Lightyear

Ok, so Lightyear is an in-universe film and the influence for Andy getting the Buzz toy in the first Toy Story. A film-within-film setup which, if you’re a believer in the ‘Pixar Theory’, makes this universe suddenly as dense as the MCU.

As time has gone on, it’s tended to seem like Pixar, and Disney, almost have a ‘one for you, one for us’ mentality. They release solid gold and highly original 5-star movies amongst the inevitable sequels and remakes.

Sadly, Lightyear was always going to struggle against an initial cynicism and scepticism and, whilst it’s a thoroughly entertaining watch as you’d expect, it doesn’t quite quell the question of ‘why?’ and certainly doesn’t stack up next to recent original films like Inside Out, Onward, Soul and Encanto.

Given the concept though, it largely delivers. It’s a pretty fast-moving and compact sci-fi romp which packs in the requisite action, humour, pathos and Star Wars references you’d expect.

The actual Buzz character, here voiced by Chris Evans rather than Tim Allen which works to separate the ‘toy’ and the ‘man’, also perfectly fits the mould of the previous films. There isn’t extensive link work, the film can stand alone, but given everyone knows the ties it works pretty well.

It’s very pretty too, as you’d expect from Pixar. They still sit right at the top table when it comes to animation and Lightyear is pretty dazzling to behold all round.

There isn’t much more to say really, which in a way is a shame. The concept works and is a solid idea but it was always going to lag behind its Toy Story siblings and nothing could really elevate it beyond what it is.

So a solid, enjoyable Pixar film is what you’ll get but we know they’re capable of so much more.

3 stars ***