After so many months of people arguing back and forth about what exactly this movie is, it literally opens with the text that we should have gotten when they first started promoting this. Lightyear is a film within the world of the Toy Story universe, which Andy saw and loved as a child, and made him want the Buzz Lightyear action figure that we got to know. There! Simple enough. I don’t know who first came up with that “it’s based on the real person that the toy was inspired from” nonsense that everyone’s been trying to figure out, but clearly they weren’t good at getting the message across.
Anyway, weird tangent, sorry about that. This film follows Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans), an ambitious Galactic Ranger who works under Star Command, exploring new worlds and such. He is out on a new planet with his crew, when they find themselves stuck on the planet, and in need of hyperspace fuel. With the help of his commanding officer and best friend, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), they try to figure out and test potential fuel by having Buzz go on test flights. The only problem is that his tests result in time dilation, so what might seem like minutes to him is years on the planet.
This results in the camp turning into a city over time, which soon becomes alright with the idea of simply staying as opposed to leaving as initially planned. However, after doing on final rogue flight test with his robotic companion cat, Sox (Peter Sohn), a gift from Hawthorne after the first test flight, he succeeds in finding the right formula, but it all goes to hell when the planet he returns to has been invaded by a mysterious robotic alien force led by the Emperor Zurg (Josh Brolin). Buzz works with Hawthorne’s granddaughter, Izzy (Keke Palmer), and other less than suitable rangers to defeat Zurg and his forces.
And that’s Lightyear, a film that is somehow both very interesting because of its context as a film within a fictional universe, and yet, not very interesting at all because it’s a fairly straightforward sci-fi adventure. I dig these kinds of space adventure movies, so it’s safe to say that I quite enjoyed the film, but it should be said that compared to the past four Pixar films, it is by far the least ambitious, especially on an emotional level. I think even something as chill and vibe-y as Luca has more going on emotionally than this.
And considering films like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red never got the chance to be seen on the big screen, it’s strange that this was the one that Disney decided to put out in theaters. Probably because it’s a guaranteed success given its connections to the Toy Story brand, but it’s a shame because I feel those films had more to offer, even if I did enjoy watching Lightyear more than a couple of them. After all, the setting offers a lot of opportunities for great spectacle, from the space flights, to the battles, and moments of genuine tension. This was a fun experience on the big screen, and the animation is as striking and tangible as ever.
There is a fairly basic arc of Buzz learning to work with a group, and Chris Evans does commendable work as a voice actor. And the ragtag group that he ends up working with – Izzy, Sox, Mo (Taika Waititi), and Darby (Dale Soules) are all fun to watch, and well performed. Sox definitely steals the show, which feels like it was by design, but what can I say, it works. Though, it might be because it’s the one thing that doesn’t feel like it was pulled from some other famous sci-fi property. And I don’t even mean that as a criticism, this is definitely a love letter to the genre.
I wish I had more to say about Lightyear because it’s a film that is very much up my alley, and it’s strong work overall, but there just isn’t a lot to dig into here. Pixar has set high expectations for themselves, so while it might initially seem disappointing when they don’t hit a bullseye, even their lesser films are still better and more well thought out than other movies that come out, especially in the family film space. Lightyear isn’t going to change the world, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a simple adventure that feels exactly like the kind of movie an impressionable young child would get invested in, and that’s something I feel director, Angus MacLane, and his co-writer, Jason Headley, totally understand. I mean, it’s still a weird conceit for a movie to begin with, but hey, they pulled it off. If I saw this as a kid, it would probably be one of my favorite Pixar movies, and on that level, I’d say this is an overall winner. If they make another one, cool, but this stands on its own fairly well.
Lightyear is now out in theaters.