I came away with one question about this film: they say at the start that this is the film that got Andy from Toy Story into all of the toys and the franchise, so is it a live action movie or is it also animated? Because it is in the same animated style as Andy and his family, but of course to them they are real people, so who would actually be cast as Buzz Lightyear in real life?

Lightyear follows the famous character Buzz as he is stranded on a planet with his other Space Rangers and they have to find a way to fix their ship to be able to leave. They use crystal technology to fly around the universe and Buzz must create a new crystal from simple trial and error to be able to continue their journey. However every time he goes up into space time passes quicker on the planet than in space, so he is staying the same age whereas all the people around him are ageing much quicker, and this means the death of some of his closest friends and the slow realisation that the people who have been stranded on the planet are now just making it their new home because they don’t see any other option.

Buzz in the end finally works out what ingredients are needed to create the crystal to achieve warp speed and teams up with his old commander’s granddaughter to achieve the feat of being able to bring the crystal back to their colony and become Space Rangers once more. However there is a villain in this plan known as Zurg, who is also trying to get hold of Buzz because he has ulterior motives and wants the crystal, not for saving the people that are on the planet now, but for going back in time and saving the ones that were originally there.

This film was really interesting and gives you more understanding of Buzz’s origin story as well as just being a fun film to watch anyway. I especially liked the inclusion of Sox, the robotic cat, because cats are adorable and so was he. I think it was a really clever marketing ploy by Disney to create a film within a film where we can see why Andy loves the Toy Story characters so much and thus will make audience members want to buy them too.

It’s a really fun, family friendly movie that does have some deeper moments too that I feel children would not understand until they watch it again when they’re older. Despite this film clearly being a cash grab cashing in on the old Toy Story franchise once more, I didn’t hate it. Toy Story 4 was not needed in my opinion, and really neither is this film, but it bought so much fun and backstory to the characters that I didn’t mind it and would happily watch it again.

I definitely recommend this film regardless of your age. I think anyone who knows the Toy Story franchise can enjoy it and even if you don’t maybe it can be your first foray into that franchise because then you are starting at the chronological beginning of the series. I do believe the Toy Story films still hold up to this day, even if their animation is a bit outdated, but what do you expect from the first ever computer animated film?

What do you think of Lightyear?

Until next time.

Published by shonaharding

Media graduate with a passion for reviewing film and TV. View all posts by shonaharding