Lightyear
★ ★★
Pixar is quick to let you know at the beginning of this film that Lightyear doesn't necessarily correlate with the Toy Story franchise. That's a good idea because even though the character of Buzz has been in front of our faces for almost two decades, the Buzz that you see in this movie is not the same guy that you get to know in the Toy Story films. Besides the fact that Chris Evans takes over the voice for Tim Allen, the creators make an interesting choice to make Buzz both humorless and earnest. It makes sense because this character is supposed to be of two different worlds.
Lightyear is a more straightforward space adventure which will either enamor a child's attention or not. Even though the side characters, and especially Sox, get most of the laughs and the memorable scenes, this movie contains a lot of action set pieces that are interesting, but not enthralling. The emotional theme is a little weak by Pixar standards, but it does have some effective scenes, especially one when a space ranger has to face her fear and guide herself through space between two ships. But if this movie is what inspired Andy to want the toy so much, I'm surprised that he didn't want a robo cat toy instead.
