Chris Evans’ Lightyear is upheld by incredible animation feats from Pixar

When a very complicated-looking trailer for Lightyear dropped last year, more than a few fans were puzzled, because other than the protagonist Buzz Lightyear himself, connections to the Toy Story series (of which this is a spinoff) appeared to be…tenuous. How fortunate, then, that right at the beginning of Lightyear (starring Chris Evans aka Captain America himself) there’s a helpful little message that goes: “In 1995, a boy named Andy got a toy from his favorite movie. This is that movie.”

Lightyear, then, is an ‘in-universe’ movie, a film within a film series, a Matryoshka doll of a movie — one that’s designed to sell more dolls, essentially. The toy in question, Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story movies, only bears a passing resemblance to the eponymous space ranger here. The Buzz of this movie does share some bodily tics and the odd catchphrase or two, but other than that Lightyear gives us a believable human version of the toy. From the first act itself, it’s clear that Lightyear is going to be a bit of a mashup of several space exploration classics from different eras in Hollywood. There are bits of Interstellar here, more than a dollop of Alien, and even a sly nod to 2001: A Space Odyssey that had me chuckling amidst the space lasers and the usual Disney-movie hijinks.

Buzz Lightyear, intrepid space ranger who still has a lot to learn about teamwork, leads a crew to outer space, but they all end up getting marooned on a planet that’s over 4 million light-years away from the planet. Undeterred by his failure, Buzz decides to do whatever it takes to get his crew off the abandoned planet and back onto Earth. Thanks to some typically 90s sci-fi movie jiggery-pokery (after all, this is supposed to be a movie from 1995, not a blockbuster circa 2022) the audience is told that with every unsuccessful attempt Buzz makes with his hyperspace warp-speed… thingamajig, he makes a leap forward in time, eventually crossing paths with the evil mastermind Zurg (James Brolin) who’s leading a robot army to take over Earth.

Here’s where a touching, poignant subplot happens that for me was one of the best, most heartfelt parts of the movie—as Buzz continues being the same age, more or less, his genteel colleague Alisha Hawthorne ( Uzo Aduba ) grows up—and rapidly (to his eyes anyway). Every time Buzz fails to get them off the planet, she ages, marries her long-term partner (a woman, as it turns out) and eventually, has children and grandchildren before passing away at a ripe old age.

By any standards, this 10-15 minute sideshow is a bold gambit to make in a children’s movie, and it pays rich dividends. I found myself moved by Aduba’s voice performance, and Evans too acquits himself with grace and humility. You can see Buzz growing up emotionally through this sequence of events, too, although not quite at the same pace as Alisha (which is rather the point).

Eventually, Buzz teams up with Alisha’s grown-up granddaughter Izzy ( Keke Palmer ) and a couple of other ‘renegade’ characters including Taika Waititi ’s Mo, a typically eccentric, kind-hearted jack-of-all-trades. The third act, with its climactic showdown with Zurg, isn’t as well-written as the rest of the movie, but the brilliantly composed visuals and top-notch CGI make up for it. In the space battle scenes, the usage of light and shadow is particularly masterful and the artists, animators who worked on this are to be commended.

Chris Evans leads a talented voice cast with a commanding performance. Marvel fans will recognise broad similarities between his Captain America movies and the way Buzz has been written here—they are both battle-weary super-soldiers who develop a more instinctive, empathetic side to their personalities after learning the value of friendship and teamwork.

But the real star of the show, as always, is the incredible animation team at Pixar who continue to raise the bar in their field. Luca, Soul, Turning Red and now Lightyear—four films set in vastly different worlds, all released in the last couple of years and all with exceptional animation work. This really is the cutting edge of the medium itself and while Lightyear’s story may tread familiar, comforting ground, some of the action scenes here are audacious, risk-taking feats in animation.

I’ve always loved the Toy Story movies—the stories, the toys, the music, the tear-jerker beats, the overall warmth that emanates from every minute of every film, really. At its best, Lightyear, too, channels some of that old, familiar Pixar magic. On the whole, it is a competently mounted if unchallenging blockbuster that scores a landmark for representation-in-Pixar along the way.

Aditya Mani Jha is a Delhi-based independent writer and journalist, currently working on a book of essays on Indian comics and graphic novels.

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