Toy Story That Time Forgot

[The Nth Doctor]

Pixar has released another televised holiday short, this time celebrating Christmas. I enjoyed seeing a "civilization" of toys that don't know what it's liked to be played thanks to video games and how that would twist their behavior. I also enjoyed seeing Trixie taking the center stage, particularly because I think the addition of Kristen Schaal to the Toy Story family is inspired.

I know The Cleric was intended to be a humanoid pteranodon, but I couldn't help but think of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal, although I wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional since the Pixar folks love all things 80's.

I loved this bit of dialogue:

"What planet is he from?"
"Neptune! Or maybe Florida."

Lastly, and I noted this last year with Toy Story of Terror!, John Ratzenberger is oddly absent. Has anyone heard why Pixar's so-called good luck charm is missing from these shorts?

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I know The Cleric was intended to be a humanoid pteranodon, but I couldn't help but think of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal, although I wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional since the Pixar folks love all things 80's.

Peter David also thought the Cleric reminded him of a Skeksis when he was live-tweeting the special last night.

 

[bigdaddy]

The Florida line was great.

 

[Gepard]

I know The Cleric was intended to be a humanoid pteranodon, but I couldn't help but think of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal, although I wouldn't be surprised if it was intentional since the Pixar folks love all things 80's.

All the BattleSaurs designs were great. I'm pretty sure any and all '80s and early '90s (and general SF&F) references were intentional. The inspirations-slash-shoutouts I noticed were:

•The BattleSaur logo resembled the ThunderCats emblem.
•Trixie and Rex were admitted to have been based on plastic dinosaurs from the old Dino-Riders line, and as such the armor they both got was heavily Dino-Riders inspired.
•The rocky battle arena and forts were very RockLords and/or Masters of the Universe
•The whole fighting humanoid dinosaur thing was pretty much standard Ninja Turtles/Street Sharks/Biker Mice From Mars late '80s madness, just with dinosaurs.
•The giant beaked brain on top of the Cleric's tower looked exactly like descriptions of the Martians from the War of the Worlds novel minus the tentacles.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

•Trixie and Rex were admitted to have been based on plastic dinosaurs from the old Dino-Riders line, and as such the armor they both got was heavily Dino-Riders inspired.

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that. I noticed that similarity almost immediately, but I guess it got shoved out of my mind when the Cleric showed up. I loved playing with Dino-Riders when I was a kid.

 

[Mr Light]

I'm not a big Toy Story fan but I really liked this special.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

This was fun, funny, interesting and enjoyable. My little one really liked it, too.

 

[publiusr]

No Doug McClure though...

 

[Gaith]

Finally caught up with this, and found it frustrating. All the toy stuff is so colorful and charming and fun, but, as with every Toy Story story I can recall (maybe with the exception of the Barbie 5-minute short?), it all boils down to the toys pretending not to be sentient creatures so a little kid can wave them about, every damn time. Enough already! Give us a story of all these wildly different toys and characters interacting amongst themselves, and only that!

 

[bigdaddy]

Finally caught up with this, and found it frustrating. All the toy stuff is so colorful and charming and fun, but, as with every Toy Story story I can recall (maybe with the exception of the Barbie 5-minute short?), it all boils down to the toys pretending not to be sentient creatures so a little kid can wave them about, every damn time. Enough already! Give us a story of all these wildly different toys and characters interacting amongst themselves, and only that!

You might get your wish for that in Toy Story 4.