Review: 'Lightyear' is a silly, amusing distraction with a touch of heart

Lightyear
3.5 out of 5 Stars
Director: Angus MacLane
Writers: Angus MacLane, Matthew Aldrich, Jason Headley
Starring: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure
Rated: PG for action/peril

SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) – Synopsis: Having failed to save the day, Buzz Lightyear searches for a way to return him and the crew of his stranded spacecraft back to Earth.

Review: When I was a little boy, I saw a film called “Star Wars.” That film inspired me to own a dozen or so action figures from the movie. I spent an uncountable number of hours dreaming up adventures in my mother’s planter boxes. They were friends that lived a thousand lives in my head. I loved them until the paint wore off and then I loved them more.

So, when I saw “Toy Story” in 1995, a film about a little boy and the shared relationship he had with his toys, I immediately recognized myself. Andy was me. I was Andy.

To say that I love the Toy Story franchise would be an understatement. It still feels like a part me of is woven within the digital coding. I’m part of the texture of the walls, the name written across Woody’s boot.

When I sat down to watch “Lightyear” I was expecting, as Chris Evans said in 2020, a “origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on.” I translated that into an animated film that paid tribute to astronauts. It wouldn’t be directly about Buzz Aldrin or Neil Armstrong. Just an approximation of their impact on the world.

That’s not what “Lightyear” is. “Lightyear” is the movie that Andy watched and was inspired, like I was, to take a movie character’s toy and build his own universe of around it. “Lightyear” is Andy’s “Star Wars.”

This is by no means a disappointment. It just means that “Lightyear” is more traditional, albeit animated, sci-fi adventure that features a Buzz Lightyear Lightyear’s design is slightly different, and Chris Evans is supplying the voice, but outside of a little humility and self-doubt, it’s the character we’ve come to know and love for nearly 30 years.

The story, however, is not set in a familiar world. On mission into deep space, Space Command’s Buzz Lightyear and Alisha Hawthrone (Uzo Aduba) find themselves and the crew of their spacecraft marooned on a hostile planet with no way to get home. Lightyear blames himself and his hubris for the situation and devotes himself to finding a way to return everyone to their families on Earth.

Fortunately for Lightyear, the crew of the fallen ship included some of the brightest minds that science has to offer. With a little ingenuity, getting home isn’t entirely unrealistic.

Or is it?

Hope can be a demoralizing thing. Knowing this, Alisha gifts Buzz an animatronic cat named Sox. Sox (voiced by Peter Sohn) is a stroke of marketing genius. He’s Pixar’s Grogu (Baby Yoda). I desperately want a Sox. Why didn’t Andy have a Sox? Were they sold out? I bet they were sold out.

Anyway, following some science stuff, Zurg (James Brolin) and his robot army show up and make a bad situation even worse. This forces Buzz to team up with a group of castoffs that include Alisha’s daughter Izzy (Keke Palmer), Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi) and Darby (Dale Soules) to liberate the planet. And then, maybe, Buzz can go back to worrying about intergalactic space travel.

Incidentally, Darby, a grandmother with an extensive criminal history, is the second cutest thing in “Lightyear.”

“Lightyear” is unnecessary, but it isn’t the cash grab that some might suggest it is. There’s plenty of entertainment to be found in the narrative and a handful of emotional beats that remind you that this is a Pixar film. Instant classic? No, but I wouldn’t turn down a sequel or an affirmation seminar by Sox.