Edd Watches Pixar: Lightyear

I’m a grown man who hasn’t seen most of the Pixar movies that people are obsessed with, but I was challenged to check ’em all out and share my thoughts. Join me as I watch ’em all one by one – see if I buy into the hype.

No. 26: Lightyear (2022)

So I was talking to one of the homies the other day about my Pixar journey and he noted that, in his opinion, Toy Story is one of the best movie franchises ever because every film is better than the last.

You can look at my ranking below to see how loudly I yelled PLAYA PLEASE when he noted that. (Toy Story 3 is the truth, though.)

However, I’m pretty sure his Toy Story theory doesn’t include Lightyear, which might be the most unnecessary Pixar movie since Cars 2. But thankfully it’s nowhere near as bad as Cars 2 or I’d be washing my eyes with hot sauce and bleach right now.

The premise of Lightyear is weird – it’s a movie about a movie that was watched in another movie. Basically, this is Andy from Toy Story’s favorite movie, which he watched prior to the events of Toy Story 1. And we get to watch it along with him, yay. It’s a creative premise to squeeze out a prequel, I’ll give ‘em that.

But while watching I asked myself, “why would a (make believe) 10-year-old boy in 1995 like this movie? It’s SO BORING.” The first quarter of the movie is VERY repetitive, as Movie Buzz keeps jumping forward in time to do space stuff, which keeps him youthful while all his friends grow old and die.

But eventually it turns into Great Value Star Wars, as Buzz and a ragtag group of underachievers team up to save the planet from an evil army and learn teamwork n’ stuff. They even have the robot sidekick and the bad guy who is (sorta) related to the hero. THIS IS STAR WARS, PLAYA. Things do get interesting at the end with the villain reveal (which kiiiiinda doesn’t make as much sense as it should when you think about it) but it’s as straightforward as you can get.

So yeah, this is another film that has the Luca issue – a Pixar movie that doesn’t feel anything like a Pixar movie. Yes there’s a Buzz Lightyear skin wrapped over it but there’s none of the depth or smart humor or social commentary that defines the best Pixar joints. It’s … just a bland kid’s movie that feels like a treatment for a Disney Channel spinoff series.

Toy Story fanatics will enjoy Lightyear I guess but it still comes off like that cashiest of grabs.

Oh well, I like A Bug’s Life better anyway.

*RUNS FOR MY LIFE*

3 stars out of 5

Edd’s favorites!:
Inside Out
Toy Story 3
The Incredibles
Monsters, Inc
Ratatouille
Coco
Soul
WALL-E
Finding Nemo
Up
A Bug’s Life
Toy Story
Incredibles 2
Toy Story 2
Turning Red
Onward
Finding Dory
Cars
Toy Story 4
Luca
Monsters University
Brave
The Good Dinosaur
**Lightyear**
Cars 3
Cars 2

And that’s it! I’m caught up on this Pixar stuff – until I ignore the next movies for another three years and scramble to update this list in 2026.

Maybe I’ll finally watch Encanto In the meantime. I’m told we don’t speak about Bruno. Hopefully not in the same vein as R. Kelly or Kanye.