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JUNE 22�29, 2022
Buzz
Lightyear
(voiced
by Chris
Evans)
and Alisha
Hawthorne
(voiced by
Uzo Aduba)
in the Pixar
movie
“Lightyear.”
Pixar
‘Lightyear’ nimbly blends adult drama, kid adventure
By Katie Walsh
Tribune News Service
Disney has made big busi-
ness mining content from con-
tent, with spinoff s and sequels
and multiverses dancing through
multiplexes and streaming apps.
“Lightyear,” the latest Disney/
Pixar animated fi lm, has been ex-
tracted from the much-beloved
“Toy Story” universe, but it’s a
bit unique. It’s sort of a prequel,
in that it’s intended to be Andy’s
favorite movie, the one that
spawned the Buzz Lightyear toy
that took up residence in his
room with Woody and the rest of
his pals.
So “Lightyear” is not about
Buzz Lightyear, the toy, but about
Buzz Lightyear, the character,
and this satisfying animated sci-
fi adventure is a good choice for
Andy’s favorite fl ick.
Though Tim Allen original-
ly voiced Buzz, Chris Evans
has taken over vocal duties in
“Lightyear,” and with Evans in
the role, there’s more than a
few times one will wish this was
a live-action fi lm. “Lightyear,”
directed by Angus MacLane, and
written by MacLane, Matthew
Aldrich and Jason Headley, does
manage to strike an interesting
tone between “adult drama” and
“kiddie adventure,” with a serious
sci-fi story that’s been dusted
with some good humor and the
therapy-approved life lessons
we’ve come to expect from Dis-
ney movies.
We meet the intrepid Space
Ranger Buzz Lightyear on a
dangerous mission to a mystery
planet with his best friend and
fellow Ranger Alisha Hawthorne
(Uzo Aduba). When Buzz crash-
es the ship during a harrowing
escape and maroons the team,
he feels the guilt that comes with
failure, and feels responsible for
returning the team back home.
He’s dedicated to fi nishing the
mission, but as time passes, life
happens, even while marooned,
but as Buzz stubbornly refuses
to accept their new reality, life
passes him by.
Life passing is a bit more
extreme for Buzz in this situation:
Every time he tries to achieve
hyper-speed during his test
fl ights, years pass on the planet
though it’s only minutes to him.
His friends start families and
grow older, while he’s stewing
over fuel crystals with his dis-
arming and loyal robot cat, Sox
(Peter Sohn). Stuck on his own
solo heroics, Buzz has missed
the boat on time, and the life that
comes with it.
At the fi lm’s core is a mes-
sage about learning to ask for
help, and the importance of
working as a team rather than
as an individual, as well as a
reminder to slow down and think
about the cost of rushing ahead
as planned. These lessons
aren’t exactly subtle, pitched
at a child’s understanding of
the fi lm’s morals, though the
story itself is more mature and
dramatic.
“Lightyear” pulls from clas-
sic sci-fi adventure tropes, and
Buzz is cut from the same cloth
as another summer action hero,
Maverick, in “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Both are solitary heroes who feel
they alone can achieve a mis-
sion, but learn they need to rely
on others in order to get the job
done. The parallels are so stark,
in fact, that one has to chuckle
at some of the coincidental (or
not?) parallels.
The fi lm also touches on the
multiverse trend that’s so hot
right now, and while the logic of
time travel and multiple selves
doesn’t exactly track here, it’s
the character logic that does.
“Lightyear” does get mired
in a gray area between genres,
and doesn’t necessarily soar like
some of the other fi lms that it
references. The humor is muted
and it lacks the heartstring-tug-
ging of the “Toy Story” movies
from whose forehead it’s appar-
ently sprung, fully formed.
Nevertheless, “Lightyear” is
more charming than it’s not, and
has a potential breakout star in
Sox. Just like the Buzz in “Toy
Story,” the Buzz in “Lightyear”
has a big, beating heart under-
neath that Space Ranger suit.
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