Lightyear review

LIGHTYEAR:

TOY STORY SPIN-OFF DOESN’T QUITE GO “TO INFINITY AND BEYOND”, STILL A FUN ANIMATED SPACE ADVENTURE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: *** out of 4

DISNEY/PIXAR

The titular Space Ranger in Pixar’s Lightyear

 

            Buzz Lightyear, the beloved Space Ranger from Pixar’s Toy Story franchise makes his solo (theatrical) feature film debut in Lightyear, the latest animated movie from Pixar Animation Studios. The film serves as a spin-off to the Toy Story films and as an origin story to the Buzz Lightyear character. 

            This wouldn’t have been the first time Buzz’ origin story was depicted as there was already a direct-to-video movie in 2000 called Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins which served as a pilot to the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command animated series on Disney Channel that told his backstory. I will admit, the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command movie and show are a lot more faithful to the Toy Story incarnation of the character than this version of Buzz, despite the movie beginning with text that reads “In 1995, Andy got a toy from his favorite movie. This is that movie!” which raises a few questions regarding the continuity of the franchise. 

            Lightyear is basically “a movie within a movie” that inspired the in-universe Buzz Lightyear toy line with Chris Evans (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Snowpiercer, Knives Out) as the voice of the titular Space Ranger instead of Tim Allen, who voiced him in the previous Toy Story films as well as The Adventure Begins. Again, not the first time Buzz Lightyear was voiced by someone else as Patrick Warburton provided his voice for the Buzz Lightyear cartoon series. 

            Okay, let’s finally talk about this movie. I was intrigued when it was first announced and saw the teaser trailer set to the David Bowie song, Starman and featured a tease of Evans’ voice as Buzz. 

            It probably wasn’t going to be on par with the original Toy Story films, but it could at least be a fun space adventure with Buzz. That’s pretty much what I got. 

            The film follows Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Evans) and a group of Space Rangers including his best friend and commanding officer, Alisha Hawthorne (voiced by Uzo Aduba-Orange Is the New Black, Steven Universe, My Little Pony: The Movie) being marooned on an alien planet with no way to escape. A year passes and the Space Rangers have built a colony with the necessary tools to find a proper fuel source for their spaceship to make a hyperspace jump back home. 

            Buzz is the test pilot for this new fuel source along with his trusty cat robot companion, Sox (voiced by Peter Sohn-Ratatouille, Monsters University, Luca), but after a four-minute test he actually traveled several years later to the point where Alisha is now dead and had a granddaughter (By the way, that’s not a spoiler as it was shown in one of the trailers!) named Izzy (voiced by Keke Palmer-Barbershop 2: Back in Business, Akeelah and the Bee, Nope). Buzz and Sox team up with Izzy and other new recruits, Mo (voiced by Taika Waititi-Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jojo Rabbit, Free Guy) and Darby (voiced by Dale Soules-The Messenger, Orange Is the New Black, Aardvark) to continue the mission of getting all the Space Rangers back home while also thwarting the plans of the Evil Emperor Zurg (voiced by James Brolin-Westworld (1973), Traffic, Life in Pieces). 

            The film also features the voices of Efren Ramirez (Napoleon Dynamite, Crank 1 and 2, Endgame) as Airman Diaz, Isiah Whitlock Jr. (Goodfellas, The Wire, Cars 3) as Commander Burnside, and Bill Hader (Saturday Night Live, Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs 1 and 2, Inside Out) as Featheringhamstan. 

            Overall, Lightyear may not have the same emotional weight as the other Toy Story films, but it’s a fun, silly, light-hearted animated movie for the whole family. I think the film works best when it’s not trying to connect to the Toy Story franchise because while some of those callbacks are neat, a few of them affect the continuity of the franchise and raise several questions when revisiting it. 

            Like at the beginning of the first Toy Story, did Andy already know about Buzz Lightyear before he got the toy on his birthday (Because it certainly doesn’t sound like it when you revisit the first film) and went from being interested in cowboys to space after getting it? Also, there’s kind of a twist regarding Zurg that again affects the continuity of Toy Story 2 (which featured Zurg) and while in terms of faithfulness to the original franchise, it doesn’t work but it’s interesting in a standalone movie that’s trying to be different like this. 

            Despite being one of the more subpar entries in Pixar’s library, one of the best scenes in my opinion are all the scenes where Buzz is testing out the ship and trying to make the jump to hyperspace and keeps failing but moves forward through time. Honestly, it’s kind of like the sci-fi version of the opening scene from Up and a more digestible version of the ideas explored in Interstellar. 

            The plot is very basic and predictable sci-fi fluff that isn’t trying to be deep or meaningful, just a fun, dumb adventure in space. The focus is mostly on the characters and thankfully they are very memorable and quite likable. 

            Chris Evans is a good pick to portray a young Buzz Lightyear as he brings the same charisma that he brought to Captain America and has strong chemistry with both Alisha and Izzy. Mo and Darby are the bumbling idiots of the group, but they get a few laughs every now and then and the most consistently funny character (and one of the best Pixar side characters) is Sox, from his jokes, line delivery, and visual gags, he makes me laugh hard and melts my heart because of how adorable he is. 

            I also love how this movie looks in terms of animation and visuals, from the models on the characters to the backgrounds and even the almost live-action/stop-motion looking/moving Zurg. It really looks like a world you could live in and interact with both the characters and environments. 

            Lightyear isn’t a perfect movie nor is it one of the best Pixar or Toy Story films, but those looking for a fun adventure with Buzz Lightyear should be very happy with it. Who knows? If this movie is successful, Pixar could keep this train going with other movies within movies like a Woody’s Roundup movie sometime soon.