Cinema

One of the many remarkable things about digital animation supremo John Lasseter, the man who brought us Toy Story and A Bug's Life, is the way in which he never lets the awesome technology at his disposal get in the way of his classical filmmaking craft.

Animated movies often don't get the acclaim they deserve from critics and the media, but Toy Story 2 (right) which opened this weekend, may yet change that - it even has a chance of figuring in the Best Picture category at next week's Oscar nominations. That's the least it deserves, after all, if any other film this year achieved the same level of narrative ingenuity, layered complexity and sheer visual beauty, it would be unequivocally hailed as a masterpiece.