Lightyear

Starring: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, James Brolin, Uzo Aduba

Director: Angus MacLane

After a mission to find a habitable planet goes awry, Galactic Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Evans) and his Commanding Officer Alisha Hawthorne (Aduba) are forced to build a colony to perform repairs in hopes of one day being able to harness the means to return home. A year later, they develop a hyperspace fuel they think will work, with Buzz serving as the test pilot. However, each test ages everyone four years, except for Buzz. As tests and years go by, Buzz eventually finds the correct formula for the fuel and after a successful test returns home to find the planet has been invaded by a robotic army led by Zurg (Brolin). Buzz must team up with a young group of recruits led by Alisha’s granddaughter Izzy (Palmer) to save the colony and defeat the invaders.

After a very successful franchise run with the Toy Story films, Disney and Pixar have decided to give one of its most popular characters an origin story. The origin story, as the opening titles tell us, is the movie that Andy saw in 1995 that inspired his love of Buzz Lightyear and is why he was so excited to receive the toy on his birthday.

The result is a surprisingly charming film that is heavy on heart and action. While there isn’t anything we haven’t really seen before, especially in a kids' film, it’s all a lot of fun. It’s surprisingly more intimate than I was expecting, with Buzz being a larger-than-life character. Much of the comedic relief works too, with a robotic cat named Sox stealing the show, thanks to his honest reactions to the situations Buzz and his team get him into. Also providing relief is Taika Waititi, who doesn’t work as well as he should. I don’t know if this is a result of the jokes that were written for him or if his improvisations don’t really work. He does get a couple of gems but I feel like more effort was made on Sox, which I’m ultimately ok with.

The movie features one of the more affecting montages since Up. In this montage, we see the passage of time as everyone gets older while Buzz stays the same age. This is where the much-publicized same-sex kiss occurs and it’s a very sweet and accepting moment as Buzz watches his friend growing up happy and living life. In my screening, the group sitting next to me immediately got up and left, never returning after the kiss happened. Good riddance It actually made the moment all the more powerful.

There is a third-act twist in the movie that I’m not sure works. I get its point within the context of the story but it actually retcons one of the best jokes in Toy Story 2.

Much has been made of the recasting of Buzz, with Chris Evans aka Captain America himself taking the reigns from Tim Allen. After a while, you don’t even really notice the change in voice and if you think about it in the context of it being a movie that Andy is seeing and not the voice of the toy it shouldn’t bother anyone. The rest of the voice cast is really good but as I mentioned earlier, Sox steals the show thanks to Peter Sohn’s fantastic delivery.

The movie is a lot of fun and despite a few minor issues should entertain fans of all ages.

Grade: B+