Review: There’s a lack of interesting, personable characters within Lightyear, as if they were all typecast from other Pixar movies. They’re either sentimentally sweet, aloof, or arrogant. And maybe the movie could’ve been saved had these characters had more time to develop and interact, but that aspect of the film is tossed aside frequently for big action set pieces and rambunctious chase sequences.

Lightyear Movie Review

Pixar’s first out-and-out spinoff movie, Lightyear shifts gears quite heavily from the Toy Story franchise that marked the inception of the famed animated studio. It wasn’t about the ensemble of toys, rather the expanded universe’s inspiration behind the action figures.

And I suppose Lightyear accomplishes telling that story, using Buzz Lightyear to tell a science fiction romp that expands to different corners of the galaxy. When Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) is stranded on a dangerous planet for decades, forced to watch time pass as he attempts the same rescue mission over and over again, he manages to team up with the relative of his former space partner and her rag-tag team of rangers for a set of adventures that’ll hopefully get him back to his home planet.

And those miscalculated and misguided hijinks only go so far in Lightyear, which struggles to justify why it exists at all. The movie opens with a title card reading that when he was a youngster first watching movies, Andy fell in love with the movie Lightyear and wanted the titular character action figure for his birthday.

But why any young kid would resonate with Buzz Lightyear in this movie is beyond me. He’s pretty unlikeable – always assuming that he’s better than the space cadets around him and placing them in harm’s way to better his own circumstances.

Why didn’t Andy want the toys of more likeable characters? Like Izzy Hawthorne (Keke Palmer), who tries to make the best of her own situation and accepts her strengths and weaknesses for what they are. Or Sox (Peter Sohn), who instantly becomes one of Pixar’s better conceptions as the wisecracking robotic cat tasked with helping Buzz at the blink of an eye (Beep-Boop Beep-Boop).

There’s a lack of interesting, personable characters within Lightyear, as if they were all typecast from other Pixar movies. They’re either sentimentally sweet, aloof, or arrogant. And maybe the movie could’ve been saved had these characters had more time to develop and interact. That aspect of the film is tossed aside frequently for big action set pieces and rambunctious chase sequences.

And I find much of the animation in Lightyear to be run-of-the-mill. Not necessarily bad, but it pales in comparison to the uniquely bright Turning Red, or astonishingly detailed Toy Story 4. Somehow, the studio has become immersive in intergalactic storytelling nearly 15 years since the release of Wall-E. Again, not bad, but certainly not an achievement the same way many of their prior movies have been.

But like I mentioned earlier, I’m not as annoyed with Lightyear now as I was leaving the theater upon its release. The movie plays better at home, which is so odd considering it was the film that would mark Pixar’s return to movie theaters following the pandemic. It’s remarkably emotionless and shallow, and feels like content you consume more than revel in – perfect for at-home streaming time.

Score: 2 / 5

Genre: Adventure, Animation, Family, Science Fiction

Lightyear is available to watch on Disney+