Lightyear Goes to Infinity and Beyond
By: Mallory Johnson
I recently watched the Disney Pixar movie Lightyear, which came out in 2022. Basically, you do not need to have seen any Toy Story movie before watching Lightyear; it is the movie that Andy watched in the 1990s and loved so much he bought a Buzz Lightyear toy. The film stars Chris Evans (Avengers: Endgame, Captain America: Civil War), Keke Palmer (Nope, Hustlers), Peter Sohn (The Good Dinosaur, Monsters University), Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit, Our Flag Means Death), and more. The movie follows Buzz, a space ranger, who is stuck on a strange planet with this crew. Buzz and his crew encounter villainous robots who are determined to steal his only source of fuel. Before I go any further, SPOILER ALERT. Also, trigger warnings for death, bugs, jump scares, and flashing lights. Lightyear is available to stream on Disney+.
The best way to describe this movie is: Top Gun: Maverick (and the original) meets the Star Wars movies, with a small dash of Toy Story. It is a very fun movie that is perfect for fans of the Top Gun and Star Wars movies! I am a huge fan of Top Gun (the second movie was one of my favorite movies of 2022, and I had a Top Gun-related Halloween costume in 2022!) so this was right up my alley.
The movie has typical Pixar movie tropes: it breaks your heart but puts it back together before the credits roll. There is a heartbreaking scene near the beginning, and I predicted a small scene at the end yet was still sad when it happened. The voice acting in the film is very well done, I kept trying to guess what each character’s celeb voice was! Buzz is Chris Evans, which I told the friend I was watching with “that voice sounds familiar.” She asked me to guess other character’s voices and I did not recognize them!
I loved how there was very natural and normalized lesbian representation in this movie. It is wonderful that young children get to watch this movie about a space ranger on missions that happens to have a lesbian best friend. There is not a big coming out scene, and there is zero homophobia. Buzz tells his friend that he’d love to meet “her” after she lets him know she is seeing someone. The casualness of the scene is refreshing.
Overall, I had a great time watching this movie, and I am so glad I finally checked it out. I give it a strong 10/10 and highly recommend checking it out if you enjoy Top Gun, Star Wars, or both, and just want a fun Disney Pixar movie to watch.