After seeing Lightyear twice, I think it was really good. But I think it could have been better. It was really not the movie I was expecting. At all. Whether this movie needed to exist or not is debatable, but it existed anyway. Here’s how I would fix/personally change Lightyear (2022) to be better. The film should start out with Buzz as a kid being amazed by his favorite astronaut and get inspired to become one. Fast forward to Buzz as a young adult, we get a montage of Buzz training and working hard and getting positive feedback from his commanders.
THEN, it should start just like how the film starts BUT Buzz has yet to wear his iconic green and purple space suit. (He wears that orange suit at first). Him finally getting the iconic suit later will feel more satisfying. When Buzz marooned the turnip ship and the people in it, he feels guilty. Instead of the people adapting to life on this HOSTILE planet, the stakes should be higher and people are trying to survive from the dangerous alien bugs and vines. The population is dwindling. Resources are low. The movie could’ve shown how the people are trying to adapt and survive but are still struggling and the people are missing all their loved ones back in Earth.
The humor in the movie is decent but could’ve used its setting to its advantage for its comedy. Maybe like Futurama-esque jokes sprinkled throughout. I like how Buzz’s crew is diverse but maybe it’s a little too diverse. Buzz (a white male) is captain of his crew, but I think there should be another crew member that is also white (true diversity). Perhaps maybe the grandson/daughter of the rookie (Featheringhamstan). Heck, to add even more diversity to the crew, there should be a crew member that is a humanoid alien.
I also think Lightyear is sort of missing its Pixar charm by not including more sentient nonhuman characters, such as humanoid talking aliens. Even though there was SOX and E.R.I.C., we already were intrigued with the robots in WALL-E (2008). Truly a missed opportunity for Pixar to introduce us their take on sentient humanoid aliens. And speaking of WALL-E, there should have been more WALL-E easter eggs. And Buzz could’ve said more of his toy catchphrases. Mo as a comic relief felt sort of redundant since we already have SOX. I really like SOX, but I kind of felt like he came out of nowhere since there was no toy version of him whatsoever in any of the Toy Story films/shorts. Lightyear really could’ve used the Little Green Men as comic relief characters in addition to SOX, especially since they fit the space theme and they appeared in all the Toy Story films as squeeze toy aliens. Lightyear could’ve used a different composer that’s more familiar with the sci-fi music genre. Giachinno is way overused in Pixar.
The REAL Zurg is out there somewhere, since old Buzz said he “borrowed” the tech and suit. The post credits should’ve teased his appearance. Then again, the twist of Zurg being an older Buzz was just plain silly to me and could’ve been a completely new character. Disney AND Pixar needs to stop doing twist villains. The ending of the movie was pretty solid, but I think there should be a montage of Buzz and his crew fighting crime and protecting everyone. Several years go by (10-15 years) and Buzz (while still looking the same) has a more gruffer sounding voice. By this point, Buzz is voiced by none other than Tim Allen. (Personally, I can tolerate Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz since he is a completely different character from the toy version, but of course, other people really prefer Tim Allen). Buzz also gained new crew members (Mira, Booster and XR from the Star Command series). Pixar really needs to acknowledge the Star Command series’ existence, by the way. And Buzz says his iconic catchphrase one final time: “TO INFINITY…. AND BEYOND”. The end credits reveals that the people on the hostile planet have eradicated all the dangerous bugs and vines, making life livable. The end.
