Toy Story That Time Forgot (2014)

My son was absolutely buzzing about this one, and I'll be honest, it didn't take long before I was grinning along with him. Toy Story That Time Forgot is a holiday special that knows exactly what it wants to be: compact, funny, and warm without overstaying its welcome. It's minor canon, yes, but minor canon done right.

The premise is the sort of thing that makes you think "of course, why hasn't someone done this before?" A new batch of dinosaur toys, fresh out of the box, have never been played with properly and have consequently convinced themselves they're real warriors rather than playthings. Into that delusion wander Woody, Buzz, Rex, and Trixie, and what follows is a gleeful little adventure built on toy logic taken to its most absurd extreme. It's clever without being smug about it, which is more than you can say for plenty of animated shorts that try too hard to wink at the adults in the room.

Rex and Trixie are the real stars here. Rex's nervous energy bouncing off Trixie's knowing confidence makes for a genuinely funny double act, and their attempts to reason with the delusional dinosaurs carry most of the comic weight. There's a sequence where Trixie is essentially trying to explain the entire concept of being a toy to creatures who absolutely do not want to hear it, and it lands every time. Pixar's timing, even in a shorter format, is still sharp as ever.

The animation, as you'd expect, is gorgeous. The dinosaurs have this beautifully textured, almost tactile quality to them, and the production design of their little arena world is inventive and detailed. It's the kind of thing where you find yourself pausing to look at the background. Pixar clearly didn't treat this as a lesser project just because it's a short. The craft is all there.

What it doesn't have, and I'm fine admitting this, is the emotional heft of the main films. There's no gut-punch moment here, no scene that's going to make you quietly sob while pretending you've got something in your eye. The story wraps up tidily and sweetly, and the stakes never feel particularly high. But that's alright. Not every entry in a franchise needs to destroy you emotionally. Sometimes you just want something that'll keep the kids captivated on a quiet afternoon and give you a few genuine laughs in the process. This does exactly that.

It's the sort of thing I think pairs well with other animation that leans into pure imagination and playfulness. I reviewed Alice in Wonderland (1951) not long ago, and there's a similar quality to both: worlds built entirely on the internal rules of their own strange logic, where the fun comes from watching characters try to navigate a reality that doesn't quite make sense to them.

Three stars. Sweet, smart, and full of playful energy. If you've got little ones who are already fans of the Toy Story world, this is an easy win for a rainy afternoon. And if you're watching it as a grown adult with no children in the room, I'm not judging. I get it. I really do.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 2014  | Watched: 2025-09-25

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Rakuten TV
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Fandango At Home
Physical: Amazon US

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from the 2010s: Wonder (2017) · Beautiful Boy (2018) · The Witch (2015) · What We Do in the Shadows (2014)
More animation: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More family: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Wonder (2017) · Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anastasia (1997)