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Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans) and robot companion cat Sox (Peter Sohn) in a still from Lightyear (category I), directed by Angus MacLane. Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi co-star. Photo: Disney/Pixar

Review | Lightyear movie review: Pixar’s Toy Story spin-off featuring Chris Evans’ voice is aimed squarely at children

  • Buzz Lightyear’ is back – not as the toy in Toy Story, but the Space Ranger character on which Andy’s toy was based in this Pixar animated feature
  • Voiced by Chris Evans, Buzz, his crew and robot cat find themselves stranded on a strange planet in this straightforward sci-fi tale for kids

3/5 stars

Pixar’s latest animated film begins with a very meta caption. In 1995, “Andy” bought a toy inspired by his favourite movie: “This is that movie.” The toy is Buzz Lightyear, the Space Ranger who shouts “to infinity and beyond” – and one of the stars of Pixar’s Toy Story franchise.

Those films truly put Pixar on the map, and while those nostalgia-packed CG animations were all about toys belonging to young Andy that came alive whenever he or any other human weren’t about, the film-within-a-film Lightyear is a very different prospect.

With some justification, as technically it’s not quite the same Buzz we see in the Toy Story movies, the character is no longer voiced by Tim Allen. Instead, it’s Chris Evans – yes, Captain America himself – taking on the mantle.

Early on, Buzz and his crew get stranded on a strange planet filled with beasties, and it’s up to Buzz to find a way out. But when he blasts off, attempting to reach hyperspeed in his ship, he fails, with dire time-bending consequences.

Still, he’s desperate to complete what he set out to do. “We’re space rangers – we finish the mission,” he says.

Buzz Lightyear (left, voiced by Chris Evans) in a still from Lightyear. Photo: Disney/Pixar

Without getting too spoiler-heavy, the second half features robot aliens that look like they belong to Battlestar Galactica and a ragtag group trying to help Buzz, including Izzy (Keke Palmer), the granddaughter of a now long-gone colleague.

Taika Waititi brings his usual charm voicing the clumsy klutz of the gang, and James Brolin adds some gravelly menace as a major foe late on in the story. The highlight, though, is surely Sox (Peter Sohn) – Buzz’s take-it-all-very-literally robot cat companion, “not your standard issue feline”, who can do anything from firing knockout darts to calming Buzz with sleepy music.

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Co-written and directed by Angus MacLane, a former animator from the Pixar stable, whose career spans back to Toy Story 2, Lightyear is largely a straightforward sci-fi adventure, all a little plot-heavy and earnest.

But it does have a few comic highlights – like a sandwich made in reverse that really confuses Buzz (and us) and an amusing sequence where everyone gets stuck in force-field-style “capture cones”.

A screen grab from Lightyear. Photo: Disney/Pixar

Truthfully, however, it doesn’t quite have the enormous heart that powered the Toy Story films. Evans makes for a decent enough Buzz, bringing some of what Allen brought to the role, but this feels more like a Pixar movie aimed directly at children – just like the fictional Andy.

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