Thanksgiving weekend 2015 will mark the 20th anniversary of the original Toy Story, and though the franchise that built Pixar received a perfectly good wrap-up in Toy Story 3, a third feature-length sequel is due in 2017. Sequelization has yet to take its toll on the inhabitants of Andy and Bonnie’s playrooms, but it’s not concern for beloved characters that makes Toy Story 4 a dubious prospect; it’s whether those characters would be best served by another 90-minute adventure. As Pixar has demonstrated through abbreviated efforts like the laugh-a-second theatrical short “Small Fry” (featuring the debut of Internet sensation DJ Blu-Jay), good Toy Storys can come in small packages, too.
On the heels of last year’s Toy Story Of Terror, the new Christmas-themed Toy Story That Time Forgot suggests that Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and company could have just as rich a future in seasonal TV programming. An improvement over the Halloween special’s Toy Story 2 redux, Toy Story That Time Forgot attests to the strengths of this fictional universe by relying on its deep bench of supporting players. The cowpokes and the spaceman take a back seat to the dinosaurs in the new special, a tale about the boundlessness of imagination starring Kristen Schaal’s winsome plastic triceratops, Trixie.
Accustomed to stealing scenes in two of television’s best animated series, Bob’s Burgers and Gravity Falls, Schaal gets a well-earned showcase in Toy Story That Time Forgot. Schaal’s capacity for wonder enlivens a plot that harkens back to the first Toy Story, as a post-Christmas playdate brings Trixie into contact with a clan of ’roided-out dinos with a collective Buzz Lightyear complex. The enthusiasm in Schaal’s voice also makes the actress a poignant vessel for disappointment, and the emotional crux of the special rests on a uniquely Toy Story identity crisis: Would Trixie be happier in the personality determined by her manufacturer (like her new acquaintances, the Battlesaurs), or would she rather give herself over to the whims of her owner? And how does that figure into who she is when Bonnie isn’t around?
That Toy Story That Time Forgot can honor such a premise in less than 30 minutes is remarkable; that it does so with a tremendous sense of humor, character design, and action is par for the course. But much like the soulful blank canvases Bonnie totes around in her rocket-ship backpack, Toy Story can be whatever the people in control want it to be, so the franchise is always ready to surprise. Working within a palette that’s one part Dark Crystal and one part Land Of The Lost, this latest installment apes the cinematic sweep of a vintage gladiator film one minute, then uses a silent chase scene to deliver its big gut-punch the next.