Lightyear may not be Pixar’s most ambitious or captivating story yet, but it is a fun time at the movies and is stunningly animated. The story is simple and the message is simple which means you can’t grasp onto anything too much here. Usually this isn’t the case with Pixar so it’s a bit disappointing to have something so shallow come out of the studio right now.
All of that being said Lightyear truly is beautiful, as is typical with Pixar animation. The hyper speed shots are mesmerizing and the world of Buzz Lightyear and this space journey are masterfully realized.
I will say that I did enjoy this movie. It was a fun space adventure story with a good message of needing to work as a team. Sometimes we expect a little bit more from Pixar these days with latest standouts like Soul, Luca, and Turning Red.
Lightyear is also able to reach for the stars in terms of representation and normalizing different types of relationships. One of the more complex parts of the story I really appreciated was the dive into the idea that Buzz felt alone while on his missions to get everyone off the planet when in reality everyone else on the planet had created these whole new lives. It’s a great exploration of loneliness and family.
In reality that’s about as deep as Lightyear gets. Now that’s not a bad thing, as I said, the movie is very fun, it’s just shocking as we’ve become used to these very complex stories from Pixar.
Chris Evans does a wonderful job as Buzz. He perfectly captures the loving nature of the character while also tackling the stubborn nature of the character. It was easy to accept him as the new voice of Buzz because he does capture the essence of Buzz. Keke Palmer as always is a treat. She brings such life into the film and into Buzz’s character to help him see things he didn’t see before.
Overall Lightyear is a fun time at the movies, but it doesn’t reach much farther than the stars it travels to. There’s bright spots and dark spots that make it a fine movie overall that I think everyone will enjoy, but sadly not talk about or remember for a long time.
I give Lightyear a B
