Post by pitbulllady on Oct 17, 2013 12:41:18 GMT -5
I watched it. It was amusing fluff, a parody of countless old horror flicks, with a running commentary by the stuffed hedgehog, Mr. Pricklepants.
Here is the skinny: Bonnie and her mom are traveling by car during a storm and the car has a flat tire, so mom pulls into the parking lot of a little roadside motel to use the phone. She's informed by the roadside repair company that due to the weather, they can't be out there until six am, so they are forced to spend the night at the motel, run by a balding, middle-aged guy with a mustache. Bonnie has brought along the toy gang-Woody, Buzz, Mr. Potatohead, Mr. Pricklepants, Rex, the triceratops dino character(can't remember her name), and Jessie-in a suitcase. We find that Jessie still has a phobia of being shut in a box, which plays a role later. Once Bonnie and her mom are asleep, the toys get out to explore, despite the dire warnings from the hedgehog that this is what gets people in trouble in horror movies. And sure enough, things start to get strange. One by one, the toys start to disappear, beginning with Mr. Potatohead, snatched by a shadowy, fast-moving something that darts out of an air conditioning vent, and the gang winds up in a crawl space under the motel looking for missing team members. Jessie encounters another toy down there, an African American action figure soldier, who is missing a hand, who warns her of the danger. In some of the brief glimpses of "it" running around, I could tell it was a lizard-like something, and actually began to wonder if Pixar was going to tie Randall in with this somehow, like maybe that was his kid or something, but it turns out to be just an iguana, named "Jones", who is the pet of the motel manager, and is yet-another in that trend of "non-canine animals that act like dogs". Jones wears a collar, pants and wags his tail like a dog, and plays fetch. He has, in fact, been trained to fetch very specific things: toys. The manager has trained Jones to steal toys from any children who stay at the motel and bring them to his owner, who has a lucrative side business of selling the toys on "eBid", an Ebay parody, especially older, out-of-production collector toys like Woody or Jessie. He keeps the toys in a glass cabinet behind the counter, hidden by a curtain, until he gets an internet sale, then ships them out. Woody is sold quickly for $1500.00, and placed in a box to be carried to the delivery truck the following morning. Jessie must save him by allowing herself to be sealed in a box, too, her worst fear, so she can use a paper clip to cut through the packing tape and free them both on the truck before it pulls away. They do escape, and as Bonnie and her mom are checking out of the motel, they pull the curtain away from the cabinet to reveal the other toys inside, which Bonnie immediately recognizes. Her mom calls the police to report the manager for having stolen the toys.
I was a bit disappointed, but overall it was still cute. I guess you can't expect too much drama or horror in a one-hour special in which toys are the main characters, lol. I don't know how well it did, ratings-wise, but it was widely publicized. The iguana was cute, and not portrayed as bad, just a loyal pet following its master's orders, but just how far is Disney going to go with that whole "non-canine animal acting like a dog" thing, anyway? It already seems trite with "Sven" the reindeer from "Frozen", and that movie isn't even out yet, though there were LOTS of spots promoting it, though, during "Toy Story of Terror", making me wonder if the main reason for the special was not simply to be a promotion for that movie.
pitbulllady
Here is the skinny: Bonnie and her mom are traveling by car during a storm and the car has a flat tire, so mom pulls into the parking lot of a little roadside motel to use the phone. She's informed by the roadside repair company that due to the weather, they can't be out there until six am, so they are forced to spend the night at the motel, run by a balding, middle-aged guy with a mustache. Bonnie has brought along the toy gang-Woody, Buzz, Mr. Potatohead, Mr. Pricklepants, Rex, the triceratops dino character(can't remember her name), and Jessie-in a suitcase. We find that Jessie still has a phobia of being shut in a box, which plays a role later. Once Bonnie and her mom are asleep, the toys get out to explore, despite the dire warnings from the hedgehog that this is what gets people in trouble in horror movies. And sure enough, things start to get strange. One by one, the toys start to disappear, beginning with Mr. Potatohead, snatched by a shadowy, fast-moving something that darts out of an air conditioning vent, and the gang winds up in a crawl space under the motel looking for missing team members. Jessie encounters another toy down there, an African American action figure soldier, who is missing a hand, who warns her of the danger. In some of the brief glimpses of "it" running around, I could tell it was a lizard-like something, and actually began to wonder if Pixar was going to tie Randall in with this somehow, like maybe that was his kid or something, but it turns out to be just an iguana, named "Jones", who is the pet of the motel manager, and is yet-another in that trend of "non-canine animals that act like dogs". Jones wears a collar, pants and wags his tail like a dog, and plays fetch. He has, in fact, been trained to fetch very specific things: toys. The manager has trained Jones to steal toys from any children who stay at the motel and bring them to his owner, who has a lucrative side business of selling the toys on "eBid", an Ebay parody, especially older, out-of-production collector toys like Woody or Jessie. He keeps the toys in a glass cabinet behind the counter, hidden by a curtain, until he gets an internet sale, then ships them out. Woody is sold quickly for $1500.00, and placed in a box to be carried to the delivery truck the following morning. Jessie must save him by allowing herself to be sealed in a box, too, her worst fear, so she can use a paper clip to cut through the packing tape and free them both on the truck before it pulls away. They do escape, and as Bonnie and her mom are checking out of the motel, they pull the curtain away from the cabinet to reveal the other toys inside, which Bonnie immediately recognizes. Her mom calls the police to report the manager for having stolen the toys.
I was a bit disappointed, but overall it was still cute. I guess you can't expect too much drama or horror in a one-hour special in which toys are the main characters, lol. I don't know how well it did, ratings-wise, but it was widely publicized. The iguana was cute, and not portrayed as bad, just a loyal pet following its master's orders, but just how far is Disney going to go with that whole "non-canine animal acting like a dog" thing, anyway? It already seems trite with "Sven" the reindeer from "Frozen", and that movie isn't even out yet, though there were LOTS of spots promoting it, though, during "Toy Story of Terror", making me wonder if the main reason for the special was not simply to be a promotion for that movie.
pitbulllady