Toy Story of Terror!

Plot summary

This animated short based on the Toy Story franchise finds Woody and the gang attempting to return to the suitcase they were in after Bonnie and her mother become stranded at a motel when they experience car trouble during a road trip.

They must remain there overnight because the car can only be repaired the next day. Mr. Potato Head decides to leave the suitcase despite Woody’s rational warning to stay inside.

Jeff’s take

This animated short has the distinction of being the shortest movie I’ve ever reviewed since starting my reviews. The length of this movie is only 22 minutes, but I thought it would be a good way to start my Halloween movie reviews.

This movie opens with the gang watching a scary movie while in the trunk of a car, so I figured it would be very easy to review this one.

I noticed that it incorporates some horror-like elements, including thunder and lightning and the toys being stuck in the dark and having to find their way back.

There are a couple of things I take issue with in regard to the plot and layout of this movie.

First of all, I have to agree with Woody’s declaration that Mr. Potato Head leaving the suitcase was a bad idea. If he never left, the gang would have been safe the whole time.

Maybe they could have used this time to have a party inside the suitcase if they were quiet enough. Throughout the films, they don’t normally get a chance to interact that much without the fear that a human may enter the room.

This could have been a good opportunity for this to happen since Bonnie and her mother were sleeping and wouldn’t just randomly walk in like they normally would.

Also, I don’t understand why this couldn’t have been another full-length movie in the franchise. It could have been listed as a Toy Story Halloween movie.

I’ve heard of a lot of movies that have sequels attached to a certain holiday, such as Christmas or Halloween. There was no need for this movie to only be an animated short, and I can think of at least two or three good storylines for the movie.

Maybe Bonnie’s mother is handing out candy on Halloween and she accidentally drops one of the toys into a trick-or-treater’s bucket while trying to give out a handful of small candy. The toy would then need to find its way back.

Or maybe the gang gets left in a closet accidentally while Bonnie is attending a costume party. They find a talking costume based on a TV show, maybe Sesame Street or something, which turns out to be evil and tries to prevent the gang from leaving the closet before the party ends.

The costume could be a monster of some sort and maybe one that has been left there because it is no longer in mint condition and cannot be worn because the child who used to wear it is now too big. This may be the catalyst behind that costume turning evil.

A third option would involve Bonnie attending the same costume party as another child who is wearing either a Woody costume or a Buzz Lightyear costume.

Maybe the conflict within this storyline could be the real and fake Woody or Buzz, depending on which costume is worn, trying to prove that they are really the toy and not just the costume.

I would think the ending of this film might be that the toys are finally forced to reveal themselves as being able to speak while the costume has an on-and-off function to prove that they are the real toy.

It would result in a sacrifice having to be made to ensure that the toy gets home safely with Bonnie. This could even be a proper end to the franchise. Maybe Bonnie finds out that the toys are alive.

The point is that there was no reason for this movie to be just an animated short, especially since the movies were so good.

I really don’t know why they did this, but unfortunately, it will result in a drop in the final score of this movie, if that’s what I can refer to this as.

To put this into perspective, the movie was so short that I spent almost double the amount of time writing the review than I did actually watching it.

Even though this makes little to no sense, it will not fail because I am a fan of the Toy Story characters.

This movie should be recommended to anyone who barely has enough time to watch anything because of their busy schedule, but maybe also to those with a short attention span.

This movie, to me, was pretty much blink and you’ll miss it, but it was still good.

Jeff-O-Meter final score: 8/10