Since Lightyear was announced, there has been a question in everyone’s mind. “Wait, how does this work? I’m confused.” In fact, it’s confusing enough that Lightyear explains what happens in the first few seconds of the movie. “In 1995, Andy got a toy from his favorite movie. This is that movie.” Lightyear is essentially the origin story of Buzz Lightyear. Simply put, it’s Andy’s Star Wars.
It also becomes the first Pixar film to be released in theaters worldwide since 2020. It hit theaters before the COVID pandemic. With its connection to the Toy Story franchise, a beloved star of Chris Evans, and the fact that it is a Pixar film, Lightyear’s expectations are high. And yet the film manages to not only meet those expectations but leaves them in the dust.
It’s easy to see why Andy fell in love with the Buzz Lightyear concept and was determined to replay the astronaut’s adventures over and over in his bedroom. In the film, Buzz begins as a fat guard obsessed with work who, thanks to a critical error, leaves the crew of his ship on a previously undiscovered planet, unable to leave thanks to critical damage to his nau. From here, the long journey begins to find a way back into space where they can remain Space Rangers, team up with a group of younger potential Space Rangers in an attempt to defeat their new enemy the Emperor Zurg (James Brolin) and finds out there. more in life than being a Space Ranger and if you don’t care, life will pass you by.
That’s the beauty of Pixar movies, taking simple concepts like “there’s more to life than working” and turning them into wonderfully crafted stories with memorable characters that concern you almost instantly. For Lightyear, this meant renewing one of Pixar’s most iconic characters, Buzz Lightyear himself. While it’s obviously based on the Buzz we know in Toy Story, the differences between “real” Buzz and “toy” Buzz are clear.
It is Chris Evans, instead of Tim Allen, who gives voice to the Space Ranger in the film. This, in itself, is a completely new approach to the character. Lightyear also wisely pulls off Buzz’s slapstick humor in Toy Story movies. He’s still an incredibly silly character, but he’s not as strong and cheeky as his toy counterpart, which, tonally, makes sense. Of course, a toy version that is based on slogans and space battles is a more exaggerated character.
Where Evans really differentiates his Buzz, though, is the heart he puts into it. Toy Story’s Buzz loved toys as a family, but Lightyear’s throbbing heart is Evans’ portrayal of a man who feels he has not only disappointed his position as a space ranger, but the only people who it matters. It’s a story about self-acceptance, mistakes and all, and realizing that maybe what you thought was a tragedy wasn’t so bad in the end.
The film surrounds Buzz with a set of characters we had never met before and honestly they are all very entertaining. Uzo Aduba plays Buzz’s best friend and commander, Alicia Hawthorne. She is the meaningless counterpart of Buzz’s belief that she can really do anything simply because she is Buzz Lightyear. She is also the grandmother of Izzy Hawthorne (Keke Palmer), who could easily be considered the second protagonist of the film.
Izzy leads a group of adorable losers who want to help Buzz on his mission to destroy Zurg’s ship. She desperately wants to be like her grandmother and refuses to give up that hope, even if all about being a Space Ranger scares her. Next to him are the deliciously dumb Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi) and the doomed big Darby Steel (Dale Soules), who can turn three objects into a bomb.
This trio is where most of the film’s comedy comes from and watching them play Buzz when they try to be serious is incredibly entertaining. Most importantly, however, these four characters combine to form an effective team once they have discovered their dynamics. Which is a good thing, because someone has to stop Zurg and there’s no one else for the job.
One character to talk about is Sox (Peter Sohn), Buzz’s robotic cat and close confidant. There’s no way to admit that Sox is the star of the movie, and you can certainly expect to see the beautiful ball of fur in every toy aisle in every store over the next year. However, he is a well-earned place, as he is a character seemingly designed to be fun for everyone, literally as he switches between being more of a robot than a cat and vice versa.
It should come as no surprise that Lightyear is very lively. However, this is not the ultra-colorful world of Pixar that you would expect. Since this is a story about abandoned Space Rangers on a distant planet, much of its settlement is designed with an industrial twist. There is a lot of steel, dirt and darker colors that match well with the desert region where they live on the planet. However, the entertainers have been very careful to make this settlement seem inhabited as time goes on and it does not become the place where they are trapped, but the house where they are happy.
And that’s exactly what Lightyear is all about. From the start, Buzz is out of his element, refusing to accept that anything matters except “the mission.” Meanwhile, those around him are adapting to his new status quo, unwilling to let life pass. As mentioned before, it’s a simple concept, like all the best Pixar stories, but powerful that we all need to remember from time to time, and it’s done very well here.
That’s not to say Lightyear is perfect, though. There are a couple of issues that we can’t delve into too much because of the spoilers that would be unleashed. Suffice it to say that the final seconds of the film strangely undermined the message of the film as a whole in a way that seemed unnecessary. And, if you really care about the Pixar canon, this movie causes some weird hiccups in the Toy Story story that will be hard to tell.
That said, Lightyear is a big win for Pixar after not seeing its movies in theaters for more than two years. It’s fun, honest, well done and a great example of how to expand an existing franchise without diluting it.