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.
