Disney Pixar's Lightyear Movie Review

To infinity and beyond!

For 25 years, we've known the toy and now it's time to discover Buzz Lightyear's story. 

Pixar's return to the big screen has been a long time coming and the time has finally come! 

The sci-fi action adventure, Lightyear soared into cinemas last week and we couldn't be more excited to see our favourite space ranger again. 

Can you believe that Buzz Lightyear has got his own origin story spinoff?! 

No, neither can we!

Remember back in 1995 in Toy Story when we saw Andy's mom buy a Buzz Lightyear toy because he was the main character in Andy's favourite movie? Well, Lightyear is that movie. Which is explained to us in the opening credits.

The new Pixar movie Lightyear is the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the character from the beloved Toy Story franchise. Instead of showing us the origin of the toy character, the movie follows the story of how Buzz became a Space Ranger for Star Command and shows off the space ranger in a very different way than Toy Story.

Voiced by the iconic Captain America himself, Chris Evans, Lightyear follows Buzz (a young test-pilot turned Space Ranger) who travels through time and space on his first mission out of Star Command. After setting out to space, Buzz gets stranded and now his mission is to get his crew and a robot cat named Sox back to earth. 

After all the years he has missed, Buzz still wants to be a hero. So with his new friends on board, they try to save people from the looming threat of a zombie apocalypse.

Now you're probably thinking but what about Tim Allen?! Well if you think about it...Tim voiced the Buzz Lightyear TOY and now Chris Evans is voicing the real Buzz Lightyear that the action figure in the Toy Story universe is based on. 

From heart and action to an incredible cast and out of this world animation, here's what we thought about Disney Pixar's Lightyear.

From a live action hero to now voicing a galactic one, is there anything that Chris Evans can't do?!

Now going into this movie, we had our doubts about whether or not we would be able to connect to Buzz as a character with Tim Allen not being the voice of our beloved lightyear however, Chris Evans manages to bring his own charming and charismatic spin to the character.

When it comes to characters, for us Sox was the star (or should we say cat) of the show! Sox is Buzz's 'Personal Companion Robot' assigned to him by his best friend Alisha after his efforts to get the crew home led to some unexpected time travel. Sox is no ordinary cat. Yes, he says meow meow meow a lot and spins on his head but he is a quick witted genius and everybody needs a Sox in their lives. 

The dynamic between Buzz and Sox is top tier entertainment. 

Another character we absolutely loved was Mo played by Taika Waititi.  

We found ourselves laughing out loud at his character and loved the dynamic between him and fellow rookie, Darby. 

Also, remember Zurg? Well he's back too with a massive secret we won't spoil.

The casting for this movie is completely different from the original Toy Story franchise. The star-studded cast is made up of Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, James Brolin, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, Uzo Aduba and more!

As a prequel story, like us you're probably thinking you know so much already about Buzz Lightyear BUT everything you know about the character, doesn't necessarily apply in this movie. We learn so much about Buzz as a character and if anything, makes us love him even more. Yes he can be stubborn and likes to take his own path but he is still the space ranger we grew up loving. 

Lightyear marks multiple firsts for Pixar, one of them being it is the first Pixar movie to have had an exclusive theatrical release since the start of the pandemic. Lightyear is also Disney's first real attempt at portraying queer animated characters. Buzz's best friend and fellow space ranger, Alisha marries a woman and the audience gets to see it.

Lightyear takes you on a journey to infinity - and even further back! 

The animation is so realistic that sometimes we couldn't tell if it was animated or live action.

There are most definitely some touching moments that brought a little tear to our eye. Alongside the emotion, of course there are plenty of big action scenes including the new rookies. Lightyear pays tribute to the Buzz that came before the toy. We get to learn where all those catchphrases we have been saying for the past 27 years originated from alongside references to his look, gadgets and even personality!

Whether you want to know the reason why Andy loves Buzz Lightyear or not, Lightyear is a heart-warming story that looks at growing up, making mistakes, recognising them and ultimately, living with them. 

If you adore the Toy Story movies like we do then you're not going to want to miss out on seeing Lightyear. 

In many ways, Lightyear is more for the adults that grew up with Toy Story rather than the children that still enjoy it today. 

From it's thrilling action to its humour and heart, all of these elements helped this movie shine as one of the brightest stars in the Pixar sky. 

Visually, Lightyear is a treat, though that's hardly a surprise when we're talking about Pixar!

Granted, it's completely different to the Toy Story era but as a sci-fi adventure movie, we loved it! The connection to Toy Story is just an added bonus in our eyes.

By taking us on a galactic journey we can totally see why Andy wanted his very own Buzz Lightyear toy. 

Lightyear is out now in cinemas worldwide and will be available on Disney + later this year.