As the opening text for Lightyear, Pixar’s Toy Story prequel reveals, “in 1995 Andy got a toy. The toy was from his favourite movie. This is that movie”. Quickly dispelling the year-long confusion surrounding what this film actually is under the rug, it couldn’t be more abundantly clear: this is – to Andy – what Star Wars was to many of us growing up. But the promise of a classic, sci-fi spectacle such as that one is bold for the following 107 minutes to fulfil.
Thankfully though, in the capable hands of the House of Mouse and director Angus MacLane, Lightyear does a good job of filling those shoes. It very much feels like a pastiche to the wondrous space operas we grew up with – ambitious worlds and adventures wrapped up in grand visuals and transportive storytelling. At the heart of this particular one is Buzz getting an upgrade from beloved toy to a cocksure ranger voiced by Chris Evans. However, when he jeopardises a mission and gets his entire team abandoned on a hostile planet, he has to right his wrongs by developing and testing new hyper-speed fuel to get them out. But it’s a costly process – quite literally as the time dilation means his entire life whisks past him. Buzz is soon forced to decide whether or not his mission is worth everything he’s losing.
There are the obvious narrative ties to Ad Astra, Interstellar, and First Man. In fact, Lightyear is at its best when it most resembles those movies – simmering in the existential dread of being a lonely spaceman. Quieter, more reflective scenes have always been something Pixar do best and there are certainly more than a few that will tug on the heartstrings throughout this too. The nihilism of space is always interesting narrative work and, for the brief scenes we see Buzz grappling with his own morality, the film really has a unique place within the Pixar canon. But this is a family film so sadly we don’t get to linger in that darkness all too often. Even though Buzz is never as interesting a character as he is in those fleeting moments, there’s still charm to his “haughty loner learning to embrace family and friendship” arc. It’s not as daring as it could have been, instead skimming more familiar and tested territory for the studio (Cars, Up, even the first Toy Story) but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The result is clearly vindication of that practice.
Evans does a good job of making Buzz his own; embellishing a fan-favourite character with your own joie-de-vivre is never easy but he adds a new dimension to this icon without ever feeling like a cheap impression of Tim Allen. Making up the rest of Lightyear’s crew is a motley gang of rookie rangers that are fine but don’t necessarily add much but Sox – voiced perfectly by Peter Sohn – is the real MVP, a feline companion to our titular astronaut that initially proposes itself as mere comedic relief but becomes the heart of the whole thing by the end. And the film even manages to cook up a few surprises with Zurg!
Which is perhaps the best summation of Lightyear as a whole: it takes shopworn ideas and characters we’ve seen countless times yet does something just interesting and surprising enough to keep us engaged. While it’s far from Pixar’s best effort to date, it’s another strong outing from the studio that continues their impressive track record of successes following on from the likes of Soul, Luca, and Turning Red. The action is thrilling while the flight sequences are genuinely awe-inspiring – the visuals are jaw-dropping and bring a real magic to it all but we’d expect nothing less from such genre veterans. It’s a fun adventure that riffs on the very best sci-fi has to offer making it a solid, albeit not entirely necessary, companion piece to the Toy Story films. To infinity and beyond? Maybe not. But it’s a pretty good attempt.
Lightyear is in cinemas from 17th June 2022.
Lightyear
Summary
A solid, albeit not entirely necessary, companion piece to the Toy Story films.
