YMMV / Child's Play 2

• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Despite being an Obstructive Bureaucrat who strung the audience along during his screen time in the theatrical cut, you cannot help but to feel sorry for Phil when Chucky kills him, especially in the television cut where he was portrayed more sympathetically.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Before Grace is killed, besides being surprised by Chucky saying "Amazing, isn't it?" that even causes her to bug out her eyes, was she also shocked that she in her final moments immediately recognizes somehow the voice of the doll was the same voice on the phone who called himself "Uncle Charles" (actually Chucky trying to finding the whereabouts of Andy) she was speaking to in the first act of the film?
• Awesome Music: The second film's terrorizing and brooding, yet Creepy Awesome orchestral music score by then-unknown Graeme Revell (with help from a conductor who happened to be Danny Elfman's frequent collaborator in his early years, the late great Shirley Walker) that crosses between a 70's horror Bernard Herrmann, Marco Beltrami's Scream (which the first film was released six years later after this film) and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (which was released twenty-one years later also after this film), Roque Baños' Evil Dead (2013) (which was released twenty-three years later as well after this film) and a Darker and Edgier Danny Elfman helps create an intense, creepy and scary mood for the film and makes it sounds like it came out of a Wes Craven horror film in the likes of Shocker (the atmosphere only, not the music as the score for that film by William Goldstein was an electronic score in contrast to Revell's work on Child's Play 2), The People Under the Stairs (which Revell himself had scored additional music for) and the Scream films.
• Catharsis Factor: Many who have grown up having an abusive teacher making their lives miserable will no doubt get alot of satisfaction watching Chucky killing Mrs. Kettlewell.
• Critical Dissonance: It received rather mixed reviews from professional critics, but among fans Child's Play 2 is often considered on par with the original film, if not an Even Better Sequel.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Phil easily qualifies, especially in the television cut as an Adaptational Nice Guy, a total contrast to his unlikable portrayal in the theatrical cut.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: The television Re-Cut's depiction of Phil Simpson became sought after by viewers due to his more sympathetic portrayal mainly for showing a surprising amount of depth making him more three-dimensional than your typical Child's Play Jerkass or any slasher movie Jerkass in contrast to his theatrical cut Hate Sink depiction.
• Even Better Sequel: Child's Play 2 is seen as an improvement over the already well-beloved original in nearly every way. The pacing (though some may prefer the original's slow burn style) is much better, the horror and humor are balanced to perfection, the kills are more inventive and gruesome, the cinematography and musical score are absolutely striking, and Andy’s arc of him having to step up for himself to put an end to the cat-and-mouse game between him and Chucky is engaging as it is tense. Most people often regard it as the best film in the entire franchise.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The TV version, which used deleted scenes to fill the runtime, had more scenes showing Phil as a more sympathetic character. Many preferred this to the theatrical version, which made him more unlikable.
• Fridge Horror: What would've happened to Andy's soul had Chucky succeeded in stealing his body? Would he have died, gone to the afterlife or spent the rest of his days in a plastic shell?
• He Really Can Act: Brad Dourif, in the scene where Chucky discovers he's trapped inside the Good Guy Doll forever. Dourif sounds legitimately enraged and trapped during this scene.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Joanne's treasured figurine that Chucky destroys resembles a midwife tending an infant, Joanne's actress Jenny Agutter would later appear in the BBC show Call the Midwife.
  • During the climax, the factory worker is seen watching Frankenstein (1931) on a TV set. Could it be a foreshadowing of things to come in the series?
  • Chucky poses as another Good Guy doll named Tommy. Chuckie and Tommy are the names of the two main characters of the very popular children's show Rugrats, which premiered a year after this film!
  • Chucky decides to beat Mrs. Kettlewell to death with a ruler, at one point slapping it against his hand. Why does that sound familiar?
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • Joanne following just becoming a widow after Phil's death, so you can understand her personal grief. However, she is downright vindictive towards a child whom she irrationally Wrongly Accused of her husband's death, so she is not that sympathetic.
  • Phil in the television cut. While in both versions he is an Obstructive Bureaucrat Fantasy-Forbidding Father towards Andy, in the television cut it is a result of Anger Born of Worry for his wife whom he cares about and frustration over them not having children to adopt and parent full-time rather just temporary. His death is seen as less deserving and satisfying and at best makes him come across as more sympathetic then his wife Joanne's death not long after as a result of these sympathetic traits of his exclusive to the TV version than in the theatrical cut.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Mrs. Kettlewell, the abusive Sadist Teacher, crosses it when she refused to let Andy leave the class after being wrongly accused of writing FUCK YOU BITCH on his assignment and locked him in the classroom. She even stated earlier that she punishes new students more severely (and it can be presumed that during detention she gave to him, she would have physically abused him then just emotionally, which by 1990 would be considered illegal in teaching institutes and she would be considered corrupt from a law-abiding point of view, had he stayed rather than escaped).
  • Joanne Simpson crosses it when she Took a Level in Jerkass by lashing out at Andy, blaming him for Phil's death and later vindictively ignoring Kyle's attempts to reason with her as she angrily packs his things to evict him from her household.
• Narm:
  • The Play Pals technician that gets electrocuted to death early on in the film is covered by cheesy-looking electricity effects added in post that belong to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
  • Mattson's completely monotone reaction to having a gun pressed against his face when Chucky takes him hostage in his car. If anything, he sounds more annoyed than scared.
• One-Scene Wonder: Mattson and Miss Kettlewell both can leave an impression towards the audience in regards to their characterizations besides being just gore fodder for Chucky. Also, there's the factory worker who is given Eye Scream by Chucky with doll eyes inserted into this head during the climax.
• Poor Man's Substitute:
  • It's slightly obvious that then-upcoming composer Graeme Revell was trying to emulate fellow movie composer Danny Elfman at the time the latter was scoring Darkman and Nightbreed around the same year in his score, right down to using Elfman's Production Posse conductor Shirley Walker.
  • It can appear Gerrit Graham's casting as Phil Simpson stood in for either Jeffrey Jones or Charles Grodin, as the character of Phil appeared to be the kind of role typically written for Jones or Grodin to portray.
  • Due to some parallels as noted in Spiritual Adaptation below, the second film's director John Lafia was the franchise's own Wes Craven out of the other installments' directors.
• Retroactive Recognition: Eliza Vorez, the Hag of Hackett's Quarry was Grace Poole.
• Spiritual Adaptation: This second film in the series can be considered to be the closest to Wes Craven directing an installment in the franchise and being produced by the horror genre production company active at the time Alive Films. It helps that this film was released sandwiched between Craven's outings for Universal Studios (who also distributes this horror film) and Alive Films, Shocker and The People Under the Stairs. It's helped by Graeme Revell's relentlessly bleak and dreading orchestral music score for this film that further makes it feel like it came straight out of a Wes Craven horror flick likened to that of the music scores written by Craven's later Associated Composer since their collaboration on Scream (1996), Marco Beltrami.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: As noted above, Graeme Revell's score can draw parallels to Bernard Herrmann's equally broodingly brassy horror film scoring during The '70s such as It's Alive and Sisters (1973) (right down to Herrmann's inclusion of the Moog synthesizers some of in his scores to be of that of Revell's inclusion of the Yamada keyboards and sequencers in some of his score for this movie). Also, during Andy's fight with Chucky in the basement followed by Phil's death, Revell's scoring for the sequence can bring in mind some of Herrmann's action cues from his 1962 score to Cape Fear (interestingly enough Chucky's actor Brad Dourif would a year later after this film be one of the contenders for the role of Max Cady for the 1991 remake before losing to Robert De Niro).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Sure, their screen time was cut down to We Hardly Knew Ye levels for the sake of being more faster pace based on the complaints of the original movie being slowly paced, but the Simpsons' screen time and development and Phil's more redeeming qualities that were shown in the television cut would have make the second film a little more interesting if kept in the theatrical cut and considered canon for the overall series around the couple, toying with the audience if they're the second film's Supporting Protagonist pair who will play a big part in helping Andy once finding out he was telling the truth (especially when their portrayers' names were billed second and third over Kyle's actress) before revealing themselves to be each a Decoy Protagonist all along once Chucky do them in. In addition, Phil shows that he's more then just the Hate Sink Jerkass the theatrical cut made him out to be like the other installments, showing how he's really a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who cares for his wife, while exploring Joanne's reasons behind their fostering duties in the first place like how he quit her job to invoke the Stay in the Kitchen image and how she gets her heart broken every time a child they foster leaves their care. By editing out their scenes and personal arc, it also doubles as a complete waste of their actors' performances and development of the their characters, it is no wonder Joanne's actress Jenny Agutter view her ultimately cut-down role as an Old Shame when looking back to this film in her filmography.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Phil Simpson, following the revelation of the deleted scenes that shows him as a more sympathetic character. The audience is supposed to hate him for his Jerkass behavior and being a Resentful Guardian due to him being a Supernatural-Proof Father and a Fantasy-Forbidding Father seemingly showing No Sympathy towards Andy. Yet to many people, his actions seems to be an act of Anger Born of Worry for his wife Joanne whom he is Happily Married to in contrast to the theatrical version's implicitly leaning towards an Awful Wedded Life, and certainly does not warrant him to die at the hands of Chucky. And it doesn't help that Phil's jerkass points actually make sense, pointing out how he and Joanne Didn't Think This Through when deciding to foster Andy, his constant, but rightful questioning of the boy's sanity as his Flat-Earth Atheist-like skepticism to Andy's story of a "killer doll possessed by a serial killer" would be anyone's natural reaction as it is outside the realm of reality and how he tries for Joanne I Want My Beloved to Be Happy like how a loyal and loving husband should be, plus in one of the deleted scenes where he and Joanne discuss at the driveway, he does actually apologize for sounding like and being a Jerkass about Andy's situation.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Joanne's grief-stricken reaction at her husband Phil's death and her clouded judgment as a result to have Wrongly Accused Andy for killing him despite lack of evidence, more so in the television cut.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Chucky's animatronic effects have become more fluid and expressive than before, making the character creepier to look at, and they avoid the Special Effects Failure the first film had with instances in which Chucky was clearly portrayed by a small person, thus allowing Chucky to move in wide shots as an animatronic doll.

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