Lightyear

In the 1995 movie "Toy Story", the boy Andy was given a new toy: a figure of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear from his favorite movie. Now, 27 years later, Andy's favorite movie is coming to our theaters: After a failed maneuver, Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tom Wlaschiha in the German version) and his crew are stranded on an alien planet. While the humans gradually get used to life in the alien environment, Lightyear ceaselessly searches for a way through space and time back home. When he finally finds it, he faces a new threat: The mighty Zurg and his robot army threaten to destroy the human settlement. With a small troop of conditionally talented recruits and his robot cat, Buzz Lightyear must try to thwart the plans of the sinister enemy...

"Lightyear" is not a prequel to the popular "Toy Story" movies, but tells an adventure of the character who was the inspiration for the toy version of Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear. To say it up front: I had fun with the movie. Some of the gags were really good and some parts of the story surprised me in a very positive way. My problem with the movie is that it was produced past its target audience. We are supposed to believe that kids like Andy will find it incredibly cool. There are just too many scenes that appeal more to a more adult audience for that. Sure, there are numerous moments and characters that kids in particular will find really good. But a children's film is "Lightyear" thereby still far not.

Much rather is the film an animated science fiction comedy, which however the cleverness of comparable works such as the cult film "Galaxy Quest" missing. And therein lies the reason why the film, despite many good aspects, is somewhat disappointing on balance. Considering the wealth of ideas that Pixar usually comes up with in its films, "Lightyear" is very conventional and lacks surprises. All "Toy Story" films, but also more recent works such as "Soul" were clearly more original and more subtle than this entertaining space trip.

Entertaining and yet neither fish nor fowl - "Lightyear" leaves a rather ambivalent overall impression despite many good laughs and some cool space scenes at the end. But even if the film can never quite decide whether it wants to be an exciting children's film or a sci-fi comedy for the slightly more adult audience, the positive aspects outweigh in the end, so that it is enough for a satisfied "Sehenswert" on balance.

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp