Lightyear

You see, Andy's Mom bought a Buzz Lightyear toy back in 1995 because he was the main character in Andy's favorite film. “This is that film,” a title card tells ...

In the immortal words of Buzz Lightyear, “Not today!” I saw “ Return of the Jedi,” “ Avatar,” “ 2001: A Space Odyssey” and even “ The Last Starfighter” amongst the inspirations. Sohn is perfectly feline and Bill Hader has a good time with his small role as a rookie with a difficult to pronounce last name. The voice talent is topnotch, especially Palmer and Evans. They have big shoes to fill; Palmer has to build on the emotional bond Aduba created, and Evans has to give us a Buzz Lightyear that’s close enough to Tim Allen’s characterization to make us believe the film’s toy tie-in. Izzy offers to assist and volunteers her team of amateurs, ex-con/bomb expert Darby Steel ( Dale Soules) and Mo Morrison ( Taika Waititi). Their space ranger abilities are best described by Whitlock’s profane catchphrase on “The Wire.” Morrison is so bad, and causes so much trouble, that he manages to make the pig-headed Buzz look reasonable. As far as spin-offs go, “Lightyear” is a lot of fun. By that rationale, the makers of “Lightyear” can sue the makers of “Toy Story” for stealing it. “Lightyear” represents much of this repeated passage of time in a montage scored by Michael Giacchino; it’s reminiscent of the opening scene in “ Up.” Buzz’s unwillingness to accept failure keeps him from celebrating the marriage of Hawthorne and her girlfriend, the birth of their daughter, and far too many in-jokes and experiences for him to count. Hawthorne’s message is delivered to Buzz by her daughter, Izzy ( Keke Palmer). She’s inhabiting the latest iteration of their home planet, one that’s full of hostile robots who are under the control of the suspicious “Zurg” space ship. “Lightyear” is not the origin story of the Buzz Lightyear toy from Pixar’s “ Toy Story” series. If you recall, “ Toy Story 2” revealed that the Woody toy was originally a tie-in to a television show from the 1950s. It’s the origin story of the reason the Buzz Lightyear toy wound up in Andy’s bedroom.

The film is the latest in a growing list of major Disney titles banned by UAE censors.

A newspaper in the Persian Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain similarly has speculated the film wouldn't be shown there. The film "is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country's media content standards", the office said in a tweet. The Star, the country's top English-language newspaper, cited an anonymous, nongovernment source as saying that Lightyear will not be shown in Malaysian cinemas. Recently, Disney has faced protests from activists and its own staff over what they described as CEO Bob Chapek's slow response in publicly criticising Florida legislation that opponents dubbed the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Movie theatres in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, had already advertised showtimes for the film. The UAE, many other countries in the wider Mideast, is a Muslim-led nation that criminalises same-sex relationships.

This cracking origin story for Toy Story's spaceman hero is fun and clever and reminds us why we loved Pixar in the first place.

Now we see his brown hair, cut short: the effect is to make him rather boyish and vulnerable. Well, now we get to see Lightyear in civilian clothes and in fatigues, and often without the snugly fitting skullcap that goes under his helmet. Lightyear is a treat: a time-travelling, space-ranging, animated adventure in the spirit of classic sci-fi.

Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, and Taika Waititi lend their voices to "Lightyear," Pixar's spinoff of "Toy Story" hero Buzz Lightyear. Review.

And even though it walks in the shadow of the giant that is Toy Story, Lightyear manages to set its own course for fresh adventure. Evans's nuanced performance grounds the higher stakes of this spinoff, where the lives of a whole colony depend on Buzz and his team. From the moment Sox offers his version of sleep sounds (from whale to "white noise"), you can't help but become a cat person…or at least a "robot feline" person. In the end, Toy Story fans will have plenty of new reasons to cheer in Lightyear. Instead of a mournful Randy Newman song and a crushing fall from a banister, this Buzz comes face-to-face with how his good intentions and self-sacrifice aren't enough. While Alisha and the others build a settlement (and battle back the resident species of big bugs and clutching plants), Buzz dedicates himself to test flights to fix their hyperdrive system and get them all back home. Evans has plenty of experience playing a superhero with unprocessed trauma (see any Captain America movie). All of that bleeds into his vocal performance here. Like his playtime counterpart, Buzz is a man of action over emotion. Buzz Lightyear, the child's plaything, is merchandise from a movie that Andy loves. Tying the two together, Evans does a solid Allen imitation when Buzz is first "narrating" a mission log into his bracer. Funny enough, this movie essentially retcons Tim Allen as the knock-off voice actor who is hired to lend voice to toys when it's not in the star's contract. But now, with Lightyear, the Buzz we know and love gets a down-to-Earth plotline, which re-imagines him as a real man facing some all-too-real inner demons.

Disney's animated movie "Lightyear", which contains a lesbian kiss, has been banned from cinemas in the United Arab Emirates, officials said Monday without ...

The violation in question was not specified. In April, Saudi Arabia requested cuts to "LGBTQ references" in Disney's "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness", which was ultimately not screened in the country. "The Media Regulatory Office announced that the animated film Lightyear, which is scheduled for release on June 16, is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country's media content standards," the office tweeted.

'Lightyear' goes to infinity, but not beyond, in a likable offshoot of 'Toy Story'. Review by Brian Lowry, CNN. Updated 6:26 PM ET ...

It's a small element of the movie that shouldn't be an issue, which, alas, probably won't prevent bad-faith actors from seeking to make it one. They don't rival something like "Up," whose lessons come to mind, and the most consistently pleasing addition might be among the silliest: A robot cat named Sox who behaves like a household pet, yet also proves extremely useful in a pinch. to the villainous Zurg. There's also a small group of upstart, unorthodox recruits, with Keke Palmer and Taika Waititi (the latter playing a character he seems to have done about seven times before) among the vocal contributors.

The latest entry in the Toy Story cinematic universe is "thin and repetitive", with a "sloppy screenplay", writes Nicholas Barber.

Bear in mind that this is a Pixar film, so of course the animation is hard to fault, and of course it has some ambitious philosophical concepts. Is this dreary ordeal really what anyone had in mind when they first heard the phrase "To infinity – and beyond"? Whatever escapades young Andy imagined in 1995 when he was playing with his Space Ranger toy, they were bound to be more fun than this one. They learn about the value of teamwork over and over again, and then they learn that family life is an adventure in itself, a lesson which was a lot more moving when it was taught in Pixar's Up back in 2009. (The closing credits are excruciatingly slow, a sure sign that the producers wanted the film to appear longer than it is.) And the characterisation is weirdly vague, as if the writers meant to fill in the gaps later, but never got around to it. Worst of all, its doubt-racked main character is a lot less endearing than the swaggering lunk we know and love from Toy Story. Again, the answer is a big fat no.

Whether by coincidence or design, this big-budget outer space adventure allows Disney to center Buzz Lightyear not voiced by Tim Allen (who has become a more ...

It leans into the idea that Buzz Lightyear shouldn’t matter enough to justify a feature-film spin-off, and that the film’s existence is another example of how the current adults in the room cannot let go of our childhood pop culture. Aduba is terrific as Buzz’s teammate (yes, she’s gay and kisses her wife at a key narrative juncture and no I don’t think it’ll affect the box office to any major degree), while Whitlock Jr. lends his distinct vocals and offers slight shading to what could have been a stock “disapproving superior” part. With everyone, both the crew and the copious hibernating scientists stranded and disillusioned, Lightyear relentlessly attempts to figure out how to crack a new formula for interstellar travel. The picture races out of the gates, with Lightyear trying and failing to get his ship away from a hostile alien world. That it plays like a mega-budget variation of the kind of thing, think Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, that would have gone straight to VHS or DVD in a bygone era makes it doubly bittersweet that it’s now the first Pixar flick in over two years to avoid such a fate. Yes, it eventually flirts with being a glorified pilot for a Disney+ show, which it may well be, but the journey getting there is solid.

Walt Disney Co has been unable to obtain permission to show its new Pixar movie "Lightyear" in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries, a source said on ...

China is not a "make or break" market for Pixar, one theater industry source said. China has rejected other on-screen depictions of homosexuality in the past. But she said filmmakers would not make changes to the movie. In the film, Buzz's close friend is a female space ranger who marries another woman. Chris Evans voices the lead character, Buzz Lightyear, a legendary space ranger. A "Lightyear" producer told Reuters that authorities in China had asked for cuts to the movie, which Disney declined to make, and she assumed the movie would not open there either.

The United Arab Emirates has banned Pixar's animated feature 'Lightyear' from its movie theaters over its inclusion of two lesbian characters' kiss.

The movie also may be banned in Malaysia. The Star, the country’s top English-language newspaper, cited an anonymous, nongovernment source as saying that “Lightyear” will not be shown in Malaysian cinemas. The film “is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country’s media content standards,” the office said in a tweet. A newspaper in the Persian Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain similarly has speculated the film wouldn’t be shown there. Recently, Disney has faced protests from activists and its own staff over what they described as CEO Bob Chapek’s slow response in publicly criticizing Florida legislation that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Movie theaters in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, had already advertised showtimes for the film. The UAE, like many other countries in the wider Mideast, is a Muslim-led nation that criminalizes same-sex relationships.

The United Arab Emirates on Monday banned the upcoming Pixar animated feature “Lightyear” from showing in movie theaters after its inclusion of a.

A newspaper in the Persian Gulf island kingdom of Bahrain similarly has speculated the film wouldn’t be shown there. The film “is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country’s media content standards,” the office said in a tweet. The Star, the country’s top English-language newspaper, cited an anonymous, nongovernment source as saying that Lightyear will not be shown in Malaysian cinemas. Recently, Disney has faced protests from activists and its own staff over what they described as CEO Bob Chapek’s slow response in publicly criticizing Florida legislation that opponents dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. Movie theaters in the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, had already advertised showtimes for the film. The UAE, many other countries in the wider Mideast, is a Muslim-led nation that criminalizes same-sex relationships.

Pixar's Lightyear is overthought, with a plot is so hopelessly, desperately meta, that the Buzz Lightyear origin story caves in on itself.

His macho desire to be the hero is his chief characteristic—he’s a little like the Tom Cruise of the 1986 Top Gun, in case you’re looking for more of that—and it wears thin, fast. Sox is the secret star of Lightyear. But not even he is a great enough creation to warrant his own spinoff. 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. But after his first test run, he learns that although he’s only been off the ground for a few hours, everyone back on the sad planet has aged four years. And depending on how much you’ve ever had invested in Buzz Lightyear to begin with—for me it was, admittedly, not a lot—that’s a dangerous prospect for a movie’s emotional mechanics. He’s a diligent problem solver, which has had the adverse consequence of giving him a hero complex. The Buzz of Lightyear is, loosely speaking, the art.

The new Pixar animated film features a kiss between two female characters, leading the UAE Media Regulatory Office to halt the film's release in the ...

The tweet included an image of the film's poster, with the profile image of its main character Buzz Lightyear with a "no" symbol over it in red. The film "is not licensed for public screening in all cinemas in the UAE, due to its violation of the country's media content standards," the office said in a tweet. - Lightyear is a film based on the character who inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in the Toy Story films

Pixar's Buzz Lightyear origin story fails to take flight. Lightyear. Source: Disney. 'Lightyear'. Dir: Angus MacLane. US. 2022. 105 mins.

Even the occasional callback to that franchise drives home the impression that this origin story doesn’t significantly add to our understanding of Buzz Lightyear, while the adventure he goes on proves to be nothing special. But as much as Lightyear seeks to make Buzz appear more human than his toy counterpart, the effect doesn’t entirely work, only underlining how much less dynamic this character is than the one in the Toy Story series. By comparison, Lightyear is simply the story of a standard-issue sci-fi action hero, without the interesting wrinkles which Pixar gave the toy, forcing him to come to terms with his true nature. Plus, the viewer’s prior knowledge of the Buzz toy from Toy Story — a haughty action figure who thinks he’s the “real” Buzz Lightyear — ends up working against Evans’ vocal performance, which lacks Tim Allen’s endearingly foolhardy self-assurance and guarded vulnerability. Soon, we meet the fictional human character Buzz (voiced by Evans), who is marooned on a distant planet with a team of scientists, technicians and fellow Space Rangers after his piloting error crippled their ship. One of Pixar’s most beloved characters gets an origin story with Lightyear, a lacklustre sci-fi adventure which misses the wit and wonder that have been the studio’s hallmarks for decades.

Disney-Pixar is reportedly unable to obtain permission to show its new Pixar movie, Lightyear, in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

The animated film depicts a same-sex couple who share a brief kiss, which prompted the United Arab Emirates to ban the film. A source said the animated film also appeared unlikely to open in China, the world's largest movie market. - The animated film depicts a same-sex couple who share a brief kiss

The movie, which chronicles the adventures of space cadet Buzz Lightyear, is slated to be released June 16.

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Walt Disney Co.'s animated Pixar film 'Lightyear' won't be able to be watched by kids in Singapore after the city-state's Info-communications Media ...

Strong performances and attractive visuals keep Lightyear afloat, but the story isn't the quality you'd expect from Pixar.

The story challenges Buzz to separate his self worth from his duty as a Space Ranger as well as understand that he is worthy of love not once he is perfect but while he is flawed. A lot of Lightyear may be “on the nose,” but its occasional lack of subtext is a benefit rather than a detriment. You get the patented Pixar tears and the warm fuzzies you’ve come to expect from their stories – you just probably won’t remember them a week after you watch. They’re not together much; they’re just the best parts of the movie. Perhaps the biggest cause of this hit-or-miss problem is the length and pacing of the movie. At the very start of Lightyear, words flash across the screen to tell us, “In 1995 Andy got a toy.

Walt Disney Co. has been unable to obtain permission to show its new Pixar movie Lightyear in 14 Middle Eastern and Asian countries, a source said on Monday ...

But she said filmmakers would not make changes to the movie. A Lightyear producer told Reuters that authorities in China had asked for cuts to the movie, which Disney declined to make, and she assumed the movie would not open there either. In the film, Buzz's close friend is a female space ranger who marries another woman.

Pixar's Lightyear is the latest Disney film to be banned from hitting theaters in some Middle Eastern countries due to LGBTQ+ characters.

For example, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness wasn’t given a release due to the film including America Chavez (played by Xochitl Gomez), a gay character, Eternals was banned for having a same-sex couple, and West Side Story also lost theatrical privileges due to its character Anybody (played by Iris Menas) being written to be transgender in the adaptation. Gulf censorship has been a roadblock that Disney has been running into a lot recently, with films like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, West Side Story, and Eternals finding themselves banned in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates due to content. Due to the film's inclusion of this scene, Lightyear won’t be able to screen in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, since homosexuality is illegal across the region.

'Toy Story' spinoff imagines the character of Buzz Lightyear as the movie character who inspired the action figure.

A more straightforward clash between good and evil might have touched on the same themes, without sacrificing the action kids could mimic with toys. That being said, the special effects can be exhilarating, as when Izzy considers the vast void of space at a crucial moment. Determined to correct his mistake, Buzz tests the “hyperspeed” technology that will get the colonists back on course. In place of Tim Allen, who provided the voice of the Buzz Lightyear toy in the previous films, Chris Evans stars as the daring space ranger, recycling the bravado he brought to “Captain America: The First Avenger” (an ironic choice, given that this film also begins with Buzz failing). After an expedition to a hostile planet, he unintentionally maroons his fellow explorers, so they have no choice but to set up a colony there. Buzz has no choice but to watch his best friend, Alisha (Uzo Aduba), live out her life, in snippets, while he is still a young man. If “Lightyear” were a more involving story, it might withstand that level of scrutiny.

The new Pixar movie recounts the adventures of Star Command's most famous Space Ranger before he was a toy.

An early section — a kind of extended prologue to the main action — recalls the celebrated montage in “Up” that compresses a long marriage into a few short minutes. If “Lightyear” lacks both the sublimity and the giddy inventiveness of the best “Toy Story” movies, that may be by design. A few soft-boiled Easter eggs pop up to connect “Lightyear” with various “Toy Story” episodes. He isn’t a toy, and he doesn’t sound like Tim Allen, who did the voice work in the four chapters of Pixar’s “Toy Story” cycle. More than one hard plastic Buzz Lightyear lived in my house for a long time, just like in Andy’s. To be part of the “Toy Story” universe is to be intimately acquainted with the metaphysics of the commodity form. This is that movie.” In other words, it’s the origin story not of a hero but of a piece of merchandise, one that started out fictional but long ago crossed the boundary into real life.

The United Arab Emirates ban comes despite an announcement last year that the country would no longer censor movies.

Homosexuality, however, remains taboo in the country. In 2016, it established a Ministry of Tolerance. The UAE ban comes despite an announcement last year that the country would no longer censor movies. For years the UAE has cast itself as a modern, tolerant haven in an otherwise highly conservative region. According to entertainment news website Deadline Hollywood, " Lightyear" won't be playing in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Egypt or Indonesia — the latter being the most populous Muslim country in the world with 274 million people. The movie features a same-sex relationship and brief kiss.

Who'da thought it: a Toy Story spin-off exploring the backstory of the real-life, still weirdly proportioned Buzz Lightyear, the series' heroic protagonist ...

Who'da thought it: a Toy Story spin-off exploring the backstory of the real-life, still weirdly proportioned Buzz Lightyear, the series' heroic protagonist voiced by the not-so-heroic Tim Allen, has stirred up some strong feelings among critics. Not A Toy, Actually A Real Bloke Buzz is a young astronaut marooned away from terra nova, chipping away at the rocks of a hostile planet, trying to find a way home for him and his crew. Maybe this Buzz isn't a kids' plastic figure that drops to the floor inanimate whenever humans are around, but for all intents and purposes, the likeness is the same…

"Lightyear," which premieres on June 17 features the first-ever same-sex kiss to be featured in a Disney animated film, and it takes place between main ...

Same-sex relations are criminalized in the UAE, per the State Department. - "It’s tough to not be a little frustrated that it even has to be a topic of discussion," he said. - "The goal is that we can get to a point where it is the norm, and that this doesn’t have to be some uncharted waters, that eventually this is just the way it is," Evans toldVariety."That representation across the board is how we make films."

Disney's latest animation "Lightyear," which features a same-sex kiss, has been denied release in more than a dozen mainly Muslim countries, a source close ...

The company was initially silent on the measure. As a result, a total of 14 countries and territories where the company wanted to show "Lightyear" have not granted the film a release, AFP has learned. Disney is understood to have declined to make any cuts, offering the film "as is" in all markets.

'Lightyear' is rated PG, but what does that mean? Here's what parents need to know about Pixar's new animated film.

The downstream impacts of the choices that we make as people are a little bit more consequential, and it’s fun to put Buzz against that backdrop.” “The Buzz that we all know is obviously a toy,” he said in a press conference for the film. “And as a toy, there are certain ways that they can move through the world without the weight that we may carry. We all know that, in 1995, Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday. In many of the countries where the film has been banned, including the Unite Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, homosexuality is a criminal offense..Reuters reports that the Lightyear has a received a PG rating for “action/peril.” Which isn’t a surprise, really: 10 of the 12 most recent Pixar movies — including Brave, Inside Out, and even Luca — have suggested parental guidance.

It isn't a prequel to “Toy Story,” exactly, but instead presents the movie that inspired Buzz Lightyear toys in the first place. It's a potentially clever bit ...

What’s compelling “Lightyear” is harder to say, but there is a bland, vaguely “Planes” feeling here that smacks of a straight-to-video spinoff. But “Lightyear,” helmed by “Finding Dory” co-director Angus MacLane (who made some of the “Toy Story” shorts and TV specials that have expanded the film series), arrives in theaters just as summer movies are reaching the stratosphere again. “Lightyear” isn’t ambitious or existential or likely to make you cry. So should “Lightyear” have been a feature film or a Pixar short? It isn’t a prequel to “Toy Story,” exactly, but instead presents the movie that inspired Buzz Lightyear toys in the first place. So begins “Lightyear,” a new Pixar release that takes a meta approach to the animation studio’s flagship franchise.

It isn't a prequel to “Toy Story,” exactly, but instead presents the movie that inspired Buzz Lightyear toys in the first place. It's a potentially clever bit ...

What’s compelling “Lightyear” is harder to say, but there is a bland, vaguely “Planes” feeling here that smacks of a straight-to-video spinoff. But “Lightyear,” helmed by “Finding Dory” co-director Angus MacLane (who made some of the “Toy Story” shorts and TV specials that have expanded the film series), arrives in theaters just as summer movies are reaching the stratosphere again. “Lightyear” isn’t ambitious or existential or likely to make you cry. So should “Lightyear” have been a feature film or a Pixar short? It isn’t a prequel to “Toy Story,” exactly, but instead presents the movie that inspired Buzz Lightyear toys in the first place. So begins “Lightyear,” a new Pixar release that takes a meta approach to the animation studio’s flagship franchise.

Lightyear joins Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness and West Side Story on the list of Disney films barred from cinemas in the Gulf.

Soundcore offers a selection of Sound Frames—glasses with built-in speakers that deliver clear, immersive sound to the space around your ears. As The Hollywood Reporter wrote in March, amid the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill controversy of three months ago, LGBTQ+ Pixar employees and their allies sent a letter to Disney bosses, accusing them of censorship and demanding action against Florida’s prejudiced legislation. In what’s becoming an expected occurrence with the release of any new Disney film, Lightyear joins a string of Disney-produced films banned in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates over LGBTQ+ representation.

Walt Disney Co's new animated Pixar movie "Lightyear" features a gay couple, the latest step by the company to show traditionally under-represented groups ...

It's loving, it's supportive and it shows Buzz exactly what he doesn't have and that's the whole point. "I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward and embrace the growth that makes us human." Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

'The real truth is those people are idiots' says new voice of beloved Toy Story character as movie is kept off screens in 14 countries.

“I think the goal is to pay them no mind, march forward and embrace the growth that makes us human.” “There’s always going to be people who are afraid and unaware and trying to hold on to what was before. A scene showing milestones in the couple’s relationship includes a brief kiss.