A Movie Review By Anthony Ritter
Lightyear is a reimagined story for the character Buzz Lightyear, from the classic Toy Story movies. In this film, Buzz Lightyear is not a toy, but a living, breathing space ranger. Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans) and recruits must explore a new world, achieve hyper speed to finish the mission, and overcome a multitude of challenges that spring up along the way.
What follows is The Good, The Bad, and The Spoilers of Lightyear.
The Good
Lightyear is exactly what you want from a Disney and Pixar movie. The story is touching, with plenty of action. Some of the comedy is childish, but most of it is just great writing. My biggest question, “How do you create a movie about a character that has been a literal toy in 4 other movies?” Not even 1 minute into the movie, Pixar does an amazing job answering that question. It was both short and simple. With one little message on the screen, I was immediately hooked and understood how the Buzz Lightyear toy and this Lightyear film fit together perfectly. It also helps viewers accept that Chris Evans voices Buzz, and not Tim Allen.
Common with Disney films, the main character has a cute and funny animal sidekick. In Lightyear, that job goes to the robot cat companion, Sox. This little guy is, by far, my favorite part of the entire movie. Not only is he adorable, but the writers gave him the best lines of the film. Any time there is suspense, Sox manages to deliver the perfect one-liner to cut through the tension and make the audience chuckle.
The Bad
I honestly had a very hard time coming up with anything I would classify as “Bad” from this movie. If you read this review and disagree, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Buzz Lightyear frequently says things in this film that his toy counterpart said in the original Toy Story film. The only part of Lightyear that left me wanting is that there were many times I was waiting for him to say one line in particular, “It’s falling, with style”. It is an iconic line from Toy Story that you would think they would have put in this movie. There were multiple opportunities where this line could have easily been thrown into the movie that would have been fitting.
My Overall Opinion
Lightyear is a perfect family movie. Whether you’re an adult who grew up watching Toy Story as a kid, or you have kids of your own now, you will not regret going to see this one. Lightyear will keep you laughing from start to finish.
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On his blog “GoodBadSpoilers.com”, Anthony Ritter critiques and writes a review on selected movies. Once you see a movie that Ritter has reviewed, visit his blog and share your point of view.
