In case you forgot that Disney is making a Buzz Lightyear movie… well, Disney is making a Buzz Lightyear movie. Lightyear isn’t about the toy we know from all the Toy Story movies; it’s about the human test pilot who inspired the toy, and who is now voiced by Chris Evans. Not that Evans says much in this first teaser, which makes unforgivable use of David Bowie’s “Starman” and continues the Toy Story trend of referencing Star Wars … maybe a bit too much.
This is hardly the first time the Toy Story universe has played with details from the Star Wars universe, but it feels less playful now that the whole narrative is about space. (And now that Disney owns Pixar; it did not when the studio made the first two Toy Story films.) The super-space-speed streaky stars, the ship in the swamp—there’s a pretty fine line between making cute references and making it seem like you want one property to coast on the success of the other. And this is just a tiny teaser; how much more referential will the actual film be?
Also, Lightyear features an orange cat who better not be a flerkin, or we riot.
The animation—that monstrous chin notwithstanding—is gorgeous, especially in the first half of the teaser, which is all golden light and the thrill of launch. This is very little to go on, but undoubtedly we’ll get several more looks at Lightyear before it hits theaters on June 17, 2022.
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