Falling short of infinity

The funniest line in Lightyear is delivered by the robotic cat Sox (Peter Sohn). Right after Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) has jumped to hyperspeed, Sox looks up at Buzz and says in his deadpan cat-droid voice, “That was utterly terrifying, and I regret having joined you.” Hilarious. And, unfortunately, a prophetic word about the film at large. Lightyear promises something beyond infinity but fails to launch due to a weightless plot and a willingness to go where no Pixar film has gone before.

Buzz accidentally maroons hundreds of scientists on an uncharted planet, and he devotes himself to risky hyperspeed test flights in an attempt to get everyone back home.

Lightyear’s opening title explains that this is the movie Andy from Toy Story saw in 1995. But the bits of space-ranger lore that movie alluded to are missing in Lightyear. There’s nothing about the Galactic Alliance. Buzz doesn’t defend the galaxy, and the Evil Emperor Zurg is neither evil nor an emperor. Nothing about this movie resembles a space opera from 1995. Instead, Buzz battles his own toxic individualism.

More troubling for parents, a space ranger, Commander Alisha Hawthorn (Uzo Aduba), has a romantic relationship with another woman. We see them holding hands and kissing. This montage takes up less than a minute of actual screen time. Yet the sequence is blatant enough to alienate a good portion of Disney-Pixar’s primary audience. It’s a needless salvo in the culture wars.