Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

In "Toy Story 2," Woody finds out that he came from the TV show "Woody's Roundup"; Buzz Lightyear did it the other way around and for real. The trouble is that "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" never really worked as a series, and this video feature doesn't really cut it - and that's without taking either of its truly great predecessors into consideration. If you do...

Essentially a feature-length pilot for the TV series*, "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins" opens with a Pixar-animated prologue wherein Andy's toys get ready to watch the very movie we're about to (the subsequent series also begins with Buzz, Woody, Slinky etc congregating in front of the TV); the point of this is never clear, especially since Woody's reference to how Buzz is drawn underlines how different the two ventures are. The story has Buzz and his partner Warp Darkmatter rescuing three Little Green Men from Emperor Zurg, but when Warp is killed in the fighting our hero swears he won't have any partners anymore; as fans of the show know he wound up with three of them anyway, and this relates how he got together with Mira, Booster and XR.

The movie's got its moments (like the throwaway gag where XR reads a Victoria's Circuit catalogue) and it's hardly boring, but I can't imagine many viewers who've seen more than, oh, five movies being surprised at the movie's biggest plot twist; and the wit and depth of the previous movies is sucked out, leaving little more than a standard comedy-action cartoon. True, it makes sense that a toy like Buzz would inspire a cash-in TV series in the world according to "Toy Story," but do we actually have to see it? Watchable but bland; however, you can't deny that "He-Man" et al never had end credit songs from William Shatner(!).

*Like several other Disney TV cartoons ("TaleSpin," "Chip'N'Dale Rescue Rangers"), the pilot was later edited down and shown on the series in several parts, in this case three. In that version (those versions?), Shatner's song and the prologue with the video are absent, and Tim Allen's voice is replaced by Patrick Warburton, who provided Buzz's voice on the series.

If you ever want a bit of a laugh while babysitting, this might be a good film to have with you. Kids will love it simply because it's got Buzz Lightyear, an amusing villain, and loads of aliens. Maybe it's just a sign of my immaturity, but I found quite a lot of the jokes in this movie very funny (and even the parts that aren't funny can be vaguely amusing in their corniness). The characters do a lot for the movie - Lightyear's unlikely friend and partner Warp Darkmatter has several funny lines, and XR's personality changes and sarcasm make him quite endearing. Even the villain, the Evil Emperor Zurg, has his likable moments.

While you won't miss any life-changing moments if you don't see this movie (and really, it pales in comparison to the Toy Story movies), it's a good choice if you've seen every other kids' movie too many times and want to watch something that'll amuse you too.

When I reviewed Lightyear, I found it to be bland and recommended the TV show, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. Lo and behold, that film was not the first attempt to make a movie, as this movie exists.

Basically, this film can be considered a special edition of the first three episodes of the series, as this was actually released before the whole thing premiered. After a mission ends with the loss of his partner, Warp Darkmatter, Buzz swears to work alone, even going as far as to reject Commander Nebula, who makes Mira Nova, a space ranger from the planet Tangea, and even XR, a robot who can be reassembled, but when the LGM's Unimind is stolen, the robot is made silly and useless. However, he must team up with those three, as well as Booster, an alien who works as janitor for Star Command, to stop him from using it to control everyone and everything in the universe.

As a movie, this has a lot of things that would be removed for the show. For starters, Tim Allen voices Buzz in this version, while the show would replace his voicework with Patrick Warburton, who voices Buzz for the show, and the start has a special intro in the world of Toy Story. While it has some flaws (some characters are meh, while Buzz falls victim to spewing one-liners like good always winning), the story and action is perfect, and the voice actors all do a good job. This is a movie I would recommend more than the new Lightyear movie, as this does a lot of stuff better.

It begins with a standard S&R mission and in the end Buzz is involved in an adventure, where the whole galaxy is at stake, with him and his friends being the only ones left to stop evil emperor Zurg, who is the excellent villain here. At no time is the movie ever boring, the story is never hold up at any point for too long and while the overall plot is predictable (Buzz will defeat Zurg and save the galaxy), in between it often takes unexpected turns. The robot and Zurgs men add a great deal of comedy and the attentive viewer will notice some wonderfull allusions "That's not a spacecraft - it's obviously a weatherballoon"

Amusing spin-of from the Toy Story movies. The film looks more like a pilot for a new TV-series with Buzz as the hero. Here in an animated (not 3-d animated) full length movie. The most surprising with this film is that William Shatner sings the end title song and the fact that it is Tom Hanks little brother Jim that is the voice of Woody not Tom himself...