Lightyear
Pixar underperforms with a Toy Story spin-off that is both illogical and derivative.
Starship troopers: Sox, Izzy, Mo, Darby and Buzz
It is regrettable that the least endearing action figure in Andy’s toy cupboard, the arrogant, misguided Buzz Lightyear, should be the one to get his own spin-off movie. Of course, he has already been featured in the direct-to-video release Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000) and the subsequent TV series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000–2001). But that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... although, according to the new film, Lightyear was Andy’s favourite movie, maybe because it encompasses so many others: Star Wars, Star Trek, The Iron Giant, Alien, Starship Troopers… It is unfortunate, too, that the early stages are so similar to another recent wide release. So here we have top gun Buzz Lightyear attempting to force his spaceship into hyperspeed in order to explore the options of escape from an inhospitable planet, T'Kani Prime. Here, his fellow astronauts are subjected to routine attacks from serpentine-like roots that break out of the ground without warning. And it is Buzz’s ill-advised chutzpah that has allowed his crew to be marooned on the planet, an act for which he offers to court martial himself.
It is tempting to make allowances for the film’s lapses of logic as it is merely a cartoon. However, considering the detail lavished on the photo-realistic hardware and the increasingly elliptical accounts of the vagaries of time travel, the narrative rationale seems inexplicable. As the minutes of our hero’s hyperspace travel are duplicated into years for his comrades back on the planet, the expanding population of new personnel and astronauts is given scant explanation. Notwithstanding, Buzz’s black lesbian commander Alisha Hawthorne is given a neat character arc as she meets the woman of her dreams, has children, then grandchildren and finally sports some distinguished grey streaks in her hair. Meanwhile, Buzz retains his youthful, lantern-jawed looks. In fact, a fleeting kiss between Alisha and her partner has caused outrage in China and many Muslim countries, while Singapore has branded the cartoon with an NC-16 rating. In Western territories this should not prove to be so much of an issue, at least not as problematic as the complexities of the plotting. The latter must be extremely confusing for younger viewers, as one incomprehensible concept is piled onto another. But then today’s audience, subjected to such mind-boggling conceits as those explored in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness are maybe used to such logic-warp. Max Planck, Niels Bohr and Benedict Cumberbatch have a lot to answer for.
However, being Pixar, there are numerous chucklesome touches, not least Buzz’s robotic feline companion Sox, whose nine lives and technical knowhow prove a major asset. The animation is also out-of-this-world, while Michael Giacchino’s score is more than up to par. But Lightyear is too tonally relentless and imitative an entertainment to join the ranks of Pixar’s much-loved, highly original classics.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Voices of Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba, Mary McDonald-Lewis, Efren Ramirez, Isiah Whitlock Jr, Tim Peake, Bill Hader.
Dir Angus MacLane, Pro Galyn Susman, Screenplay Jason Headley and Angus MacLane, Ph Jeremy Lasky, Pro Des Tim Evatt, Ed Anthony J. Greenberg, Music Michael Giacchino, Sound Ren Klyce.
Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios-Walt Disney Studios.
107 mins. USA. 2022. UK and US Rel: 17 June 2022. Cert. PG.
