Before Pixar got lazy and decided to make 15 car movies they had to look to their original property Toy Story to acquire as much external story as could be drain from the original Source material. And this gives us Buzz Lightyear's animated Adventure.
Okay maybe that sounds a little harsh. It's entirely possible that somebody wanted to make an extended universe for one of toy stories individual characters. I just don't see it as a very likely option considering that no other character even as an Inkling of a spin-off. Personally I'd rather see that original Woody cartoon with the puppets in the strange Cowboy antics.
It's a story of Buzz Lightyear and is ever continuing quest to rid the universe of the evil Zurg*.
and he's got every Bromide in the book to deal with. A long-time partner and friend who gets killed but turns out to be alive and Evil. A new rookie partner who's as talented if not more so than Buzz himself who just wants to prove that she's in useful partner who can assist in his mission switch he's reluctant to accept because he's become an individual bound never let another person suffer because of his incompetence or vulnerability. And there are two bumbling idiots who get involved in Buzz's Adventures despite their absolute incompetence.
Essentially Buzz has to stop Zurg from Conquering the universe with this mind control alien hybrid thing and learned a valuable lesson about accepting team members to make up for he's folly. It's an incredibly by the number story that I think any child will enjoy just fine. Heck, I found it semi amusing just because of some of the light-hearted comedy.
You could argue that the story could have done a little bit more to avoid some of the really basic tropes that are so apparent in these Bass storylines but what's the point?
It's just a Star Wars re skin story with a different cast of characters. And an internal struggle in where Buzz has to learn to accept others. There's no point to put that much effort into it, especially considering that I kind of like Buzz Lightyear and his friends are a lot more fun than most Star Wars environments. The nice thing about Buzz Lightyear's universe is that it's so undefined that you can practically do anything you want. Want a giant brain monster who can be corrupted by the literal power of Good and Evil. There you go. Have one.
My only problem is that it feels a little too long. You can tell that this cartoon was made for an episodic format.
Ultimately it was fun to visit film which I had a proxy Nostalgia for. I was always a fan of the original Toy Story and I remember seeing these odd glimpses of this strange cartoon show that focused on Toy Story. And not just any Toy Story but Buzz Lightyear the most fascinating of all the characters (excluding Woody) so the idea that there was an entire universe full just his story was captivating to me. Funny thing is I still never saw any of it until today.
So here's an odd thing. The original version of this film has Tim Allen playing the role of Buzz and it has this amusing little opening scene of all the Toy Story characters getting together to watch the film. Whereas if you ever find the episodically version of this it has a different voice actor and that original opening is removed.
Wayne Knight was the voice of Zurg! That is so strange to me. I guess it's the muffling they put over his voice, but I just didn't hear it. It kind of reminded me of the voice for Dr. Robotnik from that one Sonic cartoon that came out a few years before this.
Nitpick moment: Why does an alien species with a hive mind require an individual of their community to blow a large horn to indicate that something involving their hyper brain is happening? Shouldn't they be able to communicate it's time to meet the big brain just by thinking?
It's by no means a great film. There's nothing really special about it and I wouldn't really recommend it to anybody outside of a die hard Toy Story fans. Still the film is better than it has any reason to be.
*At no point do they ever expressed that Zurg was Buzz Lightyear's father as was done in the Toy Story 2 film.
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