A film review by Craig J. Koban August 11, 2022

LIGHTYEAR 

2022, PG, 107 mins.

Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear (voice)  /  Keke Palmer as Izzy Hawthorne (voice)  /  Dale Soules as Darby Steel (voice)  /  Taika Waititi as Mo Morrison (voice)  /  Peter Sohn as Sox (voice)  /  Uzo Aduba as Alisha Hawthorne (voice)  /  James Brolin as Emperor Zurg (voice)  /  Mary McDonald-Lewis as I.V.A.N. (voice)  /  Efren Ramirez as Airman Diaz (voice)  /  Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Commander Burnside (voice)  /  Keira Hairston as Young Izzy (voice)

Pixar's LIGHTYEAR opens in a fairly weird manner. 

We get title cards that indicate that "In 1995, a boy named Andy got a toy from his favorite movie.  This is that movie." 

LIGHTYEAR takes its name, of course, from Buzz Lightyear, one of the main sentient toys that featured heavily in the TOY STORY series of films that began all the way back in the mid-90s.  Co-written and directed by Angus MacLane (who's making his solo directorial debut here having previously co-directing FINDING DORY), LIGHTYEAR is not a direct sequel to TOY STORY 4 despite featuring a highly identifiable titular character, nor does it include any of his other toy friends from Andy's playroom.  No, this is a film set within a film universe.  Since LIGHTYEAR is established as the film that Andy saw decades ago that means that it exists within the larger TOY STORY universe; that's essentially where the correlations end.  Despite some odd (and I kind of think unnecessary) meta referencing, LIGHTYEAR is basically a solo adventure for the character on top of a sort-of origin tale.  Most of it is as gorgeously animated as anything from the Pixar canon and is reliably engaging to a fault, but those expecting it to be supplanted within the larger established TOY STORY lore might be in for some disappointment.   

And speaking again of weird, Disney's CAPTAIN AMERICA himself in Chris Evans is the voice of the space ranger this go around (huh?), leaving previous voice actor Tim Allen in the cosmic dust (more on that in a bit).  In LIGHTYEAR we're introduced to Buzz as a relative young hotshot star pilot on a fairly routine mission to explore a nearby planet with his long-time partner in Alisha (Uzo Abdula), but in the process of exploring this strange new world and seeking out new life and new civilizations they inadvertently become marooned on the planet with their gigantic spaceship being unable to blast off and away from it.  Realizing that they might be in for the long haul, Buzz and company start unloading and setting up massive base camps with their sole mission to find a way off the world ASAP.  There's a need to master hyperspace flight to secure success, which, in turn, requires just the right crystal formations being mined together (that are indigenous to the planet).  Buzz starts his first test flight with his super powered ship, which not only ends in failure, but also culminates with him realizing that his flight occurred in just a few minutes for him up in space while back on the planet the rest of his crew has aged by four years.  This is the stuff of convoluted, brain smashing INTERSTELLAR metaphysical logic that I'm sure might go over many young viewers' heads. 

Buzz seems as stubbornly determined as ever to get himself and his clan off the planet, so he partakes in another test flight...then another...and then another...and with each one his companions on the ground continue to leap into the future by four years to his several minutes in orbit (this leaves him watching many of his friends, including Alisha, aging rapidly right before his eyes).  Thinking that Buzz may need some sort of a therapeutic companion to acclimate himself to these constant jumps into the future, the Space Rangers gift him a robotic cat named Sox (Peter Sohn), who not only can purr and cuddle like any other feline, but is able to compute complex equations with a Spock-ian level of logical precision.  Soon, Buzz and Sox manage to discover just the right formula to get everyone off of the planet, but the main problem now is that so many of his past friends are now dead and six feet under, with most of the their offspring relatively happy and content with their living predicament.  Buzz decides to test the new formula against his superior's wishes, which proves to be successful, but when he comes out of his wormhole over 22 years has past and the planet was invaded during that time by the menacing robot army of Emperor Zurg (James Brolin), leaving what's left becoming a MAD MAX-esque wasteland.  Teaming up with Alisha's granddaughter, Buzz decides to take on Zurg head-on in a gallant effort to liberate the colony. 

I think that it has almost become perfunctory to label each new Pixar film as an unmitigated triumph of computer generated animation artistry, and that's certainly the case with LIGHTYEAR.  Because this is a Buzz-centered adventure, director MacLane and his top notch art department have a field day here envisioning everything in this world from the ground up, whether it be in the form of futuristic space suits and ships or exotic alien worlds or the sinewy mechanical beasts of Zurg's design.  It's pretty rare to get an all-out space opera from the studio (although glimpses of Buzz's universe have been shown in previous TOY STORY films), not to mention that we simply don't get many space operas period - animated or not - from mainstream studios anymore, so I can definitely appreciate the attention to beautiful world building on display here.  That, and MacLane certainly doesn't hide his past sci-fi film influences on the film, with genre pieces as divergent as STAR WARS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE LAST STARFIGHTER, and even AVATAR being evoked in design choices throughout.  On a technical and conceptual level, LIGHTYEAR is in a constant state of animation bliss.  In many respects, it's perhaps a good thing that this is not a sequel to TOY STORY and never feels slavish to what's come before, outside of the basic design of Buzz himself.  He's still cartoony looking, but less exaggeratedly toyetic, if that makes sense. 

Even though the collective voice talent here is undeniably top notch and good in their respective roles, there's no getting around the rather large elephant in the room in the makers here jettisoning Tim Allen in the role and substituting in Chris Evans instead.  The rationale from the producers for this changeover isn't entirely convincing or justified: Allen was not invited back for the role, nor was he considered, because they felt that his vocals would be too easily associated with the TOY STORY version of the character (bizarre, to say the least).  It seems like this is a fairly disingenuous - if not downright unfair - rationale to kick Allen to the curb; I'm sure that Disney/Pixar felt that Evans' work in the MCU would translate to more box office potential (and in a highly ironic twist, the film bombed, which tosses out that hypothesis).  Regardless of motive, Evans is quite decent in his role and surprisingly not in a distracting manner; he evokes Allen's personality mannerisms while infusing it with his own inflections, which seems thankless enough.  The real breakout character for me is newcomer Sox, which provides some adorable comedic relief as both a cuddly pet to Buzz and a razor sharp witted and hyper intelligent sidekick.  He's like an emotional support animal, scientific officer, and R2D2-inspired interface tool all rolled into one, but with that high merchandise potential that the Disney coffers usually salivate over.  It's hilarious obvious that Sox was created to sell toys, but the cat owner in me had his icy cold film critic analytical heart melted by him on more than a few occasions. 

Not all of LIGHTYEAR is the stuff of cynical minded corporate cash grabs.  There's a great moment early in the film that easily tugs on heart strings, which clearly is a riff on a similar time spanning moment from Pixar's own UP.  During it we see Buzz witness his partner rapidly aging before his eyes, marrying a same-sex partner, having a child, starting a family life, and then ultimately dying from old age (yes, we also get a very, very brief same-sex kiss on screen here too, but I'll give some credit for Pixar at least trying to push the envelope for inclusiveness, even though it's frustratingly sparse here).  There's a sense of melancholy for poor Buzz in his test pilot pursuits, seeing as everyone around him is getting older, whereas he stays the same relative age.  Perhaps using time travel as a massive storytelling device is a double edged sword.  It's a sophisticated manner of propelling Buzz into his solo adventure, but the limitless complications contained within might - as alluded to earlier - confound youngling viewers as to what's going on.  Overall story development is a bit hit or miss too, with a lot of LIGHTYEAR feeling more like a grand setup and introduction for something bigger and better to come.  I also would have appreciated better character development with the supporting players, many of which fall into neatly compartmentalized stock troupes, and a bit too much for my liking.  With the exception of Sox, of course.  He's a cutey and a standout.