‘That was utterly terrifying and I regret having joined you…’
The Toy Story franchise has always been the crown jewel in the Pixar roster, and it’s also the only film that has consistently produced high-quality sequels. The issue with this is that it results in sky-high expectations for any movie within the Toy Story universe. Well, dear reader, I’m here to tell you that if you can judge Lightyear as a standalone film, divorced from the rest of the franchise, there is much here to enjoy…
First, the premise. As the opening title card informs us, Lightyear is the film that inspired a kid called Andy to buy a toy named Buzz Lightyear. It’s tangentially connected to the Toy Story universe but technically it’s also its own thing. This is exemplified by the fact that Chris Evans is playing the titular character rather than Tim Allen. Joining Evans is Keke Palmer as his fellow space ranger Izzy, Taika Waititi as the pen-loving rookie Mo and Peter Sohn as the adorable mechanical cat SOX. Together, this motley crew must travel through time and space to do something or other. It doesn’t matter.
From writer-director Angus MacLane, the man who brought us Finding Dory, Lightyear is not a patch on any of the other Toy Story movies, but then it isn’t meant to be. This is the kind of thing that might have gone straight to video in the ’90s (Lion King 2 anyone?), but Evans’ star power and a sharp script ensure that Lightyear justifies its theatrical release and then some. While the plotting is unnecessarily convoluted, crucially Lightyear is both funny and fun, surely the only prerequisites for what is essentially a film for children, and at well under two hours, it never outstays its welcome either.
There is no denying that this latest entry in the Toy Story franchise is not as memorable as what came before it but as a piece of pure entertainment, it does everything required of it. An inconsequential movie, but an enjoyable one also.