Pixar Delivers Fun Sci-Fi Adventure

Pixar is on a roll. A year removed from the well-received Luca, and just three months after the critically acclaimed Turning Red, they seem to have another winner on their hands with Lightyear.

The premise: This is the movie that Toy Story’s Andy fell in love with as a kid that made him want to get a Buzz Lightyear toy. Instead of Tim Allen, Chris Evans voices the title character, who goes on a mission into deep space with his fellow Space Rangers. Eventually, Buzz and his friends even have to battle the evil Zurg — the bad guy toy introduced in Toy Story 2.

The premiere of Lightyear was last night in Los Angeles, and the first reviews hit social media after that. The first wave of critics who saw the film were generally very positive. Reviews praised the movie’s sense of adventure and fun, its detailed visuals and style, and Chris Evans’ sturdy performance as the new Buzz Lightyear.

A lot of them singled out Sox, Buzz Lightyear’s robot cat sidekick as a huge scene stealer.

They’re not the best reviews in Pixar history, but compared to the notices just a couple days ago for Jurassic World: Dominion, you’d think the company released another WALL-E. After a stretch where some folks were complaining that Pixar was making too many sequels (or “original” movies that were obvious rehashes of the studio’s formulas), they really have delivered a series of very different, very enjoyable movies in a row — and Lightyear looks to be another.

Here’s a sampling of the early reviews for Lightyear.

Lightyear opens in theaters on June 17. We’ll have a full review of the movie here on ScreenCrush next week.

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