‘Lightyear’ is light and entertaining enough

[Minor Rock Fist Up]

Now playing only in theatres.

This is the movie Andy fell in love with in 1995 and sparked his desire for a new Buzz Lightyear action figure? Apparently so, according to the tag that shows before Lightyear, the re-spin-boot-quel-off of Pixar’s juggernaut Toy Story franchise.

The result is a fun, even if convoluted and overly complicated animated flick that may not be the awe inspiring adventure it wants to be or thinks it is.

Also, the best part of the movie is a robot cat named Sox. Can we get this cat a Disney+ series ASAP? Please and thank you.

The plot finds our favorite Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans), in the middle of a mission that strands an enormous ship with an entire city full of people on a planet thanks to a Buzz’s selfish mistake. To fix his guffaw and save everyone, Buzz needs to achieve light speed in a spaceship, but a time blip presents some unfortunate ramifications to the people in his life. So, then like 60 years later or something, Emperor Zurg attacks, and Buzz has to help save the people he left to defend themselves because he was off doing things that really only make sense to drive a plot that already could have been much simpler and fun.

I’m actually not going to get into the plot too much, because it’s kind of dumb and overly complicated and I already know I’m way overthinking a Pixar movie that is literally supposed to be about selling toys. I’ll just say there are story and character choices made that I felt neglected a lot of the emotional connectivity that could have been developed. What I do want to talk about is Sox, the emotional support robot cat Buzz inherits after his first time lapse misadventure. Voiced by Peter Sohn, this mechanical pussy steals the show from the man we once knew as Captain America.

And there is a plot twist with Zurg that really just had me thinking, “why are you making this so complicated for kids? Again, I’m over thinking it. Probably. Maybe. But, I don’t think so.

I’m not exactly the “target audience” for this but I used to be a kid. I’m a parent with kids who have grown up on Pixar. All cards on the table, I’m a collector, so I can relate to and have fun with most things animated, sci-fi/fantasy that naturally spawns a toy line. I just felt Lightyear was missing what typically drives Pixar’s best movies: heart. And for me, that was hurt by fleshing out the plot of a 6-minute short film into a 1 hour 45 minute feature.

Chris Evans takes over voice acting duties for Buzz and is a solid choice. Don’t worry, while he doens’t factor in here, Tim Allen is still the voice of the toy Buzz — keep in mind, those toys that say movie lines are typically done by “soundalike” voice actors. Keke Palmer is fun as Izzy, the granddaughter to Buzz’s former partner, Alisha (Uzo Aduba). And then there are a couple of other members of Buzz’s new misfit crew: Darby (Dale Soules), an elderly woman with a criminal past and a lust for violence and Mo (voiced by Taika Waititi, because he’s in everything now), a character who seems to know he’s probably too much of an idiot to be a Space Ranger, but darn it if the script doesn’t dictate he should try anyway.

But let’s face it, Lightyear is all about creating a fun, entertaining, memorable experience for the kiddos that adults can also enjoy and for the most part, Lightyear delivers. There’s plenty of action and jokes, some of them help the plot others contradict. It doesn’t matter, I’m still trying to no overthink as I write.

Will kids love it? Maybe. It’s good enough to make you think you’re watching a better movie than you are. Going in with a low bar of expectations helps. It really is just a hour and forty-five minute toy commercial after all. But if you’re expecting to be floored by Pixar’s animation or brought to near tears by the incredible story telling we’ve become accustomed to, you’re gonna be a little disappointed.

I kinda left thinking….Andy loved this movie???? Meh. Okay.

And apparently there are 3 post-credits scenes.

Tagged as: 2022, chris evans, Dale Soules, Lightyear, Movie Review, Peter Sohn, pixar, Taika Waititi, Toy Story, Uzo Aduba