Lightyear Review: Buzz Lightyear Spinoff Doesn't Make It Beyond Toy Story

Even though it didn't enter Indonesian cinemas, we can finally watch "Lightyear" because it entered Disney+ Hotstar on August 3. This animated film is a spinoff that focuses on one of Andy's favorite toys, Buzz Lightyear.

In the first "Toy Story" (1995), Buzz Lightyear became Andy's birthday gift toy from his favorite movie. “Lightyear” is a movie that Andy watched. A series of Hollywood actors also enlivened the voice actors in this animated film. Chris Evans voiced Buzz Lightyear, followed by Taika Waititi and Keke Palmer.

Buzz Lightyear is a space ranger . Trapped on a planet unsafe for his civilization, Buzz has a mission to circle the sun in a spaceship in hyper speed . After returning from a mission that had only been a few moments for him, Buzz turned out to have missed a lot of moments in an unexpected time. “Lightyear” is an animated film with the space adventure genre. Where Buzz has friends and other teams before becoming the most popular toy figure.

Being a spinoff that gives Buzz Lightyear the stage, the characterization of our protagonist this time is quite good. Especially its compatibility with various references from "Toy Story".

As in his debut as Andy's newest toy, Buzz is an independent space ranger who needs time to work together as a team. He has high work integrity, dislikes amateurs, prefers to rely on himself, and has a great sense of responsibility. The characterizations will be seen again in this spin off film. Likewise his iconic quote reference, 'to infinity and beyond' to his habit of reporting his status to the Star Commander.

When it comes to animation quality, it is certain that Pixar can always exceed its own animation standards every time it returns with a new animation project . Buzz still looks iconic in his green purple and white space ranger uniform that looks more alive, because in this story he is not a toy. The features that show their character are humans are more detailed. Another memorable characterization element is the Buzz Lightyear theme song. The theme song is applied to monumental heroic scenes. Guaranteed the Buzz theme music will be on for a while even after the movie is over.

While there are many superior production elements in “Lightyear”, scriptwriting is not the main strength of Walt Disney's latest animation. “Toy Story” was Pixar's best animated film only until the third series in 2010. The fourth film alone has lost its magic. Likewise "Lightyear" which cannot be said to be successful in the execution of the story. Not a few viewers of this animated franchise now are grown-up fans. With such a plot quality, the story of Buzz with his newest team does not present an adventure that is as exciting as our expectations.

“Lightyear” indeed opened with a scene that made the audience excited. When Buzz starts his mission to reach hyper speed , the scene still makes the audience excited. However, the first half brought instant excitement that didn't last long. As if too many things had happened, it turned out that the duration of the film wasn't even halfway through.

Entering the next round, the continuation of Buzz's adventure began to taste bland. Comedy in "Lightyear" is also less bite. The presence of Sox, the robot cat Buzz, is one of the characters that is quite entertaining. Unfortunately, the other characters in this Buzz team don't have interesting characterizations and backgrounds to leave an impression on the audience. Only Buzz and Sox are iconic in this film.

The main reason why “Lightyear” is not showing in Indonesian cinemas is the presence of LGBT content in this children's film. Disney+ Hotstar will also display a warning that this animated film contains adult content. Maybe there are some of us who are curious about the content in question. Can “Lightyear” still be categorized as a decent spectacle for those who want to watch it with minors?

A little spoiler, the LGBT content that is inserted in this film is minor in the overall plot. In the first half, Buzz has a fellow space ranger named Alisha Hawthorne. He had a wife named Kiko, then had a son, who later married and gave Alisha a granddaughter. The sequence of scenes that show the supporting story only takes about 2 to 3 minutes of screen time with fast transitions.

Overall, “Lightyear” is a flop not only because of its LGBT content, but the quality of the story is also not very impressive. Many of us will hesitate to invite minors to watch animated films, even though they are not as extreme as the media exaggerates. Meanwhile, the adult audience, who are mostly “Toy Story” fans, will not be satisfied with the generic quality of Buzz Lightyear's adventure.