The film manages to make being put into storage, or being displayed in a toy museum in Japan, into workable metaphors for failure and success.
Flattered by fame, and welcomed by a group of equally collectible friends (with the voices of Joan Cusack and Kelsey Grammer), he may be in danger of forsaking his old gang for the chance to be lionized. He got his face on a lunch box in those days, and now he has become an icon of sorts. It turns out that Woody was once a toy celebrity, famous enough to have knocked Sputnik off the cover of a 1957 issue of Life magazine. When Woody the cowboy (with the voice of Tom Hanks) accidentally falls into the clutches of a wicked toy collector (played by Wayne Knight, and cleverly rendered right down to the hairs on his arms), the film's value system makes itself known. With voices delightfully supplied by an even larger cast of familiar actors than the first film had, it sends up video-game heroics before returning Buzz Lightyear, toy astronaut (with the voice of Tim Allen), to the haven known as Andy's room. ''Toy Story 2'' begins with a perfectly adorable ''Star Wars'' parody and manages to stay on that same level throughout. Without undue sentimentality, this film lets its playthings pull together in ways that would be sweet and funny in any format. Lasseter's avowed fondness for Frank Capra's films can be seen in the nostalgic world summoned here, and in the fundamental goodness of the toy characters themselves. And it has not wasted its technical innovations on junk-food storytelling. This cutting-edge animation franchise still has the power to enchant children while keeping adults entertained. While its surface is as smooth and witty as that of ''Toy Story'' itself, the sequel and its characters (in the words of an associate technical director) are ''probably twice as complicated under the hood.'' Only after leaving the theater is there reason to realize just how much imagination has gone into making this film so enveloping. Among the many talents of the director, John Lasseter, and his huge crew of computer-animation pioneers is a gift for making their work look easy. ''Toy Story 2'' can be enjoyed - enormously - without wondering exactly why the Pixar animation looks even better than it did the first time.
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