Lightyear movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Lightyear

This prequel to the extremely popular Toy Story franchise is now available in theaters

RATING: PG

LENGTH: 1 hour 40 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: C+

IN A NUTSHELL:

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. The Buzz Lightyear toy we all know and love from the Toy Story franchise is supposed to be based on this Buzz Lightyear.

My biggest complaint is that this movie doesn’t feel or look like the movie Andy from Toy Story would have watched as a little kid. It is far too woke for the time when he would have been young. It’s not tanking at the box office just because of the political controversy but because it’s just not a great movie. Where was the nostalgia that fans were craving? What a disappointment.

THINGS I LIKED:

I love Chris Evans as Marvel’s Captain America, so I liked his voice in this and he did a good job, although I wondered why Tim Allen wasn’t chosen. Politics again? Yep, Tim Allen is conservative and has been vocal about supporting President Donald Trump.
Chris Evans shares the same birthday (June 13) with Tim Allen, who voiced the Buzz Lightyear toy in the Toy Story movies. At the big movie premiere, Chris Evans joked to James Brolin that he was sorry about beating up his son, Josh Brolin, in the movie Avengers: Endgame (Josh played Thanos). This is James Brolin’s first animated movie work.
The other voice talents come from director/actor Taika Waititi, James Brolin, Efren Ramirez, Uzo Aduba, Bill Hader, and Keke Palmer.
The animation itself is stellar (pun intended). Pixar absolutely excels at visual details.
You can tell that Disney owns the Star Wars franchise because quite a few of the characters looked like they were designed straight out of that universe, especially The Mandalorian. In fact, there are several scenes in the foggy forest inspired by Star Wars.
The original working title for this movie was “Tempus from Morph.” I like “Lightyear” WAY better.
Tons of Easter eggs for Toy Story fans. Look for the Pixar lamp as a constellation of stars. Cute.
I love that Zurg is in this movie. NO SPOILERS but there is an interesting reveal about him in this movie.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

The plot and dialogue are unexpectedly advanced for the young target audience. Has Pixar forgotten about the kids and instead, is marketing exclusively to their parents now?
I was completely surprised to feel boredom while watching this. I hoped for so much more but was disappointed. It felt like it should have been a Disney+ release rather than a theatrical one. Speaking of box office, this movie is doing terribly in theaters. It only earned $51 million opening weekend, losing to the also disappointing Jurassic World Dominion on its second week.
Kids want to laugh and have fun. Sure, there’s plenty of action and adventure, but the humorous moments were far and few between.
Disney appears to be completely hijacked by liberals who are trying super hard to make woke movies that audiences are rejecting. This one is missing the magic and heart that made Disney famous. In the words of “future Buzz Lightyear”, “You’ve changed and not for the better.” Walt Disney is rolling in his grave.
The same-sex kiss between lesbians in the movie has been extremely controversial, resulting in 14 countries banning the movie, such as the Muslim countries like the United Arab Emirates, as well as Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Malaysia. The world’s largest movie market is China, which has also banned the film. For a time, the kiss was removed. Then, it was restored when Disney employees revolted after the company donated money to politicians who supported the “Don’t Say Gay” bill in Florida.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

A lesbian talks about getting married to her girlfriend. Later, we see her kiss her wife in a montage.
People in perilous situations.
Huge variety of weapons
Lots of space hero violence
A character who served time in jail yells, “The cops! Everybody run!”