It doesn’t feel even remotely like a movie that would actually have been made, and makes no sense in the context as a plausable vehicle for children’s toys. There is no way that movie would have been a favorite of 6-year-olds with a massive line of merchandising. It would be like marketing Interstellar to preschoolers. (Is there much evidence that real-world children liked the movie Lightyear? Because that doesn’t really seem likely to me.)
And the name? Were they playing off Solo, another movie that never could have or would have existed without being an origin story for things that never needed origin stories? (Oh, look, that’s where Han Solo got his dice! Oh, look, that’s why Buzz Lightyear asks if people are mocking him!) You don’t name a new movie as the last name of a new unknown character. Star Wars would never have been Skywalker. Raiders of the Lost Ark would never have been Jones.
Just saw this, as it came out on Disney+. Overall, I liked it a lot. Fun, fast-moving, funny.
One thing I didn’t grok at all, though… what happened at the end? Was the idea that this new planet was just forming its own, local version of the space rangers, to protect it from local alien invasions, but giving up forever on making contact with the rest of humanity?
I also thought the world-building set up interesting stuff and then didn’t really follow through. I was definitely expecting the bugs-and-vines to end up befriended in some fashion, for instance. And it was also unclear what the baddie knew, and when, and how that motivated his actions.
I saw it last night and, although I mostly enjoyed it, I’d agree with most of the criticisms here. It dragged at times and some of the plot didn’t make much sense to me. I liked the callbacks to other sf films, including, off the top of my head, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars and Aliens. It had a good if somewhat predictable message about friendship and teamwork. Glad to see a lesbian couple shown as normal people. And Sox the cute, friendly, resourceful robocat was terrific - far and away my favorite character.
Got to see this on an 80" 4K screen the other day. Best thing to say about this movie is the animation is absolutely jaw dropping. The care, and time, and artistry really shows Pixar has a cutting edge top talent staff making these things.
Like others have said though the story leaves a lot to be desired. What should have been a light, straight forward, space adventure ala original Star Wars that a 7 year-old would love with Zurg as a stereotypical baddie, they just went too deep with old/young buzz that was likely to fly over the head of most kids.
Now that they have FTL travel (thanks to Buzz), they can start exploring again, possibly contacting the rest of humanity. But they have been separated from Earth and Star Command for several generations at this point. It’s not something they are pining to get back to.
My kids seem to understand it was basically the same relationship (and plot device) as Emmet and Rex Dangervest from the second Lego Movie.