Ever since Light was announced, there has been a question in everyone’s mind. “Wait, how does this happen? I’m confused.” In fact, it’s confusing enough that Lighter explains what happens in the first seconds of the film. “In 1995, Andy got a toy from his favorite movie. It’s this movie.” In essence, Lightyear is the origin story of Buzz Lightyear. Simply put, this is Andy’s Star Wars.
It also happens to be the first Pixar film to debut in theaters worldwide since 2020, coming out in cinemas before the COVID pandemic. With his connection to the Toy Story franchise, a favorite star in Chris Evans, and the fact that it’s a Pixar movie, Lightyear has high expectations. And yet the film manages not only to meet these expectations, but also to leave them in the dust.
It’s easy to see why Andy fell in love with Buzz Lightyear’s concept and was determined to play the astronaut’s adventures back and forth in his bedroom. In the film, Buzz begins as a cheeky and obsessive space ranger who, thanks to a critical mistake, takes the crew of his ship to an undiscovered planet, unable to leave due to critical damage to their ship. From there begins the long journey to find their way back into space, where they can continue to be space rangers, he teamed up with a group of younger potential space rangers in an attempt to defeat his newest enemy Emperor Zurg (James Brolin) and learned that there is more to life than being a space ranger and if he is not careful, life will pass him by.
This is the beauty of Pixar movies, taking simple concepts like “life is more than work” and turning into beautifully crafted stories with memorable characters that you become interested in almost instantly. For Lighter, this meant a renewal of one of Pixar’s most iconic characters, Buzz Lightyear himself. Although apparently based on the Buzz we find in Toy Story, the differences between “real” Buzz and “toy” Buzz are clear.
Chris Evans, not Tim Allen, voices the Space Ranger in the film. This in itself is a whole new approach to the character. Leiter also wisely deviates from Buzz’s Farsi humor in Toy Story. He’s still an incredibly stupid character, but he’s not as strong and cheeky as his toy counterpart – which, in a tone, makes sense. Of course, the version of the toy, which is based on slogans and space battles, is a more pretentious hero.
But the place where Evans really distinguishes his Buzz is the heart he puts into it. Buzz from Toy Story loved his toys as a family, but Light’s beating heart is portraying Evans as a man who feels as if he has abandoned not only his position as a space ranger, but also the only people who matter to him. It’s a story about accepting yourself, making mistakes and everything else, and realizing that maybe what you think is a tragedy wasn’t so bad after all.
The film surrounds Buzz with an ensemble of characters we’ve never met before and, frankly, they’re all a lot of fun. Ouzo Aduba plays Buzz’s best friend and commander Alicia Hawthorne. She is the pointless double of Buzz’s belief that he can really do anything just because he’s Buzz Lightyear. She is also the grandmother of Easy Hawthorne (Keke Palmer), who can easily be considered the second lead role in the film.
Izzy leads a group of charming 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 everything about being a space ranger terrifies her. Next to her are the delightfully dumb Mo Morrison (Taika Whitey) and the elderly prisoner Darby Steele (Dale Souls), who can turn any three objects into a bomb.
This trio is where most of the film’s comedy comes from, and watching them play Buzz when he’s trying to be serious is incredibly fun. Most importantly, however, these four characters mix to make an effective team once they really understand their dynamics. Which is a good thing, because someone has to stop Zurg and no one else can handle the task.
One character to be discussed is Sox (Peter Son), Buzz’s robotic cat and a close confidant. We can’t help but admit that the Sox are the breakthrough star of the movie, and you can certainly expect to see the cute little fur in every toy aisle at every store next year. However, this is a well-earned place, as it is a character seemingly designed to be fun for literally everyone, as he moves back and forth between being more of a robot than a cat and vice versa.
It should come as no surprise that Lightyear is beautifully animated. However, this is not the ultra-colorful world of Pixar you can expect. Given that this is a story about space rangers left on a distant planet, much of their settlement is designed with an industrial nuance. There is a lot of steel, dirt and darker colors that match well with the desert region in which they live on the planet. However, the animators have made this village look alive over time and become not the place where they are trapped, but the home where they are happy.
And that’s what Lightyear is all about, after all. From the beginning, Buzz has been out of his mind, refusing to accept that anything matters but “mission.” Meanwhile, the people around him are adapting to their new status quo, unwilling to let life pass them by. As mentioned above, this is a simple concept – like all of Pixar’s best stories – but a powerful one that we all need to remember from time to time, and it’s beautifully done here.
However, this does not mean that Lightyear is perfect. There are a few issues that we can’t go into too much detail about because of the spoilers that will be unleashed. Suffice it to say that the last seconds of the film strangely undermine the message of the film as a whole in a way that felt unnecessary. And if you really care about Pixar’s canon, this movie is causing some weird hiccups in Toy Story history that will be hard to explain.
However, Lightyear is a huge win for Pixar, having not seen his films in theaters for more than two years. It’s fun, heartfelt, beautifully done and a great example of how to expand an existing franchise without diluting it.
Add Comment