First Take: Lightyear - to infinity...

SYNOPSIS: While spending years attempting to return home, marooned Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear encounters an army of ruthless robots commanded by Zurg who are attempting to steal his fuel source

Pixar have finally put a new film into cinemas – something which has become a rarity these days thanks to countless Disney+ exclusives, but when it comes to the Toy Story series, big screens are always more desirable. But while this isn’t a Toy Story movie, Lightyear does have enough nostalgia to satisfy the die hard fans of the series.

It’s directed by Angus MacLane, who takes charge of his first solo Pixar feature after co-directing 2016’s masterclass in Finding Dory – he does a relatively good job balancing the pace of the film, coming in at a lean 1 hour 40 minutes that simply gets the job done without falling… in style. He also co-wrote the script with Jayson Headley, and to avoid confusion, this does tie in to the wider Toy Story canon – to say why would be a massive spoiler, but while we get a more human Buzz in this film, there are a lot of nods to the films we all grew up on, quite literally – this is a science fiction film aimed at kids, which has the balls to go full 2001: A Space Odyssey. And only Pixar can feel bold enough to do something like this, especially with Michael Giacchino providing the music.

The cast also provide a lot of joy too, as Chris Evans provides his own take on the Lightyear character that feels unique, but doesn’t intrude on what Tim Allen did in the main series of films – supporting him is a stellar list of names which include Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn and James Brolin to name but a few. But as we get closer to the 30th anniversary of Pixar’s seminal work, the big question which needs to be asked is ‘do we need films like this?’. Some will say yes, others will say no, but ultimately it is a solid piece of animation – something which we don’t get much of these days.

THE VERDICT

Lightyear works very well as a family film, and on top of that it’s a good little gateway to the sci-fi genre just through the use of subtle references to the greats of that cinematic field. Sure, it is predictable, formulaic, and packed with the emotions that you expect from a Pixar movie, but it is a joy to be able to say that this one is in cinemas, and not a streaming exclusive. We’ve all missed that iconic lamp bouncing on screen, and hopefully this film’s success prompts Disney to put more Pixar films where they belong.

RATING: 3.5/5