113. Toy Story: Toy Overboard Graphic Novel

Toy Story: Toy Overboard by Jesse Blaze Snider. Art by Morgan Luthi. (Canada) - (US)
Toy Story Graphic Novels, #4

Pages: 128
Ages: 8+
Finished: May 11, 2011
First Published: Apr. 12, 2011
Publisher: Boom! Studios
Genre: children, graphic novel, humour
Rating: 4/5


First sentence:

Andy is going on vacation!

Acquired: Received a review copy from Harper Collins Canada.

Reason for Reading: Next in the series.

The fourth book in the Toy Story series goes back to the standards of the second "Return of Buzz Lightyear". Once again we are treated to a full book ongoing story, rather than the collections of short stories found in the other two volumes. My only quibble was that the story line has moved ahead to Toy Story 2 territory and Jessie and Bullseye have been added to the cast. I don't like Jessie as a character and as I expected she took over the story as the main character and plunged ahead into danger causing one of the toys to go overboard while they are on a cruise (and two quickly follow suit, including Jessie). The plot revolves around first, who will get chosen to go on the vacation with Andy, while certain toys have accepted they will never get to go on vacation. Then the second part of the plot concentrates on the action referred to in the title as we follow the exploits of the toys lost in the sea and how they manage to find their way back to the other toys.

A really fun adventure and I'm thrilled with the feature length story rather than short stories. I hope they keep that up for future volumes. While I can't say I was happy with Jessie's starring role (personal preferences) it was good to see some very minor characters take on more significant roles. The space alien toys showed up quite a bit had some funny lines as they bring up their cult of "the claw" and Mr. Shark has a starring role! Each book has had a different artist but of course the Disneyfied characters are all pretty much cookie cutter with no variation so it hasn't really mattered, but what I did notice this time around was that Andy was drawn somewhat differently, not quite up to par. All in all, though this is my second favourite book in the series so far, after "Return of Buzz Lightyear", that is.