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
0 Comments
We all know how I felt about 'Inside Out', but I also recognize that not everyone is on the same page as I am with it. For those of you who wouldn't necessarily consider 'Inside Out' to be Pixar's resurrection, might I direct your attention to 'Coco'; a Pixar take on Mexican culture, complete with a nice, authentic cast and overall respect for the culture. This film, in particular, focuses on the traditions of Día de Muertos; The Day of the Dead. Before this movie came along, all I really knew about the Day of the Dead was the whole candy skull thing - nothing about them, just that they existed. With narration from our lead, Miguel (Anthony Gonzalez), the story begins with a paper cut-out animation, telling of his family's backstory. Miguel's great-great-grandmother, Mamá Imelda (Alanna Ubach) was once married to a man whose passion for music made him leave her and their daughter (Miguel's great-grandmother) Mamá Coco (Ana Ofelia Murguía) to pursue a career. As a result, all forms of music were banned from the family, and a totally non-musical shoemaking tradition was established instead. The tradition has carried through the generations right down to Miguel, but he actually has a passion for music, idolizing the great Ernesto de la Cruz (Benjamin Bratt), and has to play in secret. On the Day of the Dead, Miguel accidentally knocks over a photo from the family ofrenda (an "offering" consisting of an altar with family photos and other objects for deceased loved ones) representing his great-great-grandmother and great-grandmother alongside a mysterious man with his face ripped from the photo. When he picks it up, he realizes the man is holding de la Cruz's guitar and concludes that he must be related to his idol, and his passion for music over shoemaking suddenly made sense. Against his family's wishes, he runs off to the town square to take part in a talent show - that is until his grandmother finds him and smashes his guitar. Desperate, Miguel breaks into de la Cruz's mausoleum and steals the guitar to use in the show. However, in doing that disrespectful move, Miguel suddenly finds himself invisible to humanity but perfectly visible to people's dead relatives who have come to visit; their photos on their family ofrendas allowing them passage. He locates his dead relatives right away who take him over a bridge to the Land of the Dead in order to figure out how to break this curse. All it takes is a blessing from a relative, but the conditions would remain that he wouldn't be allowed to play music. Frustrated, Miguel stays and seeks out de la Cruz, knowing that his blessing will allow him to play. He has to do it before sunrise though, or else remain in the land of the dead with the rest of his skeletal relatives (skelatives?) Helping Miguel out along the way are a faithful stray dog named Dante, and a mystery man named Héctor (Gael García Bernal) who seeks his help in return so he can cross the bridge to visit his daughter. His family didn't put his picture on their ofrenda, so he's denied passage, and through him we learn what happens to the dead once they become forgotten. In many ways, if you were missing that deep-level Pixar mood, this movie has a generous proportion of it. The film does carry a good sense of humour with it, but what I really appreciated about it was how deep it actually got. I really like the idea that the "forgotten" fade away to somewhere the dead have no answer for, equating it to the fact that in life, we don't know what happens when we die. On top of a cool story, you have a really, really cool setting. If I ever had to pick a favourite Pixar backdrop, it would have to go to the Land of the Dead. If I had to put it in words, I might describe it as a vibrant cityscape that almost looks like a series of treehouses. The whole time Miguel spends in this world is so incredibly dream-like to me that if the film ever brings us back to the real world, it's almost like waking up from a dream. It probably helps that this whole world is loaded with bright, vivid lights and neon-coloured spirit animals that are always very fantastical - Pepita is one badass looking creature. Of course, the film has a lot of heart as well, and much like with 'Up', you'd be hard-pressed not to get a little misty-eyed in the end. 'Coco' would earn Pixar its ninth Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, and the film's music would give it one more for the song 'Remember Me'. One might suggest that in the animated category, its competition wasn't the toughest. But with that said, considering the setting, the animation and the look at Mexican culture and traditions alone, this was definitely my favourite animated title of the year and if I had my own award show, there wouldn't have been a contest. In my humble opinion, this is one of the most beautifully made films in Pixar's library. 5/5 |
Writers and Directors
All
|