LogFAQs > #975106883

Alright Zigzagoon, but you're not going to want my opinions so badly when we eventually get to Girl Without Hands

--Lightyear is not a great film, but it's made even worse by its framing device of being the in-universe movie Buzz Lightyear was based on. I'm sorry, but I can't buy that at all. The Buzz Lightyear we know from Toy Story came from a cheesy old-fashioned adventure story of good vs. evil, not this muddled melancholy mess, there's just no reconciling between the two, story or character-wise. Why not make it an in-universe reboot instead? You could have a post-credit scene of Andy seeing it with his kids and being like "Eh, it's not MY Buzz, but I'm happy you enjoyed it."

Honestly, it gets off to a pretty good start! It's genuinely heartbreaking seeing Buzz return to the outpost every failed attempt and seeing his friend get older until the inevitable happens. And the animation's pretty impressive, even if Buzz's character design kind of clashes with everything else. Unfortunately, as soon as we get to the Zergs, the film loses what soul it had and we get dull sequences of Buzz and his irritating sidekicks running from one setpiece to another. It's bland and by the numbers till the awful plot twist of who this Zerg is and the time-travel nonsense of his backstory.

Just watch Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, it does Buzz Lightyear's in-universe adventures much more faithfully to the Toy Story character. As for Sox, he's okay. Too stiff and limited in expressions to be that endearing honestly. Six months later, Hi-Fi Rush would give us the most adorable robot cat ever anyway.

--All these years later, who would have thought that this humble television movie would still be the best adaptation of The Hobbit we'd have. Kind of sad actually, can we get Cartoon Saloon the rights somehow?

Okay okay, I've still got a lot of affection for this film, even if hardcore Tolkien fans hate it. The animation is crude, but charming in an old storybook way, the landscapes can be genuinely beautiful sometimes. I love those spider designs for the record. And it's much more faithful to the original tone and message of the book than Peter Jackson's bloated mess.

Unfortunately, it has the opposite problem in that instead of having too much bloat, everything speeds by far too quickly, giving it a frantic pace that harms several scenes, particularly the Unexpected Party and trolls from the beginning. The humor is what made those scenes so beloved in the book and the film just blazes through them like it's going through a checklist, no time for jokes. And my man/bear Beorn gets left out entirely, though that might give him more dignity than the Jackson films where the party break into his house instead of...ahem, getting off topic.

Despite my criticisms, I do really enjoy this film, cheesy soundtrack and all.

--I'll get to Strange World tomorrow morning.