Lightyear is a sci-fi animated film that serves as an origin story for the iconic character Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story franchise. The film is directed by Angus MacLane — inspired to give Buzz Lightyear his own cinematic and grounded film. Lightyear is voiced this time around by Chris Evans. Lightyear revolves around the Galactic Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans), who goes on a mission to bring his crew back home after being stuck on a hostile planet for many years. He’ll learn what it means to be the heroic Space Ranger we all grew up loving since the first Toy Story while also taking on the evil Zurg.
“In 1995, Andy got a toy from his favorite movie. This is that movie.” It’s very fascinating to see the similarities and differences between the characters of Chris Evans and Tim Allen. If you’re already a fan of the Toy Story franchise, you'll be aware that the owner Andy was so excited to own a Buzz Lightyear action figure for his birthday. You don’t even have to see any of the Toy Story films to appreciate Lightyear. Evans does a terrific job making Buzz his own while retaining some elements we love from Allen’s interpretation of the protagonist. We get to see what makes Buzz such a likable and relatable hero. It does feel like your conventional and predictable origin story at times, but still has a remarkable amount of heart that makes you root for him.
“To infinity and beyond!” Apparently, this is the first-ever Pixar movie to be shot in the IMAX format. It’s nice to see a Pixar film again on the big screen after previous features like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red were released exclusively on Disney+ due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Visually speaking, it’s incredibly stunning. Some scenes will make your jaw drop, and take you back to certain beloved sci-fi flicks such as Star Wars and Interstellar. It’s entertaining from start to finish. While also having emotional and heartfelt moments that you would expect from Pixar at this point. It’s admittedly not one of the deepest and most profound movies that the studio has done. Nonetheless, you can clearly tell it’s been a passion project by the director.
Lightyear is a blast. It’s crazy how long it took for this beloved toy to have an origin film, but the wait was worth it. Fans will be satisfied, as well as cinephiles who aren’t so familiar with the original source material.
It truly goes to infinity and beyond.
