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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Lightyear of Two Worlds Part 1 (of 2): Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins: A Rope of Sand (Comissoin for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy Space Rangers. And welcome to a special two part set of reviews as we look at one of the biggest animated franchises out there, and what happens when it does the same basic concept two very diffrent ways, and said basic concept is clever: Since Buzz Lightyear clearly came from a tv show or movie or something in-universe as we see adds for the toys on tv and Andy heavily implies theires more to the character than just a toyline and see a cartoon Buzz on the packaging (something I ddn't even notice till watching Defunct-Tv's look at this series in preperation for this review) , what would this look like? The answers are a goofy self aware space opera that still manages to pack in plenty of character, action and heart and a more hard sci-fi take that takes itself entirely seriously but still throws in a robot cat.

It was a question I was ready to find an answer to when Kev suggested this, even more after finding out Lightyear is supposed to be a movie in universe that lead to the toyline and to this very series. I'm going to save pointing out all the ways that makes absolutely no sense until i've actually seen lightyear but the fact I already have SEVERAL without even having seen the movie is NOT a good sign.

Still I grew up with Toy Story: I saw the first three films in theaters and have no real intrest in the 4th one. It has things that intrest me like a thorughly sympathetic villian played by Christinia Hendricks, KEanu Reeves as an evil kenivel style stunt toy, and the return of the always wonderful Annie Potts as Bo.. but the whole arc for woody feels.. wrong. Maybe i'm wrong about that, maybe i'm not. Maybe i'll give it a look someday.

Point is I loved this franchise as a kid and as an adult and still feel it was a strong start for Pixar, and I did seen BLOSC plenty as a kid and remember watching the pilot when it aired on tv, complete with cool CG lead in. So I was happy to revisit it and see how it held up, and to see how it's sorta succesor did. I love shows within shows and this idea was brilliant, a way to have a space opera with Buzz while still couching it perfectly in the universe. So let's go to infinity and you now the rest and see how Buzz LIghtyear of Star Command holds up.

For starters I was NOT prepared to find out who the shows creators were: Mark McCorckle and Bob Schooley... and if those names don't ring a bell their next project should

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Yup I bet many of you who weren't aware of this fact are having the same reaction

So already in this shows corner is not only are it's creators legends, but with this being their first show as creators, it was likely what gave Disney enough confidence to grant them their own show and bless us with Kim Possible. Also it's getting me and Jess to binge re-watch kim possible so that's three. So already I had high expectations, but I still had to know how did this get made. Lucky for me Disney Researcher, theme park historian and cool dude Kevin Perjuer of Defunctland had done an episode of his other show, Defunct-TV on this show that went into how it happened. It's worth a watch and can be found right here if your intrested.

The short version is that Toy Story was a MASSIVE hit. While Disney had hopes for the film, they didn't automatically expect a giant cash cow the likes of which the world had never seen. Simplier times. So naturally so they could have more money for their bins, the execs asked Pixar to make a DTV sequel since Disney was at the height of making as many cheap sequels as possible and as for Pixar head Steve Jobs

So it was decided. And this being back when Disney KNEW how to actually captalize on something instead of plugging their ears and acting like it's a failure or assuming it'll be a huge hit before it actually comes out and underwhelms, they wisely decided to go with a two pronged offense: a dtv movie AND an unrelated new series. There were several intresting ideas floated around: A noir/western Following Woody, a LGM spinoff and for some reason the Combat Carl Action hour despite him being mentioned but not showing up until decades later with Toy Story 4. Naturally the idea to make the Buzz show implied to exist in the movie a reality won out, especially with the ideas for the DTV film fleshing out Zurg, giving them a nemisis.

In fact said DTV film was going so well.. it became Toy Story 2. Yes folks one of Pixar's best films.. came out of them working so hard on a side project that Disney wanted to make it a real thing. I swear hearing Disney make sound, logical decisions that ended up benefiting them seems so.. bizzare> Like they aren't incapable but they do it so little these days it's weird looking back to a time when doing so netted them two successes. When the spinoffs and sequels felt organic instead of just

Don't get me wrong we still get good or decent sequels on occasion, but it feels like most are made ENTIRELY out of money instead of a goal. Here despite being driven by profit Pixar still had a genius idea for an even better film that built on everything before. Where as now a days Disney Animated Sequels lead to thinks like Frozen 2: It has Good Music?, Ice Age: No One Asked for This or Ralph Breaks the Internet aka

Toy Story 2 came out of Disney wanting more money bins sure, but Pixar had a clear idea of how this would work, and Star Command came out of an honestly brilliant idea. I.. I don't know what Disney is doing half the time. I was going to say I was looking forward to D23 this weekend and while there are some promising new projects coming that were already announced or were just announced animation wise (Strange Worlds, Elio, Elemental, Inside Out 2, Win or Loose), we also got acrapton of live action reboots dumped in our lap. So yeah not exaclty PUMPED for Disney's future . Pixar's yes provided they aren't forced to Disney+ constantly. The MCU if it keeps giving me things like She Hulk, absolutely. But Disney's as an animation studio?

The ONLY reason they aren't the worst at this right now.. is that David Zaslav was born in a stygian hole two thousand years ago and is just now going foward with his grand evil design. HOpefully we'll get more series wise over the weekend to ballance it out. I may do something on D23 when this is over and we leave this all behind us, deep in the moonless night when the rescue team finds us.

... I was talking about a Buzz Lightyear Cartoon wasn't I? Oh yes. So how did this pilot bear out? Honestly, if unsuprisingly given whose involved.. it was excellent.

For starters the series has a pretty stacked voice cast. While I was sadly not subjected to his dulcet tones as the movie version I was paid to cover replaced him, the legendary Patrick Warburton, aka one of my faviorite VA's of all time, voiced Buzz in the series proper and actually dubbed his lines for the pilot. He was replaced for the movie only when they managed to get Tim Allen, as they delayed the series till AFTER Toy Story 2 and wanted this to be hype.

While I prefer Patrick as a VA and Human Being, Allen is still as great as he's always been in the roll, and adapts greatly to the tragic parts of the story, taking Buzz through loss, we'll get to that, but also having great comedic timing as always and giving Mr. Lightyear that true heroic hammy quality. Patrick from what clips i've seen is just as good in the roll, so it's really more a matter of prefrence than either being geninely bad at it and I dont' blame disney for wanting to use the Toolman if they can get him.

Buzz isn't too much diffrent from Toy Story. He's noble, Loyal, and brave to a fault while still being cocky, thickheaded and quick to rush into things. He's perfectly traslated us here, showing him how kids both in the toy story univers and out saw him: A well meaning, cool as heck hero who knew his stuff, would safrifice himself for anyone and while not flawless said flaws only made him more likeable.

Case in point the pilot has an intresting arc. It's one that's been done before sure but it's a great way to give Buzz something to hold him back to add tension.. and to make it so he accidently surrounds himself with what will be his team. Early in the pilot Buzz looses his best friend and partner Warp Darkmatter. With a name like that you can probably see where this is going but we'll get to him in a moment. Buzz is understandably a bit genre blind. So he vows to not have a partner despite his Commander ordering one on him and this isn't helped by his Robot partner XR getting blown to bits. You see why Buzz is wrong: Even as good as he is he needs backup, and while Warp's loss is tragic and he was CLEARLY sent back out too early, he can't do this alone. The kinds of missions Buzz Rimmer Lightyear need more to him, something to push him to victory.

I like it because i'ts a better take on the work alone thing: Buzz isn't pushing people aside because he's THAT cocky, it's because his PTSD and Guilt Complex is so great he dosen't want to loose anyone else, kinda like Batman in the Lego Batman Movie after him. The incident with XR helps reinforce this and it takes being captured to realize he was wrong.. that not asking for help nearly cost HIM his life. Granted he also finds out Warp was, shockity shock, a traitor this whole time.

But it's clear it's Buzz realizing he let his own guilt nearly kil him instead of accepting the truth: Sometimes you loose good people in the hero buisness, but if he dosen't accept help, more people will die and the whole universe would've fallen to Zurg's mind control scheme, long story, if he'd simply accepted that. That it's better to risk being hurt or loosing someone and let them in than to not live at all and let other people get hurt. IT's a good arc for Buzz. It's nicely contained for a pilot episode but still feels well earned and is a nice setup for him taking in an entire team instead of just one partner.

The rest of the cast is no slouch to Pat and *Manly Grunt*. Starting with our team we have Nicole Sullivan as Vera Nova, a princess who was rescued by Buzz when she was younger and inspired to follow in his example, being his equal in combat and having neat ghosting and psychic powers. She's his number two, willing to question him and call him on his no partner crap, and is plenty scrappy.. but also able to back it up and will listen when he's actually right.

Next up is Booster, who I loved. He's played by Stephen Furst, best known as Vir from Babylon Five aka that show I shoudl've watched by now but haven't. Booster is young, eager, and trying to join star command and when talked by XR, we'll get to him, into playing around in Buzz' craft ends up on the adventure> He's big, he's strong, but he's also kind, eager and endearing. He knows his stuff, but it's clear he's just loving being here and wants to be a ranger to geninely do good just like Buzz and Mira and it's just so endearing to see him at the end , fully decked out living his dream with even Commander Nova , whose gruff as hell and we'll get to in a moment, smiling at the kid having earned his wings.

Finally for our main quartet we have XR, who I loved as a kid and had a toy of (and want to get it again). He has a really neat design too, a floating head in a dome, with extending arms and tread feet. Naturally he's a robot, standing for eXperimental Ranger, designed to give Buzz an unkillable partner since he can be rebuilt. He's voiced by hair care salesman and comedy legend Larry Miller, and in a few eps but not here but still worth noting, equal legend , sometimes janitor and sometimes gravelman Neil Flynn. Naturally XR gets blowed up real good early on but since the LGM's that built him are off their game due to the pilots plot they accidently give him sapeince, making him into a cowardly, snarky, weirdo and all the better for it. XR gets tons of great lines across the first few eps and is a great fourth, not sharing the others professionalism but sharing their sense of duty.. even if he'd rather run in the other direction.

For our big bad Zurg we've got Patrick's Seinfeld costar and perptual snivling jerk whose likely a peach in real life Wayne Knight, who perfectly fits the goofier over the top villian their going for while still being utterly repuslive in the right way when needed. For instance when Buzz finds out Warp's a bad dude, Zurg mockingly plays Buzz' Eulogy he gave earlier in the movie...

Wayne plays him perfectly as is to be expected but it's still nice to see him in the roll.

Playing Warp, who seriously in additoin to the name just looks evil at the camera a few times, is my boy Deidrich Bader, who is amazing in the roll. He has his usual snark and gruff tone, but adds a sheer sense of cool and snide evil to Warp: he's only in this for the money, and Zurg paid better and gladly brushes off Buzz that it's not brainwashing or antyhing he's been on Zurg's payroll since academy and the death was going full time. He's also a perfect anti-buzz; Greedy, working for the bad guy and every bit as deadly. He's also sharp and clever. While he spends most of the film as "Agent Z", he NEVER underestimates Buzz. Talks down to and mocks him sure but when Zurg thinks he's dead, Z isn't sure and turns out to be right. Warp knows our hero as well as he knows himself if not better and that's what makes him so dangerous. The only thing that turns the tide is the unknown element of his new partners.

Back at star command we have the LGM's, also played by Warburton. Their here primarly because why not, but the creators did find a clever use for them as the ones who make Star Commands tech. Their endearing as they were in the movies and Warburton does such a godo job playing them I had no idea it was him. Their also the center of the plot as the unimind they use to connect is what Zurg steals to try and conquer the galaxy and a mission to rescue some of them is what kicks off the movie as a whole.

Finally major character wise we have Commander Nebula, played by of all people Adam Carolla. He does a good job and him getting the roll meant Kevin, who used only projects from the time to describe the actors, said "The Man Show's Adam Carolla" I didn't think the Man Show would ever get brought up on any version of Defunctland but here we are. Then again I also didn't think i'd eve rhave to bring it up on this blog but here we are again. He's great as the crotchety but resonable commander. Not a lot to him in this ep, but I do like his design: a bigger golden insignia, a missing leg and a mustache that is only rivaled by Ron Swanson.

So that leaves us with the show's presentation which is glorious. The art style is gorgeous, bright, poppy, uniquely angular. I'm shocked they got this good an art style out of a one second bit of packaging but it just shows how GOOD Pixar is and this shows crew were that one small piece of art was distinct enough to model an art style on. The character deisgns are memorable. There's a reason despite forgetting his personality XR was still burned into my brain all this time.

Writing wise.. it's not a huge shock given what they'd make next that it's good, a fun sendup of space operas that still takes itself JUST seroiusly enough to have real tension, deep fleshed out likeable characters who are geninely heroic, and genuine bits of pathos like Warp's "death" and XR's dismantling. You can have that.. and still have jokes about Agent Z having "the refreshing scent of lingonberry" listed as one of his features, Team Lightyear arguging about noserings and the subtitles for "top secret area of limits" Being followed by "We really mean it" It's looney tunes style insanity mixed with some real action and heart and works beautifully and it'd only get better in the next series.

So yeah as you can tell.. this pilot was TRULY excellent and is worth digging up since, thanks to John Lassiter wanting the series buired and Disney still honoring his wishes despite you know, firing him, the guy going on to compettion despite a history of sexual harassment disney clearly enabled, and common sense to tie in to the new movie, it's NOT on Disney+. Granted Disney Logic for what goes and what dosne't has never made sense, but it's one of the most glaring holes in the lineup as theres nothing keeping the show off, they just had a movie it coudl've launched alongside, and the creator of SAID MOVIE found a way to still keep the animated series around despite the movie suplanting it as the basis for buzz. Like... you can't call brand confusion when all three avengers cartoons are on there alongside the movie. It's called a tie in. Kids will get it's defintely something diffrent, but they'll still watch it. Gah. Watching this was great, seriously going to consider checking out more of the series... but man this was depressing and I don't have a ton of joy going into it's spirtitual succesor next week. Maybe it'll suprise me. I mean.. at least it has Jason Mantzokus and Chris Evans. So it's not a total loss. Anyways this series is fantastic and like MANY things, should be on Disney+ right now. Go find it and watch it till they actually make it legally avaliable, for now i'm out.

#lightyear #buzz lightyear #buzz lightyear of star command #tim allen #disney #patrick warburton #pixar #cartoons #animatoin #nicole sullivan #larry miller

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