Toys To Life 2

Toys To Life 2 is a 2023 American 3D computer-animated film produced by Blue Sky Studios and 20th Century Fox for Walt Disney Pictures. It is the sequel to Toys To Life and the second installment in the Toys To Life franchise. In the film's ensemble voice cast, Owen Laramore, Will Arnett, Idina Menzel, Catherine O'Hara, Nick Frost, Drew Barrymore, James Corden, Ellen Page, Sarah Vowell, Warwick Davis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jim Cummings, Chris Wedge, and Benedict Wong reprising their roles from the first film, while John DiMaggio returns to voice a different character, and they are also joined by Brooklynn Prince (replacing Ella Anderson), Dove Cameron, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Robert De Niro, Woody Allen, Adam Sandler, Bindi Irwin, BD Wong, Awkwafina, Kelly Preston, and Jodie Whittaker (replacing Annie Potts).

Released theatrically on March 25, 2023, Toys To Life 2 underperformed at the box-office, prompting Blue Sky to announce that they would close in 2030, but keep making originals and sequels until then. The film was panned by critics, who unfavorably compared it to Ralph Breaks The Internet, and criticized its toilet humor, calling it an "unfunny misfire".

The film's critical and commercial failure caused producer Lori Forte to resign from the studio and move on to Owen Laramore Studios. Despite this, a sequel, Toys To Life 3, was released on March 9, 2026. Another sequel, Toys To Life 4, was released on March 17, 2029. It is also the first Toys To Life film without the participation of Jenny Slate, Jimmy Fallon, Ella Anderson, Dan Aykroyd, or Annie Potts.

Plot
John and his troopers discover a porthole leading to WonderWorld, but are warned by Anji that they should only fear it, much to their disappointment. The next day, John drives to work at the Toytown Museum, until he gets thrown off the road, causing Toyomia's clock to break, threatening Toytown and leaving all of its citizens homeless. A heartbroken John is disappointed that he does not get to do his job anymore, and walks away sadly. Later, after a hard and difficult time, John and his troopers decide to find a replacement clock.

Once they arrive in WonderWorld, they wonder how they can find it, with help from Smartypants. He directs them to a shop, where they win the clock, but are warned that if they don't collect $700 dollars in 24 hours, their bid will expire, and they will lose the item forever. They meet Guy Gamer, who tells them to steal Claire's car from Jungle Girl. They get away, but are forced to give it back after a high-speed chase. She tells them to take a video she had just made to her friend Besst at her site Video Toons, where John and Besst make lots of videos that turn out as ways to get money, even as John's troopers are sent to spread the word across WonderWorld.

Later, after becoming a WonderWorld sensation, John holds a press confrence. After that, John makes enough money, and he and his troopers rush off and buy the clock before the bid expired, only to find that Claire had decided to stay with John because they have a lot in common and because of Toytown's unpredictability, and they begin to fall in love and become mates. Four other characters, Stewart, Mary, Chad, and Kath worry that John's love for Claire could mean losing her and send monkeys to bring her back.

John tells Gamer Guy what had happened and they go to the Dark Chamber, where a scary creature named Slug offers a potion that could not only make Chad, Mary, Stewart, and Kath happy with the change permanently, but it could also detect anything insecure and duplicate it. Meanwhile, Claire tries to tell Stewart about John, but he says she can't be with him after he almost stole her car earlier. Instead of making them happy about John's love for Claire, the potion detects Claire and reboots Jungle Girl, nearly killing her and John in the process. The potion then escapes and scans John. John and his troopers rescue Claire, who assumes it was all her fault. A guilty John faces the consequences and confesses that he and his troopers are just from Toytown. Angrily thinking that they betrayed her, Claire accuses John of being a bad king, throws his crown away, and orders him to leave. As John rushes to recover his crown, he realizes there are zombie clones of him, and he and his troopers rush to save Claire.

She hides with Smartypants in his search bar, where she and John reunite. With Besst's help, they aftempt to send the clones into a trap, but the plan fails when they crash Besst's limo and form a monster-sized John. The giant John grabs Claire and tempts to kill the real John, but John calls out on his selfishness and possessiveness of Claire, and Chad, Stewart, Mary, and Kath admit that John's love for Claire doesn't mean a end to Jungle Girl, but makes everything stronger, causing the clones and the potion to disintegrate, one by one, and John is rescued from falling to his death by Little Spence, Mamo, Mousey, Ken the color worm, and the four Red Monkeys, much to his surprise.

John and his troopers take Claire to Toytown, making her Queen of Toytown and a new member of John's troopers as Toyomia is restored, making John's personality stronger, and he even participates in activities in Toytown. John and Claire enjoy the view of Toytown as the movie ends.

Cast
Owen Laramore as John

Will Arnett as Ian

Idina Menzel as Tina

Catherine O'Hara as Ouch

Nick Frost as Page, Age, Cage and Rage

Drew Barrymore as Ribbit

James Corden as Robone

Sarah Vowell as Mousey

Brooklynn Prince as Little Spence; she was voiced by Ella Anderson in the first film.

Ellen Page as Mamo

John DiMaggio as Smartypants; DiMaggio also reprises his role as Matt the construction worker from the first film.

Dove Cameron as Claire; Lacey Chabert was originally cast as the character, but had to drop out.

Catherine Zeta-Jones as Besst

Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Gamer Guy

Robert De Niro as Slug

Woody Allen as Wickk

Adam Sandler as Stewart

Bindi Irwin as Mary

Awkwafina as Kath

BD Wong as Chad

Warwick Davis as Ken The Color Worm

Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Ronald

Jim Cummings as Krasinski

Benedict Wong as Brad

Chris Wedge as Creeko

Jodie Whittaker as Anji; she was voiced by Annie Potts in the first film.

Bret Iwan as store alert messenger

Fred Tatasciore as an insecurity potion; Tatasciore previously voiced Bouncy Shark in the first film.

Kelly Preston as store clerk

Frank Welker as Goat and Johnzilla

Home Media
Toys To Life 2 was released on DVD on June 27, 2023, and on Blu-ray on August 1, 2023.

Production
On September 1, 2020, Chris Wedge stated that he and Blue Sky had plans for a sequel. Production began in November 2020. At the same time, Laramore confirmed to reprise his role. On January 2021, Page and Vowell announced their return. Brooklynn Prince replaced Ella Anderson as Little Spence In September 2021, Arnett, Menzel, Hara, Frost, Barrymore, and Corden signed in to reprise their roles. In November 27, 2021, John Powell returned to compose the music. Lacey Chabert, Adam Sandler, Bindi Irwin, Awkwafina, and BD Wong joined in the following month. Catherine Zeta-Jones signed in on January 2022. In April 2022, Chabert left the project and was replaced by Dove Cameron. Woody Allen, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, and Robert De Niro signed in at the same time it was slated for January 6, 2023. In June 2022, John DiMaggio confirmed to voicing a different character. A first trailer was released on July 1, 2022. a second trailer was released on September 8, 2022. A final trailer was released on January 21, 2023.

Sequels
Two sequels, Toys To Life 3, and Toys To Life 4, will be released on March 9, 2026, and March 17, 2029.

Soundtrack
All tracks by John Powell

"John And Claire" - Owen Laramore and Dove Cameron

"Life" - John Powell

"The Portal To WonderWorld" - John Powell

"Crash" - John Powell

"Toyomia Is Broken" - John Powell

"Homeless" - John Powell

"The Plan" - John Powell

"We Arrived!" - John Powell

"Smartypants" - John Powell

"The New Clock Hand" - John Powell

"24 Hours" - John Powell

"We Need 700 Dollars" - John Powell

"Jungle Girl" - John Powell

"VideoToons" - John Powell

"John The Sensation" - John Powell

"John Reads The Comments" - John Powell

"I Am So Sorry" - John Powell

"Claire Is Kidnapped" - John Powell

"Slug" - John Powell

"Reboot In 60 Seconds" - John Powell

"You Did This?" - John Powell

"Zombie Clones" - John Powell

"Final Battle" - John Powell

"Claire Stays In Toytown" - John Powell

Box-office
Toys To Life 2 grossed $39 million in the United States and Canada, and $105 million in other territories. The film ended its theatrical run on May 19, 2023, having to have grossed a worldwide total of $144 million.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a common approval rating of 7%. The consensus reads, "Toys To Life 2 is a appalling computer-animated sequel that is full of too much potty humor and doudle entendres the recapture the Award-winning charm of its predecessor". Metacritic scored the film to 15 out of 100 based on 34 reviews, indicating "overwhelming dislke". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B-" on an A+ to F scale.

Concerns were also raised over the PG rating, with some critics stating that it should have instead been rated PG-13 in relation to its high amount of adult content.

Following the film's poor reception, Lori Forte moved on to Owen Laramore Studios to direct and produce films from the company.