The first reactions and reviews for Pixar’s Turning Red, Pixar is now ready to return to theaters with Lightyear, which is going back to the studio’s roots by exploring a different side of the Toy Story universe.
Directed by Angus MacLane (Finding Dory), Lightyear takes viewers back to the universe of Toy Story to tell the origin story of Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans), the hero that inspired the famous toy that became Woody’s best friend. Lightyear follows the legendary Space Ranger on a mission that leaves him stranded on a hostile planet, millions of light-years from Earth, so Buzz must find a way to get back home through space and time. For that, Buzz will be ed by a group of ambitious recruits and a robot companion cat named Sox (Peter Sohn), but his plans will get more complicated when the arrival of Emperor Zurg (James Brolin) threatens the mission.
Lightyear is the first Pixar movie to be released in theaters since the Toy Story movie series. Lightyear is being praised for its visuals, voice performances, and Sox, who seems to steal the show. Here’s what the positive reviews of Lightyear are saying:
“The animation is beautiful; landscapes are regularly doused in gorgeous golden sunsets, the pitch-black backdrop of deep space feels like it would swallow you whole, and the moment Buzz achieves hyper speed is brilliantly climactic. Unsurprisingly, Chris Evans voices a hero just as well as he depicts one in live action, and his new crew Izzy, Mo and Darby are brought to life with vigour, humour and humanity by Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi and Dale Soules respectively.”
“There are times you'll forget you're watching an animation, given how realistic the landscapes are and how much detail has gone into the set design. Whatever your feelings on the fact that Lightyear is the first Pixar movie to get a cinema release instead of, say, Turning Red, it absolutely makes the most of its big-screen canvas.”
“As far as spin-offs go, “Lightyear” is a lot of fun. The voice talent is topnotch, especially Palmer and Evans. They have big shoes to fill; Palmer has to build on the emotional bond Aduba created, and Evans has to give us a Buzz Lightyear that’s close enough to Tim Allen’s characterization to make us believe the film’s toy tie-in. Sohn is perfectly feline and Bill Hader has a good time with his small role as a rookie with a difficult to pronounce last name. When Zurg finally appears, he’s voiced with a deranged glee by Mr. Barbara Streisand himself, James Brolin.”
“Visually, Lightyear continues Pixar’s unmatched streak of truly gorgeous animated films. MacLane wanted to give the movie a “chunky” sci-fi quality from movies of the ’70s and ’80s. He really succeeded there. Each time Buzz returns from a test flight, the technology is that little bit different. The ships, flight suits, and interfaces change incrementally during one of the best montages in the studio’s history.”
“Evans has plenty of experience playing a superhero with unprocessed trauma (see any Captain America movie). All of that bleeds into his vocal performance here. Buzz's tone can go from unblinking bravado to trembling aggravation, from crestfallen vulnerability to fragile joy. Evans expresses the undercurrent of emotions that beat within the heart of a hero whose greatest fear is itting that he might not be able to go it all alone.”
Although Lightyear has its strengths and it isn’t performing badly with critics so far, it’s currently the lowest-rated movie in the Toy Story franchise. The first two Toy Story movies have a perfect score of 100%, while this Buzz Lightyear as he’s different from the toy, but that will ultimately depend on each viewer’s experience. Here’s what the negative reviews of Lightyear are saying:
“What we're watching is essentially an origin story for the Buzz Lightyear character — so why does it feature so many winking meta nods that make no sense if they're pre-dating "Toy Story"? And why does a film that, within the franchise timeline, was made somewhere between the late 1970's and mid 1980's feature several scenes no conservative studio head would have allowed to be included as recently as five years ago? In any other film, these aspects would be a positive — but here, they merely emphasize that MacLane struggled to rise to the challenge of making an authentic post-"Star Wars" sci-fi blockbuster. The in-universe timeline proves to be an unnecessary constraint on what would otherwise be a fun (but ittedly throwaway) romp.”
“If Lightyear had been a rollicking, Flash Gordon-style yarn about a Space Ranger zooming around the galaxy and zapping evil aliens, you could see why it might be Andy's "favourite movie". But MacLane has made a frustratingly slow, melancholy drama with a gloomy, grey setting, drab, uninspired production design, and a depressing story that's hardly livened up by the forced banter or the predictable pratfalls. Worst of all, its doubt-racked main character is a lot less endearing than the swaggering lunk we know and love from Toy Story.”
“Lightyear momentarily achieves the melancholy this plot aims for, until they spoil the narrative’s good will by introducing side characters meant to expand Buzz’s cinematic universe. [...] None of these characters in this convoluted movie are particularly interesting. They’re common tropes meant to teach kids the importance of finding courage and turning perceived weaknesses into strengths. We’ve seen these obstacles in far better cartoons, and Lightyear isn’t one of them.”
“Scaled like an origin story (in a way that clashes against its name-brand expectations and IMAX-sized aspect ratio) and hemmed within its small handful of locations, this is the rare Pixar film that should’ve aimed so much bigger than it does. There’s no excuse for a Buzz Lightyear spinoff not to reach for the stars, and the decision to have its story fall back on the upside of failure — the real mission is the friends we made along the way! — doesn’t explain why this movie settles for so little success. ‘Finish the mission’ may be a flawed mantra, but it loses all of its punch in a film whose purpose is so uncertain from the start.”
Lightyear seems to work better as a standalone story rather than a prequel/spin-off of Pixar’s biggest, most beloved, and profitable franchise, and its biggest mistake seems to be its many nods to Toy Story, which feel out of place given that Lightyear is set before the events of Toy Story. Surely, the bar was too high for Lightyear as the Toy Story movies have impeccable scores and have rightfully earned a place in the hearts of generations of viewers, but it can still be saved by the audience, their reaction to it, and therefore its box office performance.
