Review: Pixar's 'Lightyear' offers an overcomplicated meta-backstory for the manliest man in the toybox
LightyearThis Buzz—voiced by Evans, whose casual charms are evident even when you can’t see him—is a Space Ranger, part of an elite group charged with the task of, as you can probably guess, exploring space. In the film’s early moments, he and a fellow Ranger, Alisha Hawthorne , find themselves and their crew marooned on a desolate planet. Buzz is certain that if he can perfect a kind of super-powered fuel, he can use it to get himself and his colleagues back to Earth.
The new boss on the planet, Commander Burnside , decides Buzz’s goal is hopeless and permanently grounds him. But if you think Buzz Lightyear the toy could be discouraged so easily, you haven’t met Buzz Lightyear the movie character. He pushes at his duty so doggedly that eventually, upon his return to planet hopeless, he makes the acquaintance of a Space Ranger he’s never met before.
Evans probably pours more personality into Buzz than this character warrants. He’s a stalwart fellow, one-third chin and one-third eyebrows, with some rather unmemorable features in between. His macho desire to be the hero is his chief characteristic—he’s a little like the