Buzz Lightyear, a Space Ranger, is stuck on an alien planet, where he and others have built a colony… but he’s never given up on the dream of one day flying out of it. This spin-off of the Toy Story movies introduces us to the adventurer who inspired the toy; in other words, this is a completely different project, even if there are similarities, such as Buzz learning how to work together as a team. The story isn’t the film’s strongest suit, but it’s nevertheless a somewhat underrated adventure, a fast-moving, fun film with amusing characters, an attractive matinée feeling, a brilliant score by Michael Giacchino and an effective villain. 

2022-U.S. Animated. 105 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Galyn Susman. Directed by Angus MacLane. Screenplay: Jason Headley, Angus MacLane. Music: Michael Giacchino. Voices of Chris Evans (Buzz Lightyear), Keke Palmer (Izzy Hawthorne), Peter Sohn (Sox), Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, James Brolin… Uzo Aduba, Bill Hader. 

Trivia: Co-executive produced by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter.

Last word: “The Toy Story 2 opening, the video game thing – I animated a pretty significant portion of that sequence. Just getting to see Zerg fight Buzz again, although I didn’t get to animate this time, was surreal to get to have that scene again. But I was directing the film instead of animating on it, and there was this symmetry that was oddly emotional for me.” (MacLane, Screen Rant)