When I first saw that a special movie for 'Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear was on its way out, I couldn't help but feel curious as to what it would entail. I kind of figured that it might involve Buzz being separated from the rest of the gang and having to do his own crazy adventure to get home (as the general 'Toy Story' formula entails). Instead, Pixar decided to introduce us to the film that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy that Andy loves so much. It even says "this is that movie" right before everything starts. We meet Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) of Star Command, along with his commanding officer, best friend, and a rather progressive character, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba). In exploring the habitable planet of T'Kani Prime with their rookie recruit, Featheringhamstan (Bill Hader), they find hostile lifeforms. In an effort to escape, along with a crew for colonization, the ship ends up malfunctioning and crashing, marooning them. After a year of working together, a colony lives with the basics under a protective dome while Buzz volunteers to test hyperspace fuel - a key element in their escape from the planet. Upon the first four-minute test of the hyperspace fuel, Buzz finds himself back on T'Kani Prime four years after his launch due to time dilation. Buzz, feeling ultimately responsible for their being there, tests the fuel again and again with the research help of his robotic cat, SOX (Peter Sohn). Eventually, the testing brings Buzz a whole 62 years into the future, and fuel testing is soon scrapped on the orders of Buzz's new commanding officer, Commander Burnside (Isiah Whitlock Jr.). The catch - SOX only just perfected the fuel, so of course, Buzz sneaks away to actually succeed in the test and return a whole 22 years later. I know it sounds a lot like I'm going through the whole movie, but that's really all just the setup. To be perfectly honest, I think I liked this first act the most. It's reminiscent of 'Interstellar' where the time dilation means missing so much, and it does manage to get a little emotional with it. It's almost like watching a kid-friendly episode of 'Black Mirror'. Anyway, once we get to this 22 years later deal, we find that the planet has been all but taken over by "Zyclops" (an army of robots who serve the evil Emperor Zurg). Thankfully the protective dome still holds, but it's up to Buzz to get them to stop attacking altogether. With the help of a scrappy team of three colony defence soldiers; Izzy (Keke Palmer), Alisha's granddaughter; Darby Steel (Dale Soules), a recently paroled senior; and Mo Morrison (Taika Waititi), a naive, perpetual rookie, the team plans to pull a 'Star Wars' and attack Zurg's ship in order to make the Zyclops' malfunction so they can be taken out. That's about as far into spoiler territory as I'm willing to get, but the rest of the story has a decent surprise or two up its sleeve - only just decent though, not necessarily good or surprising. All in all, once Buzz comes back after the 22 years things do end up getting pretty simple, and it's just an average space adventure. That being said, my only real criticisms lie in the basic plot points and Zurg seemingly having not much of a real motivation for what he's doing other than mining fuel. That brings me to my next criticism being that I can't totally buy that this is Andy's favourite movie. I'm not saying it can't be, but it does seem like a lot for a pre-adolescent kid to understand. However, having no kids of my own and only going by personal experience 30+ years ago, I admit that I could be way off here. I'd frankly be most curious to hear what kids have to say about this more than adults. Personally speaking, I find it extremely middle-ground. It's much weaker than any of the actual 'Toy Story' movies, but I can say with confidence that there are worse Pixar titles out there. For me, this is on the level of something like 'Cars 3' - it's definitely a fun time, but I can see where people are coming from with their criticisms. Although I will say that Chris Evans doing the voice of Buzz doesn't exactly hurt my feelings like it is with so many. I see him as voicing the live-action actor within the 'Toy Story' universe who's portraying Buzz rather than Buzz, himself. But hey, purists are purists. Anyway, it's a good time, but only really necessary if you wanna see Buzz Lightyear's origin story. 3/5
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Here in Ontario, Canada, the pandemic really started for us around March, 2020. For many, 'Onward' was the last movie they barely managed to see in theatres, but for many more like myself, this was one of the first titles of the year to embrace the idea of simultaneous theatrical and home release (for a price, of course). So, once again, Pixar acted as a pioneer for a whole new concept. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this might have been the first movie to catch on, with a theatrical date of March 6 and a home release of March 20. 'Trolls: World Tour' has the first absolute for both releases, on April 10. On with the plot in question, things take place in a fantasy world where magic used to exist, and be used by many, but relatively hard for anyone to master. Eventually, technology comes along, ironically making things much easier for people. The first example we see is the light bulb as opposed to having to conjure a light spell. Technology takes over, and these fantasy societies end up adapting to a present-day real-world scenario. I actually love that this movie suggests that magic might often be useless with the way things are now. Technology provides convenience, and that's pretty heavily illustrated in the beginning. Our main focus is on two brothers, Ian (Tom Holland) who is celebrating his 16th birthday, and his older brother, Barley (Chris Pratt), who is obsessed with RPG games that are based on the accurate history of their world. So think of 'Dungeons & Dragons' as though it was based on accurate medieval history. Together, they live with their mother, Laurel (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), who was widowed after the boys' father, Wilden (Kyle Bornheimer) passed away before Ian was born. On Ian's birthday, he comes of the appropriate age for his mother to give the boys a very special gift left to the boys by their Dad - a real wizard staff, and a spell that will allow them to bring their father back to life for a full day. After a few failed attempts from Barley, Ian learns later that night that he actually has the magic within him to make the spell work. However, unable to keep the spell under control, Ian botches it. The only thing that managed to appear as the boys' father is a set of legs. In the process, Ian shatters the rare "phoenix gem" (which comes with the staff, and is necessary for such an advanced spell). This sets Ian and Barley on a road trip to find another phoenix gem, using Barley's knowledge of their history to help guide them. But they have to do it within 24 hours, or else they won't be able to complete the spell and see their father. For Ian, it's a big deal because he never got a chance to meet him, and as for barley, he only really carries a few memories of him. As far as Pixar movies go, I wouldn't consider the the best, but it's still totally solid. However, I might also suggest that this was largely aimed at a certain audience. I'd say that if you've ever been into RPG games, things might mean a bit more to you when watching it. On the other hand, it is also about two very different brothers on a mission to see their Dad one last time. Having an older brother and experiencing the same kind of loss, this does hit me on a personal level as well. I wouldn't say it totally hits me in the feels, but it's not without a few moments here and there that remind me of the relationship I have with my brother. I mean that in all the best ways - like if I was ever scared to do something (as Ian tends to be), my brother might be found on the side lines, encouraging me (much like Barley does here and there throughout the film). They give each other a hard time, but there's definitely love there. The film was Oscar-nominated under the Best Animated Feature category, but lost to 'Soul', meaning Pixar won anyway. The same thing happened at the Golden Globes, but that certainly doesn't mean that this isn't any good. I remember when it first came out and people didn't seem altogether sure what to think about it. For me, I basically thought Pixar had done it again with a lot of the ideas they had here. But perhaps its that it didn't feel like it spoke to the masses as opposed to geek culture with all of its mythical references. Still though, there's a little spark to this movie that I like. It parallels 'Ratatouille' or 'Cars' in that sense. It's a good time, but it doesn't quite reach me on every level. 4/5 |
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