Lightyear

Far and away the best thing about this movie? The cat. And that’s not me saying that as a well-known lover of cats—the Sox character is the source of the most original and inventive thinking in this story, plus his interactions with Buzz form the most enjoyable relationship in the movie. Conversely, Buzz’s relations with most of the other characters range from bland at best to outright annoying at worst. (The incompetence angle, a defining trait with certain characters, is taken way too far—it's something that is not all that tolerable, particularly in today’s crapified world, where profound incompetence is a regular, maddening feature.) Other aspects: the visual experience is exactly the technical marvel you would expect from a Pixar film at this point. The voice performances are okay; nothing grating, and there’s little in the way of Familiar Voice Syndrome. (Chris Evans serves as Lightyear’s voice, and even he sounds somewhat unfamiliar here. He may have been trying, and failing, to imitate Tim Allen.) And, somewhat oddly for a Disney-Pixar joint, this movie is mercifully free of cloying musical numbers. So how does this rate overall? This is a fair to middling flick—not bad, definitely entertaining in large stretches, though not really close to what its franchise predecessors achieved. Somewhat appropriately, I guess, this is a light work of film entertainment, one that flies a bit but hardly reaches orbit. That’s where the studio stands these days.