In the year 2022 the film Lightyear opened with –
“In 1995, a boy named Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday. It was from his favourite movie. This is that movie.”
THIS IS A LIE!
In the first year of the new millennium an animated series was released that was the real in canon version of the character that the toy in Toy Story was of. And this is the opening movie.
Now I say movie, and indeed it is presented as it is but later it would be broken up into 3 episodes of the show which are a 3 parter. The adventure proceeds the show and is the origin of Buzz’s 3 partners and explains his personal animosity with Warp Darkmatter.
It’s worth mentioning that the version I got on DVD (which I bought to make sure I HAVE a copy since so many streaming service providers seem against people owning a copy now, and then the show isn’t on Disney+ ) and is the version where rather than series voice actor for Buzz Patrick Warburton they instead got the movie voice actor Tim Allen. I can’t say who does Buzz betterin this iteration… because as mentioned in brackets, you can’t watch the show on Disney+ and home media doesn’t have the series available either. Oh if it did I’d buy the Blu-ray right now!
The film opens up with Buzz Lightyear and his partner Warp Darkmatter investigating the disappearance of 3 LGMs “Little Green Men” . These are the 3 eyed green alien toys from Toy Story, which I never realized till originally watching the show were part of Lightyear’s toy line. Buzz always suspects Evil Emperor Zurg to be behind it, much to the frustration of Warp who is a good friend, but Buzz just blames Zurg for everything. Well it turns out Zurg is behind it, and out to find the cause of the LGM’s mind link for his most diabolical evil plan yet! Buzz and the LGMs explain to Dark Matter the mind link comes from the Unimind in their home world. After a confrontation with Zurg to rescue the 3 captured ones, Warp gets caught under some rubble as the moon explodes. Devastated Buzz vows to never work with anyone ever again out of the pain of losing someone.
Here we’re then introduced to what will become Team Lightyear in the show. Skilled alien Princess Mira Nova (who has the most fanart), somewhat nutty Robot XR, and finally big nice guy Booster Sinclair Munchapper. As Buzz must accept he can’t do it alone and work with others or the universe will fall to the evil emperor and his evil!
The show is great fun, Buzz himself in the original movie was a call back to the overly dramatic style of space shows in the past and so is this movie, and thus this show gives that feeling creating a hugely enjoyable ride for people to enjoy.
I’d say the best character is Evil Emperor Zurg as he’s just an absolute blast when he’s on screen, a villain who loves being an over the top villain, everything is over the top and hilarious with him yet never making him feel like a joke. The joke is he’s just plain fun to see on screen such as targeting the planet of Widows and Orphans! Everything is dramatic with him for MAXIMUM EVIL! Wayne Knight did a great job.
The line at the start of the Lightyear movie very much irked people, since combined with the inability to legally access the Star Command animated series, it felt like they were trying to bury and erase the show, and it was an entertaining show. Made worse given Lightyear… wasn’t that good… and contradicted Buzz’s portrayal in Toy Story. But this is the Buzz Lightyear that toy was based on, but no realization he’s just a toy not the real thing, this is the real thing, with lasers and space men and evil emperors to fight! So hunt this down and enjoy the ride, who knows maybe Disney will notice and get the show on Disney+ , I’m not expecting them to make the whole show available on DVD/Blu-ray though…. but if it is.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
