Buzz Lightyear da comando stellare - Si parte!

In a web interview a few years ago, one of the head honchos at Pixar was asked the secret to making a successful kids' movie and he said it was to make something that adults will enjoy. Kids, he said, have terrible taste; they'll will watch anything. A kids' movie that is too dumb for the grown-ups is going to languish at the box office. But if you make a movie with some clever dialogue and engaging plot, plus some elementary "teaching moments" that mainstream parents can discuss with their kids, then you will enjoy robust ticket and video sales.

Pixar put that formula to good use with their successful run of computer-animated films, but I am hesitant to watch anything released direct to video. But I was pleasantly surprised with Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins.

There's more "kids' stuff" here than in Toy Story and its progeny, but there's still plenty for adults to love. The voice talents are top-flight, especially Wayne Knight as Zurg. (Kudos also go to Stephen Furst, Adam Corolla and Larry Miller, all of whom seemed to be enjoying themselves and working their roles well.) Besides the voices, the film also offers some clever dialogue and good visual humor (picture a lazy robot reading a catalogue called "Victoria's Circuits"). The plot is competent. Good themes (like valuing teamwork and obeying the rules even when you don't like it) give the kids something to think about.

Finally, William Shatner shows up in the end credits with a laugh-out-loud spoken rendition of the Buzz Lightyear theme song: "To Infinity and Beyond." I had a good time explaining to my nephews and my son about Shatner's infamous "Lucy In the Sky (With Diamonds)" recording.

I'd like to see Pixar make more stuff like this.

Amusing spin-of from the Toy Story movies. The film looks more like a pilot for a new TV-series with Buzz as the hero. Here in an animated (not 3-d animated) full length movie. The most surprising with this film is that William Shatner sings the end title song and the fact that it is Tom Hanks little brother Jim that is the voice of Woody not Tom himself...

It begins with a standard S&R mission and in the end Buzz is involved in an adventure, where the whole galaxy is at stake, with him and his friends being the only ones left to stop evil emperor Zurg, who is the excellent villain here. At no time is the movie ever boring, the story is never hold up at any point for too long and while the overall plot is predictable (Buzz will defeat Zurg and save the galaxy), in between it often takes unexpected turns. The robot and Zurgs men add a great deal of comedy and the attentive viewer will notice some wonderfull allusions "That's not a spacecraft - it's obviously a weatherballoon"

... but then, he's a big Toy Story fanatic anyway. Yes, this is essentially the pilot for a Disney "One Saturday Morning" cartoon offering, but it does help provide a bit more background as to the legend of Buzz Lightyear. If you're buying or renting a movie for a Toy Story fan, this will do just fine. I love Diedrich Bader as the voice of "Agent Z".

When I reviewed Lightyear, I found it to be bland and recommended the TV show, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Lo and behold, that film was not the first attempt to make a movie, as this movie exists.

Basically, this film can be considered a special edition of the first three episodes of the series, as this was actually released before the whole thing premiered. After a mission ends with the loss of his partner, Warp Darkmatter, Buzz swears to work alone, even going as far as to reject Commander Nebula, who makes Mira Nova, a space ranger from the planet Tangea, and even XR, a robot who can be reassembled, but when the LGM's Unimind is stolen, the robot is made silly and useless. However, he must team up with those three, as well as Booster, an alien who works as janitor for Star Command, to stop him from using it to control everyone and everything in the universe.

As a movie, this has a lot of things that would be removed for the show. For starters, Tim Allen voices Buzz in this version, while the show would replace his voicework with Patrick Warburton, who voices Buzz for the show, and the start has a special intro in the world of Toy Story. While it has some flaws (some characters are meh, while Buzz falls victim to spewing one-liners like good always winning), the story and action is perfect, and the voice actors all do a good job. This is a movie I would recommend more than the new Lightyear movie, as this does a lot of stuff better.