Lightyear
It feels like there’s a lot to process with the idea of a Buzz Lightyear movie that is not, in fact, about the Buzz Lightyear we’ve heard voiced by Tim Allen throughout the four “Toy Story” movies. The opening frames of “Lightyear” clear up any confusion- this is the movie that Andy saw in 1995 that made him fall in love with Buzz Lightyear, and want one for his birthday. Buzz Lightyear was the main character of that space adventure, and he makes a dashing hero in this feature film, which might be the first movie-within-a-movie that is its own movie.
First of all, let me just say that seeing this in IMAX was a great experience. I don’t know that an animated feature has utilized the format officially since “Fantasia/2000,” and the sequences it chose to “film” in IMAX merited its use. They also point to just how insanely good Pixar’s animation has gotten over the years. It feels almost effortless the depth and detail their films have added over the years, especially considering that opening salvo in 1995. I wonder if, in Andy’s world, this is a live-action film; otherwise, the leap in quality from this film to its 1995 world is something else. That’s not a question you should be thinking about, though, even though you invariably will.
The screenplay by Jason Headley and director Angus MacLane (a long-time Pixar veteran making his debut in features) gets us straight into the action with Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans) and his fellow Space Ranger, Alisha (Uzo Aduba). They are piloting a massive exploratory mission, trying to find new planets to explore and colonize, but the wild life on this one is not really hospitable. While they’re trying to leave, they crash land, and the power source of the ship is destroyed. Now, they must colonize it to survive, while trying to get back off the planet. As Buzz tests each new power source, however, time passes, but for him, it’s about the mission. Eventually, he must rely on Alisha’s granddaughter, Izzy (Keke Palmer), to help him succeed, as well as a cat companion Alisha paired him with named Sox (who will be the most popular new Pixar character in ages), and a familiar foe (to us) in Zurg (James Brolin).
Because of the way Pixar is framing this adventure, it’s a different type of movie than you’d expect, but it’s the same old Buzz. Evans makes the character his own, and the rest of the voice cast gives him a lot to bounce off of, whether he’s saying the catchphrases we know and love from the “Toy Story” version, or working through his attempts to save everyone, and be a hero. The key relationship in this film is between he and Alisha, and later, Izzy. How he comes to work with both I’ll leave to the film, but it is the sort of space movie logic you’d find in sci-fi adventure films/TV shows like “Star Wars,” “Lost in Space” and “Star Trek.” If you’re considered about the typical emotional core from Pixar in this film, it comes from these character dynamics, as well as when Zurg enters the picture, which finds a nice way of playing with how that antagonism played out in “Toy Story 2.” This is a film that does utilize call backs to the Buzz Lightyear we saw as a toy, but gives us a character that makes sense in how he could inspire someone like Andy. As a Pixar film, we’ve seen more consequential films, but it’s as entertaining as any film of theirs you could watch, and makes for an interesting spin-off from the films that built the studio’s reputation. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
