A Star Command exploration vessel investigates signs of life on an unexplored world. The crew includes the skilled but pedantic and over-confident Space Ranger, Buzz Lightyear, as well as his commanding officer and best friend Alisha Hawthorne.
Discovering the planet to be crawling with hostile lifeforms, they attempt to take off, but the ship's escape trajectory is compromised by Buzz's refusal to listen to others, and it is damaged in the resulting crash. Blaming himself for failing their escape and stranding the crew, Buzz volunteers as the test pilot for the hyperspace fuel crystal they will need to develop to return home.
The thing about hyperspace flight tests, it turns out, is that failed efforts have a significant time dilation effect. Each time he makes another attempt, Buzz sees Alisha grow older. She falls in love, marries, and has a child in what seems like only days to him.
Buzz's determination to 'fix his mistake' leaves him more and more detached from the priorities and lives of the other crew and their descendants. But when a robot army suddenly appears to threaten all their lives, the only way he can save them will be by rebuilding those connections and forming the one thing he's always avoided: a team.
The Toy Story franchise previously spawned an animated Buzz Lightyear cartoon which ran for over 60 episodes. This CGI movie is however the first cinematic release based solely on the character, and set within the fictional universe of his interstellar adventures. An introductory text scrawl, in fact, specifies that this is the movie that made Andy want a Buzz toy in the first place.
I'm not convinced this framing was a necessary or even productive move, to be honest. It reinforces to the audience that they're watching a movie that is fictional even in its own reality. Better, I think, to have omitted that scrawl and just presented it as an adventure the 'real' Buzz experienced, which was how the original cartoon did things.
The thing about hyperspace flight tests, it turns out, is that failed efforts have a significant time dilation effect. Each time he makes another attempt, Buzz sees Alisha grow older. She falls in love, marries, and has a child in what seems like only days to him.
Buzz's determination to 'fix his mistake' leaves him more and more detached from the priorities and lives of the other crew and their descendants. But when a robot army suddenly appears to threaten all their lives, the only way he can save them will be by rebuilding those connections and forming the one thing he's always avoided: a team.
The Toy Story franchise previously spawned an animated Buzz Lightyear cartoon which ran for over 60 episodes. This CGI movie is however the first cinematic release based solely on the character, and set within the fictional universe of his interstellar adventures. An introductory text scrawl, in fact, specifies that this is the movie that made Andy want a Buzz toy in the first place.
I'm not convinced this framing was a necessary or even productive move, to be honest. It reinforces to the audience that they're watching a movie that is fictional even in its own reality. Better, I think, to have omitted that scrawl and just presented it as an adventure the 'real' Buzz experienced, which was how the original cartoon did things.
That text scrawl is pretty easy to ignore, though. And once you've done so, the movie offers the quality animation, likeable characters, and amusing gags we've all come to expect of Pixar films.
So it's a good 'un, then? Well ... not entirely. The story is a bit pedestrian, I think. And also a bit over-packed; it felt at times they were rushing things. For example, when the villain asks Buzz to join him, I think Buzz should have shown more temptation to accept, given his behaviour to that point, but the film didn't have time for him to do so.
Speaking of the villain, I was entertained by them in the moment, but on later reflection I am surprised by how much of a re-tread of Lego Movie 2 this whole aspect of the film ended up being. There are some variations in details, but at heart it's basically exactly the same plot dynamic.
Finally, this was the film that really hammered home for me that as an actor, Taika Waititi really does just do the same schtick over and over again. His performance here is funny enough in isolation, but having seen him do exactly the same schtick last year in Thor: Love & Thunder, the gimmick is wearing thin.
Finally, this was the film that really hammered home for me that as an actor, Taika Waititi really does just do the same schtick over and over again. His performance here is funny enough in isolation, but having seen him do exactly the same schtick last year in Thor: Love & Thunder, the gimmick is wearing thin.
Ultimately, Lightyear is an adequate time-filler, but I'd say it is recommended only if you're a Buzz fiend or a Pixar completist.
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