Since its summertime, I’ve been expecting a bit more influx of children’s movies, but so far, this year seems to be coming up short in May and June.
That being said, I’ve tried to jump on the family-centric movies as soon as I can, like this week’s review of “Lightyear.”
Now, Lightyear tells the audience that it’s the movie that became Andy’s favorite in 1995 and spawned the ‘Toy Story’ series based on the main character – Buzz Lightyear.
For me, it would’ve served better in 1995 than now, but, I understand the motivation.
After all, most of its target audience grew up with the original ‘Toy Story’ movie and now have kids of their own to pass the excitement onto while feeling a bit nostalgic.
Outside of that, the storyline is pretty basic and doesn’t inspire many great leaps in the science fiction animation department.
Still, it’s always better to see what a hyper-drive trip thorough space looks like on the big screen than on a TV.
Lightyear is a computer-animated science fiction action-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
The film is a spin-off of the Toy Story film series, serving as an origin story for the character Buzz Lightyear.
It was co-written and directed by Angus MacLane and produced by Galyn Susman, and stars Chris Evans as the voice of the title character, with Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Bill Hader, Efren Ramirez, and Isiah Whitlock Jr. in supporting roles.
The movie is rated PG for action/peril and clocks in at 105 minutes in length.
Star Command Space Rangers Buzz Lightyear (Evans) and his commanding officer and best friend Alisha Hawthorne (Aduba), explore the habitable planet T’Kani Prime, with their new recruit Featheringhamstan (Hader).
They are forced to retreat to their exploration vessel after discovering that the planet hosts hostile life forms – sentient vines and hive-minded insects.
Buzz damages the vessel during the retreat, forcing the crew to evacuate in order to conduct repairs and continue their journey.
One year later, the crew constructed a nascent colony along with the necessary infrastructure to conduct repairs.
Buzz volunteers to test hyperspace fuel - a key component of the repairs.
However, after a four-minute test, he finds that four years have passed on T’Kani Prime, due to the effects of time dilation from having traveled at relativistic speeds.
Buzz is then introduced to his new robotic therapy feline Sox (Sohn) and continues testing the hyperspace fuel.
With every test, four more years pass on T’Kani Prime, until eventually, over 62 years have passed.
During this time, the colony develops; Alisha raises a child with her wife Kiko, subsequently dying of old age; and Sox improves the fuel’s composition, allowing it to obtain faster-than-light speeds.
Against the orders of his new commanding officer Commander Burnside (Whitlock), Buzz uses this new fuel composition for a successful hyperspace test.
Upon landing, Buzz discovers 22 years have passed, during which T’Kani Prime has been invaded by a force of robots led by the mysterious Emperor Zurg (Brolin).
Basically, the audience is tagging along through Buzz’s self-imposed search to correct the mistake he made in the hopes of getting to be a Space Ranger once more – and he drags us along for the ride.
Still, it’s got plenty of jokes geared at adults and features the best robotic feline companion to date.
Outside of that, if you don’t’ have any kids or die-hard curiosity about Buzz, you can skip this flick for sure.
