Toys To Life 2

Toys To Life 2 is a 2023 American 3D computer-animated comedy adventure film produced by Blue Sky Studios, and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. The sequel to Toys To Life and the second installment in the Toys To Life franchise, the film was directed by Carlos Saldanha from a screenplay penned by Saldanha, Earl Richey Jones, and Todd Jones. The film's ensemble voice cast includes Owen Laramore, Will Arnett, Idina Menzel, Catherine O'Hara, Nick Frost, Drew Barrymore, and James Corden reprising their roles from the first film, with John DiMaggio returning to voice a new character. The returning cast is joined by newcomers Dove Cameron, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Robert De Niro, Woody Allen, Adam Sandler, Bindi Irwin, BD Wong, and Awkwafina who voice the new characters introduced in this film.

Three years after the events of the first film, John accidentally causes Toyomia to fall, rendering Toytown endangered. With Toytown's fate of being torn down at risk, John and his troopers set out to earn a new clock to rebuild Toyomia in WonderWorld, which may or may not survive their actions. In way over their heads, John and his trooper rely on the citizens of WonderWorld to help navigate their way, including an entrepreneur named Besst, the head of VideoToons, and Claire, the main character of a dangerous safari game called Jungle Girl.

The film was released theatrically in the United States on March 25, 2023. With a gross of $144 million worldwide on a $119 million budget, Toys To Life 2 was a box office bomb. The film was panned by critics, largely for its adult-oriented humor, plot, lack of originality, and voice performances while the animation, John Powell's musical score, and the character development  were mostly praised. Many also found it unnecessary and insulting to the Oscar-winning charm of its predecessor, and  compared it unfavorably to The Lego Worlds Movie', 'Disney Infinity, Wildlife, Ralph Breaks The Internet, and The Cat In The Hat. Following the film's poor reception, Lori Forte announced Blue Sky's closure in 2030 and joined Owen Laramore Entertainment shorty afterwards.

The film itself was followed by two sequels: Toys To Life 3, and Toys To Life 4 in 2026 and 2029, both to more positive reception than Toys To Life 2.

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. Although stymied by a threatened Toytown, 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. 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 with hearts that mean money. John's troopers 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 learns about this and tells Gamer Guy what has just happened. They go to the Dark Chamber, where a scary creature named Slug offers a potion that can make Chad, Mary, Stewart, and Kath happy with the change permanently, but warns John that 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 he 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 and Blu-ray on September 6, 2025.

Production
On September 1, 2022, Chris Wedge stated that Disney and Blue Sky had plans for a sequel. Production began in November 2022. 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. 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 March 25, 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, were released on March 9, 2026, and March 17, 2029

Soundtrack
All tracks by John Powell

"John And Claire" - Owen Laramore and Dove Cameron

"Jag In A Jungle" - Brite Futures

"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

"You Are Trending" - John Powell

"John The Sensation" - John Powell

"John's Press Conference" - 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 "Rotten" approval rating of 14%. The consensus reads, "Toys To Life 2 is a appalling computer-animated sequel that is full of too much potty humor and doudle entendres to recapture the Oscar-winning charm of its predecessor". It is the lowest-rated Toys To Life film on the site, and the only Toys To Life film to earn a "rotten" certification. Metacritic scored the film to 16 out of 100 based on 34 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike". 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.