Fantastic! Absolutely beautiful! A thrilling adventure! is what I would use to describe this animation, and if I could praise it some more, I would.
Lightyear is an animation based on the life story of a character from the Toy Story series, Buzz Lightyear. Traveling through space as a space ranger with his crew, they landed on a planet far from home, and ended up getting stuck on that planet.
Due to their hyperspeed crystal being destroyed, Buzz had to sacrifice his time and years in order to make a new hyperspeed crystal that would rectify his mistake, and take them all back home. He passed through series of trials and emotional breakdowns, especially one he never saw coming from the future.
Rating: 9/10.
This rating is based on my opinion. Although it is absolutely deserving of a 10, one thing that wasn’t clear in the movie made me question the remaining one. I didn’t quite understand how Alessia Hawthorne got pregnant, when she married a woman, and there was no explanation of any sort that says it was through any artificial means. Aside this, every scene was perfectly constructed to have the right emotions, background and video quality was top notch, and the voice actors delivered beautifully.
Spoiler Alert
The beginning had a curious vibe to it, I was thrilled and excited, and along the way, it broke my heart to see Buzz lose his best friend Alessia Hawthorne to old age, as he was always spending four minutes, and twenty eight seconds in space, which turned into a duration of four years, two months, and three days each time he went for a trial test ride to examine every different formulas of the hyperspeed crystal.
The middle through to the end, I was excited, and scared, especially when it was revealed that his future self was the villain.
Albeit, I learnt a four lessons from this story which I would like to share with you all.
One, in life, things don’t always go the way you plan them to. I would like to use a phrase from the lyrics of a song from Lion King (Simba’s Pride) to expatiate ‘As you go through life you’ll see, there is so much that we don’t understand, and the only thing we know, is that things don’t always go, the way we plan…’
Buzz was devastated when he realized that their plans to go home was ruined, and he tried so hard to put their former plans into action, he didn’t understand that life had a different ride waiting for him.
Secondly, change happens, and we can either run from it, or embrace it. Based on our diverse perspective, we can see change as something bad or search deeply and understand if change is something that can be used to your advantage.
In the animation, Buzz didn’t want to embrace the change of living on another planet, he missed being a space ranger and exploring the diverse corners of the galaxies with his crew. He didn’t understand why the others would want to stay and embrace the change to start a new life, successfully using their situation to their advantage.
Thirdly, mistakes happen, and we’re not perfect. Let go of the guilt you’re harbouring because of your mistakes. Don’t allow your past mistakes to define you.
Because of the mistake Buzz made when piloting the space ship, he harboured guilt and blamed himself for their inability to leave the planet. He tried so many times to rectify his mistake, and failed, and even when he finally got it right, he was met with difficulties and people who wouldn’t accept the change he wanted.
Lastly, never be afraid to ask for help. The statement ‘No man is an island’ supports this. We all love to pride in things we can do on our own and love the achievements we gain from those tasks, but whenever you’re met with a difficulty you can’t solve on your own, ask for help, and lend help as well.
Buzz didn’t comprehend this, he thought that since he was the one who made the mistake, he was meant to be the one to fix it. He needed the help, but didn’t admit it, but eventually, help came, even when he didn’t want it.
Lightyear is a must watch, that I highly recommend and I would love to hear your opinions after you see it. Enjoy the space ride.
N/B: This review is solely based on my opinion of the animation, and is not written to discard or disrupt your own view and opinion of the movie.
