Lightyear

Voices of : Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Pater Sohn, Taika Taititi, Dale Soules, James Brolin, Uzo Aduba, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Bill Hader
Directed by: Angus MacLane
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Space ranger Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) works to rebuild a ship engine to get his people off a remote planet where they have been marooned.

Review:

Tim: When I think about Lightyear, I get it. Pixar and Disney were looking for a way to expand the Toy Story franchise without an actual 5th film. So, why not do a spinoff featuring Buzz Lightyear? It even makes sense within the logic of the franchise, to make this the actual movie that inspired the toy. Brilliant, right? The only problem is that Pixar delivers a subpar film, by far the worst in the Toy Story franchise. This film is a disappointment and while it's not outright bad, it's a total mess.

Of all the stories they could have gone with for Lightyear, I'm shocked they chose this one. It's dull, not compelling in the least, and unable to fully leverage the character. This is really where the entire film went wrong. There's a infinity (and beyond) amount of stories they could have chose to tell Buzz Lightyear's origin story and they chose a completely lackluster and bizarrely bland one to tell. Pixar is usually much, much better than this. It's hard to pinpoint exactly where the story went off the rails. Stranding the population on a planet might be okay, but then the whole introduction of time dilation felt unnecessary. It might have been a worthwhile ploy to create that trademark Pixar emotion, but it doesn't even accomplish that. We feel as stuck on the planet as Buzz and the crew and as the movie progressed, I felt more desperate to get off the planet than the astronauts. It's just not as compelling or interesting as the movie believes it is.

The film received some criticism for not casting Tim Allen as Buzz. I kind of get the idea of changing it up, but this doesn't make much sense within the logic of the franchise. If you were going to make a toy based on a movie character, you'd likely want that toy to sound like the character. Pixar didn't make this choice for artistic sense- Chris Evans is a much hotter commodity right now than Tim Allen. That's one example of where this movie went wrong- Pixar making decisions for marketing and financial reasons, instead of pure storytelling. It lends credence to the idea that Pixar sold out here. The only good thing for Allen is not being involved in this disappointing film. Evans wasn't so lucky. His voice work is fine, but Allen's in much more memorable. Keke Palmer was decent.

Buzz himself is at least a decent character, although not as interesting as I would have expected. The problem isn't Buzz, it's the forgettable supporting cast. Alisha is a decent character and her family's journey makes up a good amount of the film's emotional resonance. Outside of her, though, the characters fail to meet expectations. Sox is kind of a cute addition to the cast (and likely created to sell merchandise), but isn't all that memorable or compelling of a character. Sox has a few scenes that made the trailers look fun, but ultimately doesn't have a big enough impact on the film. The main group of other supporting characters are completely forgettable. I honestly couldn't tell you much about them. They aren't really fighters. I guess they have some personal characteristics to distinguish them, but I was never interested in them for a second. They are supposed to provide comic relief and mess things up just enough to make Buzz's challenge even bigger. Honestly, they were a woeful disappointment. We spend a lot of time with subpar, one-dimensional characters, which takes time away from Buzz, by far a more interesting character. The supporting characters definitely fail this movie.

The story itself isn't very memorable at all. It tries to weave in Zurg, but Zurg's story makes almost no sense, especially given our understanding of the character from the Toy Story movies. Honestly, what were the writers thinking?

Now, I acknowledge I sound very harsh about Lightyear. It's not a bad movie, just a deeply disappointing one. There's a lot of animated movies on this level, it's not like this is an outlier failure. The problem is that it's a spinoff on one of the most beloved, consistently excellent animated franchises. The Toy Story movies are all delightful, entertaining, incredibly enjoyable. They are all terrific Pixar successes. For Lightyear to be so far below those films tarnishes the entire franchise a bit. That's unacceptable. We deserved a better movie than this. It's not a surprise that this film failed at the box office. It's not even close to the level of the four Toy Story movies.

On a side note, this movie represents a troubling trend for Pixar. I've always believed Pixar has had more failures than critics believe, but they've been incredible at bouncing back after subpar films. Every time Pixar delivered a less-than-good movie, they always immediately reversed the trend. They've never had two "not good" movies in a row... until now. Turning Red was incredibly overrated and a Pixar disappointment and Lightyear's failure makes two. I'm not sure what is going on at Pixar these days, but they are lowering the bar they've set for themselves. I hope the next film gets them back on track.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6


If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3, Toy Story 4, Turning Red