Lightyear (2022)

Rating: 8.4

“Lightyear” really does soar to infinity and beyond! I really loved it! It’s everything you’d expect a great Pixar movie to be; fun, full of heart and good messages, and shown with some beautiful animation! But this wasn’t just a great Pixar film, it was also a fantastic Sci-Fi film, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the 90s. I can totally see a young Andy falling in love with this film as a kid, this truly could be his “Star Wars”. There were even some nods to that popular franchise in this film! I also loved how it really showed us a full fledged Buzz Lightyear, a more human take on the toy we’ve come to love. What was really cool though is how they snuck in various elements/traits of the toy into the character so you could really see the popular moments in the film that gave the toy its classic features, from various armour/equipment to the pre-recorded lines the toy says! We really get a sense for who Buzz is; for who the toy was trying to be. (It made me feel like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme from “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”.)

This film had a great sci-fi concept behind it, which led to my absolute favourite parts of the film; the first 30 minutes. As we see Buzz start to go on his missions and realize he is traveling faster through time, we get a beautiful montage of everyone aging around him. This is top tier Pixar right here, a scene reminiscent of the opening montage of “UP”. It deals with the concept of aging and lost time in ways we haven’t seen before, and is quite profound and emotional to watch… It made me cry! The opening 30 minutes are by far the strongest, and that’s not to say the last hour is bad, but it just cannot live up to the perfection that is the opening 1/3. The film does shift into being a slightly predictable 90s-esque action sci-fi film in the last half, but it is still really great when it is doing that!

The film, in classic Pixar fashion, is rich in its themes, and has even more besides just aging and time. I loved the film’s message about participation; how sometimes it just takes showing up to create a world of change. As well, the film also discusses the idea of accepting your own mistakes, and most notably, pushing forward instead of living in the past… the film is rich with valuable messages, and the film weaves these into the story so naturally. The story itself is lots of fun, and had a lot of cool twists I didn’t see coming. I really loved a lot of the characters they introduced, especially both Alicia and Izzy Hawthorne and their relationships with Buzz, as well as Taika Waititi’s Mo Morrison and Peter Sohn’s Sox the cat, who absolutely stole the show for me! I need a Sox toy! He was adorable and so funny, every time I thought he couldn’t get any cuter, he went ahead and did it! The movie is a lot like this too, as it went along it kept surprising me with more and more great things I didn’t expect to see that made me want to stand up and cheer!

Angus MacLane really got this one right! It’s vastly different than anything I expected, and very different from your average Pixar or “Toy Story” movie! It truly is a grand sci-fi adventure, and MacLane really does a great job establishing this feel and the atmosphere in the film! He also Brough a lot of great stuff out of his voice cast! Chris Evans was fantastic as Buzz. He got all the vocal mannerisms perfectly right and sounded very close to Tim Allen at times, while also giving the character his own spin! The animation was of course (no surprise here… its Pixar) spectacular, gorgeous and so detailed. It’s also Pixar’s first IMAX film, and while I didn’t see it in that format I can say after seeing it in regular theatres I need to go back and see it in IMAX (plus I just want to see the film again anyways!). I loved the way they shot the space scenes, it just looked and felt exactly like a classic action sci-fi film! There was so much attention to detail, and it just looked so realistic! I also loved Michael Giacchino’s score, it was an instant classic for me, and the themes are now stuck in my head! Giacchino was also able to really heighten so many emotional moments perfectly! I loved it!

Lightyear was a blast for me! It wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I love it for that! And the ending made me really understand what made Andy want a toy of this character, hell it made me want one… he and the rest of the characters looked so cool! This film was emotional, so much fun and had some great sci-fi action! It’s another great one from Pixar, and while it may not be the best of the best, it’s extremely entertaining and puts a smile on your face (when it's not making you bawl). I loved the themes it explored, and the characters were so much fun… again, Sox is my new favourite thing! This movie truly did go to infinity and beyond, I can’t wait to see it again and I would very much love a sequel!

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IMDb Rating: 5.2/10

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 76%

RT Audience Score: 85%

Metacritic Score: 61

CinemaScore: A-

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Disney - Pixar

Directed by Angus MacLane

Screenplay by Angus MacLane & Jason Headley

Story by Matthew Aldrich, Angus MacLane & Jason Headley

Cast: Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, James Brolin, Uzo Aduba

Runtime: 1hr 40min

Rating: PG

Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi

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While spending years attempting to return home, marooned Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of ruthless robots commanded by Zurg who are attempting to steal his fuel source.

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Fun Fact: This is not a story about the Toy Story (1995) action figure, but the "movie" that exists within the universe that spawned the toy.

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