If it feels like it’s been light years since Pixar Animation Studios has come to theatres, you’re right. Leading that mission of summer fun is Lightyear - a Toy Story spinoff with everyone’s favourite space ranger.
Audiences coming in with understandably cosmic expectations for seeing the next Toy Story (or Wall-E or Up, for that matter) will find themselves disappointed. But that’s not what this project is trying to be. It’s meant to be a simpler, cuter, and easy-going summertime popcorn flick, and it succeeds at being all these things.
Putting aside the two-season television series from 20 years ago, creating a new movie exploring Buzz Lightyear was an odd concept. Director Angus MacLane (Finding Dory) did find a clever way to explore Buzz in a way that’s middle intriguing.
Title cards explain the movie’s unusual set-up better than most marketing has: it reads that “In 1995, Andy [the young boy from the first three Toy Story films] got a toy from his favourite movie. This is that movie.” What follows is a shallow though sincere sci-fi adventure about Buzz’s mission to get his crew home after being stranded on an alien planet.
Without giving too much away, the main conflict revolves around the speed of time flowing and passing in outer space. The concepts thankfully don’t need much explaining, and the themes reveal themselves to teach kids that making mistakes doesn’t make you a bad person (er, space ranger.)
Like last summer’s Luca, the tone is warm, the animation is bright, and the high stakes aren’t compromised by its G rating. Yet the final feature, also like Luca, comes up short of the catharsis and depth that take Pixar’s stories from good to groundbreaking.
The real story from this family blockbuster’s release is that it’s on the big screen. The last Pixar movie to get a full theatrical run in cinemas, funny enough, was Toy Story 4, on this same weekend in 2019. Excellent movies like Onward, Soul, and Turning Red were either moved to or had its premiere changed to Disney+ only because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Given its small cast and focus as a single character study, Lightyear is actually the best suited of the five titles listed above to have premiered at home - yet it’s the one that gets the blockbuster debut.
Lightyear is still, however, an outstanding family night out. It’s lots of fun, creative, bright, and just action-packed enough to make it equally approachable and enjoyable for all ages. It’s also just a great feeling seeing Disney on the big screen again.
Even if Pixar’s trademark transcendence doesn’t take Buzz Lightyear to infinity, it still goes beyond where most family entertainment dares to explore.
Lightyear
7 out of 10
G, 1hr 45mins. Animated Family Sci-Fi Adventure.
Co-Written and Directed by Angus MacLane.
Starring Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Uzo Aduba, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules and James Brolin.
Now Playing at Film.Ca Cinemas, 5 Drive-In, Cineplex Winston Churchill and Cineplex Oakville & VIP. Also in IMAX.
