Review: Toy Story Of Terror

It seems to have become the done thing in recent years for animated franchises to spit out short Halloween spin-offs. Shrek’s done it twice, the Monsters vs. Aliens gang have returned to face Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space (it’s not as good as it sounds), even The Smurfs are getting in on the action this year.

It’s usually the same old story - twenty-odd minutes of sub-par animation, with only half the proper voice actors bothering to show up, sold direct to DVD for a daft price.

Which brings us to Toy Story Of Terror, which bucks all those trends (well, apart from being twenty minutes long) - the animation is top-notch, the cast are all back (along with Carl Weathers in a scene-stealing role as Action Man rip-off Combat Carl), and most pleasing of all is the wallet-friendly fact that it actually aired on TV rather than just going straight to the shelves.

The story starts with the gang on a roadtrip. They’re happy in the boot of the car, until - as is always the case in spooky stories - a flat tyre forces Bonnie’s family to pull in to a creepy motel for the night. And as the gang leave the safety of their suitcase, they are picked off one by one by an unseen creature that lurks in the shadows…

What’s wonderful about Toy Story Of Terror is just how well it manages to both lampoon the established tropes of the genre while simultaneously keeping so lovingly to them. At first Mr. Pricklepants serves as a genre-savvy audience surrogate, cracking jokes about how predictable the story is (when the first of our friends is claimed by the mystery creature, Pricklepants dryly remarks that the gang will now be picked off one by one as they search for their lost friend). Rather than letting this self-awareness lesson the atmosphere, though, or trying an unwise attempt to subvert expectations, the story still plays out along the expected route without shame or apology, and is stronger for it.

And so we get the classic slasher movie tropes - from the creature in the shadows to a girl in peril in a motel shower; from discovering a sinister reminder of a fallen friend to the female lead becoming the “Final Girl” left to face the horrors alone - and they really work surprisingly well in this child-friendly format. In fact, part of the childlike joy that this short exudes comes from the fact that, as with all the best Pixar work, it refuses to patronise or water down for the kids. Seeing their Toy Story friends picked off one-by-one by an unseen monster  must offer some genuine creepy thrills for the youngsters, while the scene where Jessie meets Combat Carl - hiding beneath a sink, half-deranged by what he has seen, and having had his hand ripped off by the creature - could be taken straight from Weathers’ previous work on Predator. This is a Good Thing.

Another pleasant surprise is that the writers have managed to resist the urge to make this Woody and Buzz-heavy. While the two characters obviously feature, neither is in a starring role (and Buzz particularly is essentially in a background position), allowing other characters to shine. Mr. Pricklepants gets a lot of screen time, expanding on a rather minor role from Toy Story 3, while Combat Carl is a fantastic character, and it’s something of a shame that the conclusion of this story makes it unlikely that we’ll meet him again in any future Toy Story outings. But in every possible way (and fittingly for the genre that this short lends itself to), this is Jessie’s story. Ironically, given that the big-screen adventures of the gang seem to be over now, if Toy Story Of Terror proves anything it’s that the ensemble is strong enough to allow the supporting characters lead roles in future escapades without us missing Woody or Buzz.

Admittedly, the latter stages of the short do fall into familiar territory, with large chunks of the plot being sadly reminiscent of Toy Story 2. But that familiarity doesn’t detract too much from the experience, and it does allow for a now-traditional Toy Story escape from a perilous vehicular situation.

It doesn’t live up to the big-screen counterparts, of course, but there are still some great gags (Combat Carl refers to one captive toy as “Old Timer”, only for the camera to pan to reveal that he is speaking to one of those toy clocks with a grey moustache), some wonderful animation, and most crucially of all, a truly engaging sense of warmth. Rather than feeling like a cynical cash-in as most of these Halloween shorts do, Toy Story Of Terror has clearly been produced with the same sense of love as any of the three cinema outings. That it isn’t as good as the main films is hardly a complaint - indeed, the biggest compliment that the short can receive is that it legitimately feels like a short episode of actual Toy Story, rather than a cheap knock-off.

Despite descending into tales already told towards the end, this is one Halloween spin-off that you’ll want to watch tonight. And just maybe every Halloween from now on.

Geekin’ Out Verdict: 9/10