Oh, Buzz off
LIGHTYEAR
Cert PG ★★ In cinemas now
You Know His Name. Discover His Story. That’s the tagline for Pixar’s first Toy Story spin-off. But this isn’t a film about Buzz Lightyear, the endearingly deluded action figure voiced by Tim Allen. It’s Buzz Lightyear, the dull human astronaut voiced by Chris Evans.
An opening title card sort of clears things up. “In 1995, a boy called Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday. It was from his favourite movie.
“This is that movie.”
There’s so much potential, as well as desperation, in this caption. What do the mid-90s look like from a modern-day perspective? It’s a question that doesn’t seem to interest Pixar in the slightest.
Instead, the studio responsible for the best home-streaming animated films since the pandemic (Soul and Turning Red) has knocked out a formulaic, modern-day kids’ flick for the big screen.
With no explanation of what a Space Ranger is, we see Buzz (rendered in the slick computer animation of 2022) marooned on a distant planet with hundreds of scientist colonists after accidentally crippling the mother ship.
To make amends, he must contend with an invasion by evil alien robots, navigate a giant plot hole, and learn the importance of teamwork while leading a band of hapless rookie Space Rangers against a Darth Vader-style baddie (veteran actor James Brolin).
As earnest human Buzz is a lot less fun than his plastic namesake, the side characters really needed to be a lot more amusing. Thankfully, in grand Pixar tradition, there’s a funny animal sidekick. Like all felines, robo-cat Sox (Peter Sohn) is cute and full of fiendish, violent surprises.
If this really was Andy’s favourite movie, the cat would have taken the Space Ranger’s spot in the toybox.
Pixar has knocked out a formulaic, modern-day kids’ flick for the big screen