The eponymous space ranger from the beloved Toy Story franchise goes to ‘Infinity and Beyond’ in his own origin movie. A movie, which the audience is informed at the start of the film, is the actual movie from which the Buzz Lightyear toy is from. The same movie that a boy named Andy saw back in 1995, that made him get the Buzz Lightyear toy and as they say, the rest is history, but we’ll get to that later.
The long and short of it is that, ‘Lightyear’ is a film that the whole family will enjoy. Kids will marvel and awe at the exciting space action sequences, the adults will laugh and be entertained, and everyone will fall in love with Sox the robot cat. My issue with the film is that I found myself looking at how the film and its elements fit in the whole ‘Toy Story Cinematic Universe’. Thoughts like: “If the Buzz Lightyear toy is based on this movie, then where is Sox? Where are all the Sox toys and merchandise? I also found myself thinking about the old CG graphics from the 1995 Toy Story film and kept comparing them to 2022’s graphics. I should really follow my own advice and just enjoy the movie and not obsess over small details.
Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans, because Lightyear is basically Captain America in space) and his crew are marooned on a planet, Buzz thinking that he is at fault is determined to set things right, he is determined to “finish the mission” even if that means being left behind as everyone else gets to live their own lives.
A couple of things that I loved about the movie, aside from Sox the robot cat, because Sox is number one. Just to give you an idea, Sox is like R2-D2 if the beloved droid was a cat, and he talks and has the most hilarious lines, which easily made him the crowd favorite. Going back…so yes, a couple of things I liked about the film was Buzz’s rag-tag team of misfits, whom he reluctantly teams up with to save the day. Its hilarious, because you know how in most films and TV series, it’s like the best of the best, the most elite who works with the lead character, but here, it is the complete opposite, so you can expect a lot of hilarious scenes from these guys. Especially Taika Waititi’s Mo Morrison.
Another thing I enjoyed was the tease to Zurg, I love how they did a bit of a Jaws homage and just showed his back, his hands and the Zurg design was just so amazing! As someone who has seen a lot of mecha over the years, I could really appreciate the new look they gave Zurg. But! And this is treading into spoiler territory, there was a reveal that I wasn’t so happy about and just got me more confused and I got stuck in one of those, “If this happened in the Lightyear movie, does that mean its all the same for the other Toy Story movies and the Lightyear cartoon series?” There are a couple of quicksand/rabbit hole moments if I let myself get sucked into them.
Lightyear may not be as revolutionary as other Pixar movies but it’s funny, entertaining, and thrilling enough to keep the kids and the adults accompanying them entertained.
On second thought, Lightyear’s challenge may actually come in its inclusiveness of a same-sex couple who even share a brief kiss on kiss. By adding this representation and scene that has caused the film to be banned in 15 countries.
In the end Buzz may be fighting something closer to home than alien robots after all.