‘Lightyear’ review: Chris Evans delights as ‘Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear inspiration

For 27 years, audiences have followed Buzz Lightyear and his friends to infinity and beyond in a string of Toy Story films and shorts. But now, with Lightyear, the Buzz we know and love gets a down-to-Earth plotline, which re-imagines him as a real man facing some all-too-real inner demons.

While kiddos might be confused about the concept, the whole family will revel in Lightyear. Pixar’s latest boasts thrilling action, clever callbacks, and a new cast of cute and quirky characters that blast off in a rousing space ranger adventure. 

How does Lightyear connect to Toy Story? 

Buzz Lightyear, the child’s plaything, is merchandise from a movie that Andy loves. That movie is Lightyear. An opening title card lays this out. That might not make sense to the little kid contingent of the audience. Yet they probably won’t be too caught up in the particulars once the action gets going, which is almost immediately. As for the rest of us, if you understand the chronology of the Star Wars films, then you’ll have no trouble following how this fits into the Toy Story cinematic universe. 

Lightyear is a prequel of sorts, giving an origin story to Buzz’s signature suit, his dramatic flair for solo derring-do, and even classic lines like, “There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere.” Funny enough, this movie essentially retcons Tim Allen as the knock-off voice actor who is hired to lend voice to toys when it’s not in the star’s contract. Tying the two together, Evans does a solid Allen imitation when Buzz is first “narrating” a mission log into his bracer. It’s a self-important habit that Buzz’s bestie, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba), gleefully teases him about. This friendly conflict also hints that this Buzz’s journey will mirror his toy version’s arc —  learning not to take himself so seriously. 

Lightyear’s plotline touches on guilt, time travel, and misfits

Credit: Disney / Pixar

Directed and co-written by Angus MacLane, Lightyear begins on an uncharted alien planet, where Buzz has crash landed, leaving the ship and its passengers marooned. While Alisha and the others build a settlement (and battle back the resident species of big bugs and clutching plants), Buzz dedicates himself to test flights to fix their hyperdrive system and get them all back home. There’s just one hitch: Every leap into hyperdrive sends Buzz four years into the future. So, Alisha ages, gets married, and begins a family, while the society around her grows as well. But Buzz, hellbent on his solo mission, is frozen in time. 

That is until the colony comes under threat from a mysterious robot overlord called Zurg (James Brolin). Determined to save the day, Buzz reluctantly teams up with his robo-cat Sox (Peter Sohn) and a trio of wannabe space rangers: Alisha’s plucky granddaughter Izzy (Keke Palmer), an elderly parolee with a deep love of explosives (Dale Soules), and a cowardly Kiwi voiced by Thor: Love & Thunder director Taika Waititi. 

Chris Evans brings new emotional depths to Buzz Lightyear

Credit: Disney / Pixar

Like his playtime counterpart, Buzz is a man of action over emotion. He rushes headfirst into dangerous quests rather than confronting his feelings of guilt, regret, and loss. That is, until he can’t run anymore. Instead of a mournful Randy Newman song and a crushing fall from a banister, this Buzz comes face-to-face with how his good intentions and self-sacrifice aren’t enough. He needs a community as much as they need him. And yes, that includes a cat who talks, does advanced mathematics, and burps up a butane lighter as needed. 

Evans has plenty of experience playing a superhero with unprocessed trauma (see any Captain America movie). All of that bleeds into his vocal performance here. Buzz’s tone can go from unblinking bravado to trembling aggravation, from crestfallen vulnerability to fragile joy. Evans expresses the undercurrent of emotions that beat within the heart of a hero whose greatest fear is admitting that he might not be able to go it all alone. 

Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi are terrific, but Sox is a scene-stealer

Credit: Disney / Pixar

Evans’s nuanced performance grounds the higher stakes of this spinoff, where the lives of a whole colony depend on Buzz and his team. Meanwhile, the rest of the voice cast offers broader — more cartoony — vocal performances, providing a terrific contrast to brow-furrowed Buzz.

More importantly, Palmer, Waititi, Sohn, and Soules bring a wacky unpredictability to the atmosphere with popping vocal performances, alive with attitude. Waititi makes a conversation about a curious sandwich laugh-out-loud funny. Soules is reliably wild as a gruff but lovable granny. Palmer matches Evans for star power throughout, yet her standout moment is the definitive delivery of the word “no.” (When you see it, you’ll see why. Expanses are expressed in that no.) But Sohn’s pet-bot is running away with this movie. 

Sox — an orange cat who is a pal to a space-trekking superhero and has weird powers you wouldn’t predict from its humble feline facade — feels like a repeat of Captain Marvel’s cat, Goose. (Well, that and Disney’s most obvious ploy for a cuddly toy tie-in.) Yet MacLane and co-writer Jason Headley have worked in the sci-fi quirks of this cat so well, it’s impossible to be bothered by the Disney double-beat. From the moment Sox offers his version of sleep sounds (from whale to “white noise”), you can’t help but become a cat person…or at least a “robot feline” person. 

Lightyear is a rollicking good time

Credit: Disney / Pixar

This spinoff pays tribute to the Buzz that’s come before, with callbacks to his lines, look, gadgets, attitude, and more. And even though it walks in the shadow of the giant that is Toy Story, Lightyear manages to set its own course for fresh adventure. 

The elements from the past are a launchpad, not solely a ploy to lure in audiences who grew up with these films. Director Angus MacLane offers exhilarating action sequences, involving racing rockets, robot armies, and a truly breathtaking space walk. The animation is Pixar in its comfort zone, building incredible worlds full of adorably oddball characters. The whole endeavor is bolstered by a vibrant voice cast, lively and full of heart. In the end, Toy Story fans will have plenty of new reasons to cheer in Lightyear.

Lightyear comes to theaters June 17.