• Opens en medias res with an action set piece (train scene in mock Monument Valley) a la Spielberg or the James Bond formula- this actually resembles The Last Crusade’s River Phoenix opening a bit
  • Randy Newman’s beloved “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from the 1995 original brought back
  • These are talented voice actors—not just Tim Allen and Tom Hanks but the entire sprawling ensemble—Joan Cusack, Wallace Shawn, Michael Keaton, Ned Beatty and more
  • The Sunnyside daycare really turns into a prison genre film
  • Pop culture and film references, we get Woody hanging from a string close to the ground like Cruise in De Palma’s Mission Impossible and the warden’s “spends a night in the box” speech from Cool Hand Luke
  • I forgot how many action sequences there are—much of the running time is space and time deadline work
  • A clever film- smart
  • A film driven by writing and characters—and these are great characters
  • Recommend but not in top 10 of 2010