Light Years Review: In the iconic film, Toy Story, kiddo Andy Davis receives a statue of Buzz Lightyear for his birthday after watching the movie Lightyear. This is that movie – Buzz’s backstory. But while Buzz is a toy in the franchise, he’s an actual superhero in it. And you can see why Andy is such a big fan. The intergalactic action-adventure is slow and thrilling from the start (with space rangers fighting carnivorous plants and giant insects) and keeps the thrill going throughout.
Soon, while trying to escape from the uninhabited planet, Buzz, a lone ranger, crashes the spaceship because he doesn’t trust the gangsters and the autopilot. The whole team is shocked by this. He decides to correct the wrong and test flights that will kick them out after he fixes the hyperdrive system by inventing crystal fuel. He starts the journey but it takes him four years in the future. So, his commander and bestie Alisha Hawthorne gets married and has a granddaughter but Buzz is still stuck on time.
For its final test flight, Buzz is more than 22 years away. When he returns, the colony is threatened by a mysterious robot overlord. Now, Buzz must not only save the civilians but also take them back home.
Buzz thinks he can accomplish this on his own but he has a team of oddballs already planning a ‘surprise party’ to defeat an army of robots and their mothership. There’s a brave but nerdy Izzy (Keck Palmer as Alisha’s grandson), a parolee who loves explosives, Darby Steele (Dale Soules), a cowardly Kiwi, Moe Morrison (Taika Waititi), and a robot-cat Sox. (Peter Sohn) who has been Buzz’s companion since he returned from his first campaign.
The rest of the film is about their adventures, regret and guilt, doing and accepting the right thing.
Chris Evans as Buzz comes close enough to the voice of Tim Allen who starred in the original series, yet has a personality of his own. His teammates add humor, which is a stark contrast to how seriously Buzz takes himself.
Lightyear is an out-and-out entertainer and adventurous caper. Despite being similar to Interstellar, it does not take into account the loss of time and a life Buzz could have lived much longer.
The animation is superb; The space missions will especially amaze you. But again, the anomaly is that the film is set in the 90s, but the technology and treatment are very modern.
Stealing the show is Socks. Unlike animal characters like Rocket the Raccoon in Guardians of the Galaxy or Puss in the Boots from Shrek, Robot Cat isn’t cheeky. He’s the kind of sociable cat you’ll want to pet, who loves belly massages and chasing laser beams when he’s not innovating crystal fuel or breathing lightly to bite steel.
“Lightyear” will be a nostalgic journey for Toy Story fans as they record logs of their adventures, making references to “To Infinity and Beyond” and Buzz. But today’s kids will also enjoy it as it is an exciting standalone story despite being a prequel.