy Story, John Lasseter and his PIXAR team could neither just reproduce the same graphical quality with a different story, nor retell the same story with better production values, a la Evil Dead 2.

It is even harder to do this when the film in question is not only groundbreaking as a children's film, but also a key pillar in the history of digital animation. Creating a sequel to a successful and beloved film is hard enough at the best of times.

Toy story 2 woody