In the year 2000, Disney and Pixar released the first three episodes of their upcoming series,
packaging it as one movie: “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins”. Both the
movie and the series proved to be major successes, with many fans still singing
its praises to this day. 22 years later, Pixar released a new Buzz-focused film simply titled
“Lightyear”. While many fans were hopeful, others were skeptical, and naturally when
you’ve got two spinoff films with the same main character, there’s bound to be some comparisons.
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge,
and we’re here to see how Lightyear 2022 compares to Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
MAJOR spoilers ahead for both films! Starting our comparison off,
we of course had to talk about how both films portray their main lead,
Buzz Lightyear. Just to be clear, we’re not going to take part in the “Tim Allen
VS Chris Evans” debate here, and are going only focusing on the character instead of his voice.
In the 2000 film, Buzz is pretty much portrayed the exact same way he is in the first two Toy
Story films. He’s noble, strong-willed and heroic, always jumping into action. He also
likes to do things his own way and is a total rule follower when it comes to Star Command protocol,
though he doesn’t necessarily always follow the rules himself despite apparently writing half
of them. Outside of this, Buzz is your typical space hero, and while one would think that would
make him come off as boring or dull, he’s still just as enjoyable in this film as he is in the
Toy Story films. From Buzz’s dramatic speeches and cheesy one-liners to his Team Dad energy to
the connections he forms with his teammates, Buzz comes off as incredibly endearing in this film.
While they may argue, he still respects Princess Mira as a fellow ranger. He
helps cover for Booster and sees XR as more than just an expendable robot. You
may not be getting anything totally new with this interpretation since much of it is, like we said,
taken from the source material, that doesn’t make this Buzz any less of an enjoyable character.
Moving onto the 2022 film, this Buzz is much MUCH more flawed - but don’t get us wrong,
that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In addition to his ‘I fly solo’ attitude and a level of
confidence that sometimes gets him into trouble, Buzz takes determination and stubbornness to a
whole new degree. Wanting so desperately to fix his big mistake, Buzz sacrifices essentially his
entire life to the mission, missing out on things like spending time with Alisha and getting to know
her family. He’s not doing this to “be the big hero” but simply out of guilt, not wanting to
let anyone down. It’s a fitting character flaw for Buzz, though it’s one we’ve seen from other
Pixar characters - namely Carl Frederickson from “Up”. Both characters made a promise to themselves
and their loved ones to complete a goal with this goal eventually blinding them to the other great
aspects of life. But while Carl simply had to move on from his wife’s passing, Buzz had to
accept the mistakes he made and learn how to live with them, and we can understand why that would
be much harder for a character like him and thus may be more compelling for some audience members.
There are other aspects to both Buzzes that are worth discussing,
but we’re going to save them for a later section. For now, we’ll say that depending on what you’re
looking for - the campy space hero with a heart of gold or the flawed yet grounded hero looking
to atone for past mistakes - either one of these Buzzes could be your preferred Buzz.
For us personally, because 2022! Buzz's arc was a bit undercooked in our opinion, we just have to
go with the 2000!Buzz. He may not being doing anything TOO new, but he still does it well.
Next, we want to take a look at each film’s side characters and how they add to the story.
In the 2000 film, the members of Team Lightyear were Princess Mira Nova, Booster and XR while the
2022 film introduced us to Izzy Hawthorne, Darby, Mo and Sox. Between the two teams,
there are actually quite a few similarities - such as strong female leaders, lovable robots
and somewhat clumsy comic reliefs. That being said, there are plenty of differences too.
Even if we ignore the accompanying animated series, the 2000 film does a decent job of giving
each of the characters personality and a moment to shine. Mira manages to be the stand-out of
the group, though that may or may not be partially due to her having such cool powers. Still, she’s
shown to be a good co-leader as well as a fun foil for Buzz to work off of. As Commander Nebula says,
they’re both stubborn show-offs. She’s also a bit snarky at times and has a bit of wit to her,
though considering she’s voiced by Nicole Sullivan that isn’t too surprising. Booster,
meanwhile, is both good-hearted and a bit nerdy, being absolutely amazed by Star Command stuff.
Though obviously out of his depth at first, he’s still eager to do his part - whether it's mopping
floors or mopping up bad guys. Finally, there’s XR, who is the familiar archetype of the funny
robot character. But hey, archetypes are there for a reason and XR plays his part well, bringing
plenty of laughs to the team. All in all, the dynamic that forms between these three and Buzz
proves to be an enjoyable one. It’s no wonder kids wanted to watch a whole show starring these guys.
Moving onto the 2022 team, it’s evident that the most developed character within it (besides Buzz)
is Izzy. She’s an eager rookie who wants to live her dream of being a Ranger, doing all she can to
try and live up to her grandmother’s legacy. Though young and inexperienced, Izzy manages
to be skilled, clever, caring and even brave at times, such as when she faces her fear of
space to save Buzz. Speaking of Buzz, although their connection takes a bit of time to form,
most of the scenes they have together are pretty enjoyable. The only flaw one could say about
Izzy is that, in some personality aspects, she may be a bit TOO similar to her grandmother,
which may make it hard for her to stand out. As for Darby and Mo, well… if we’re being honest,
there isn’t a whole lot to them. Darby’s a former convict who’s good at blowing stuff up and Mo
is a clumsy and anxious newbie who has to prove himself. Mo especially seems to get the short end
of the stick, as his constant mistakes may come off as annoying to the audience as they wait for
him to FINALLY prove himself in the end. Not even Taika Watiti’s performance can do much to
help Mo be more than just “the clumsy and nervous one”. Outside of a brief shootout and a couple
funny jokes, Darby doesn’t really get much time to shine either - which really is a shame given that
criminal-turned-good-guy characters are almost always fun. Finishing off the team robot/cat, Sox
is certainly one of the film’s highlights for many people. As we’ve said in a previous video, he’s
very reminiscent of “Big Hero 6”s Baymax in how caring, sympathetic and helpful he can be. Making
him a cute kitty may be cheating, but either way, he manages to be VERY endearing, lovable and fun.
So, while both teams have their positives, this writer personally feels like the 2000 team
stands out more - not just in terms of personality and interesting character aspects, but just in
terms of color and character design. Honestly, who wouldn’t want cool aliens on their team?
Additionally, when it comes to the latter team, it almost feels like they could do
without half the team. If you're able to get rid of two out of four side characters
without it affecting too much, you may need to go back to the writer's room.
Of course, a hero isn’t able to save the day if they don’t have a villain to fight,
so let’s compare the Emperor Zurgs of the two films.
The Zurg of the 2000s movie is your typical Saturday Morning Cartoon villain,
being completely over the top and totally evil with a wicked temper to boot. This
Zurg is the type of guy who surrounds himself with henchmen that he threatens on the daily,
who taunts the hero whenever he gets the chance, and who is more than happy
to turn an entire planet literally filled with widows and orphans evil. You want campy? THIS
is campy! But for as funny as this Zurg is, we can’t say that he’s a total clown. He’s
able to still be fairly threatening and intimidating at times, having the power
to back-up his threats and even nearly winning before being defeated. You completely understand
why Buzz is so focused on taking this guy down, making it all the more satisfying when he does.
The 2022 Zurg, however, unfortunately falls victim to something that’s been plaguing many
Disney and Pixar films since the mid-2000s, that being the Twist Villain trope. Instead of being a
galactic emperor or hammy villain, this Zurg is in fact a much older, alternate timeline version of
Buzz himself. Going back to the “Up” comparisons, Zurg is meant to not only be Buzz’s dark side but
to show what happens when someone refuses to let go of the past and give up on their mission. Now,
we can’t say that this is a TERRIBLE idea, though we still question if it makes total sense… Anyway,
the idea of Buzz’s biggest enemy essentially being himself certainly isn’t a bad one,
but it’s admittedly done pretty shallowly in this movie, making it feel almost rushed in a
way. Even if Zurg didn’t have the same experiences with the Junior Defense Force trio as Buzz did,
he’s still Buzz! So seeing him become so outright and unapologetically evil without even a hint of
self-reflection and being so willing to murder his past self is pretty jarring to say the least. We
get that the point of this Zurg is to show what happens when someone is “blinded by the mission”,
but given that this Zurg isn’t an actual robot, you have to wonder where all his humanity went.
We also barely get to know this Zurg due to him being kept in the shadows for half the movie,
and while he may technically be more interesting than the 2000s Zurg, he still not as entertaining
as the 2000s Zurg. Additionally, because this Zurg isn’t very nuanced,
it makes you miss his previously hammy and campy personality even more. There are two types of
animated villains in this world after all, and if you can’t be compelling and interesting,
then you’d better hope you’re funny and memorable - and this Zurg struggles to be either.
Needless to say, the 2000s Zurg easily wins this comparison, at least in our
opinion. With 2022!Zurg, he's honestly one of the weakest and underdeveloped aspects of
"Lightyear", with his actual transformation into a villain
being fairly shallow and having more telling instead of showing.
Before we get to our final section, we wanted to briefly discuss the worlds and animation
of each movie. Both films take place in space, however the earlier film is willing to bring in
many different types of aliens and fun creatures while the latter film sticks to faceless vines,
giant beetles and robots. We only see a few locations on Tikana Prime and other
than Zurg’s ship we don’t see any other part of the galaxy, making the film feel
sort of small-scale in a sense and not quite as vast or as interesting as the 2000s film. Oh,
and don’t get us started on the frankly bland color pallet of the 2022 film. Realistic, yes,
but when you’re making an animated film, realism isn’t necessarily what you always want to go for.
Speaking of which, though the animation of the 2000s film is obviously a bit cheaper and not
quite as polished as the usual fare that we see out of Disney Animation, it still has a lot of
merit. In addition to competent animation - even if the mouths don’t always match the dialogue - we
get some really strong posing and cool color pallets and lighting swaps throughout the movie,
particularly during the action scenes and the climax. Having everything go red or
orange during a scene or using shadows to build suspense just further adds to the experience.
As for “Lightyear”, well… We certainly can’t call it terrible. In fact, many critics have
compared the film to live-action, considering it one of Pixar’s best looking films to date. We
can’t deny that the film’s polished, but again it’s a case of realism VS stylization - and
when it comes to that particular debate, it really does come down to personal taste.
We will say though, if you're gonna make an animated movie,
why not go all out with the colors and creativity? "Buzz Lightyear of
Star Command" may not be the prettiest movie, but it's certainly memorable and pretty fun to boot!
Finally, we wanted to touch on the major themes of each film.
Starting with the 2022 film this time, we will admit that “Lightyear” does a decent
job in its themes of letting go of the past and accepting one’s mistakes and finding a new future,
even if other films may do a slightly better job tackling these themes. Still,
seeing Buzz finally start to let go of his guilt is pretty nice to see.
But besides that, both films end up focusing on the themes of teamwork and learning when to ask
for help. In both films, Buzz has a hard time taking on a new partner - with the 2022 Buzz
being particularly against rookies, often looking down on them. This really does harm his character,
as Buzz being so against having a partner in this instance comes off as him being a bit
self-centered and a bit of a jerk. Now, he does make it clear that he also doesn’t want the trio
he’s stuck with to get hurt, but this doesn’t stop him from being a bit careless and self-focused
while with them. Heck, he’s so focused on leaving the trio that he forgets to tell them about the
stealth-mode timer on their suits, putting them in further danger. Although it’s a relief to see
Buzz finally accept help from others, getting there may be a bit of a slog for some audiences.
As for the 2000’s Buzz, he actually had a pretty understandable reason for not wanting a partner
besides just having trust issues when it comes to rookies. Buzz had to witness his previous partner,
Warp Darkmatter, sacrifice himself to save Buzz’s life. Even though this later proved
to be a ruse and Warp turned out to be a bad guy, Buzz still felt the guilt that came with
losing a partner. As such, it makes total sense why Buzz wouldn’t want anyone else to
put themselves in danger for his sake and helps smooth out the story a bit.
Now, to be fair, it could be argued that both Buzzes have a somewhat rushed turnaround time
when it comes to admitting that they need help and accepting new partners,
so in that sense we can’t really say which film portrays this particular theme in a better way.
If we did have to pick though, we'd say that the connections that we see
between the characters in the 2000 film feel slightly stronger than the ones in "Lightyear".
But like many of the other comparisons that we’ve mentioned today, whether you prefer the
original “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command” or the new “Lightyear” will likely depend
on your personal tastes. But for us personally, we’ll always have a bit of a soft spot for the
Saturday morning adventures of Buzz, Mira, Booster and XR and see that film as the more enjoyable
of the two. And if you prefer the team from “Lightyear”, then hey, that’s perfectly fine too!
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our points,
and tell us what we should cover next! Remember to hit that notification bell
and binge more of our videos. But most importantly, stay wicked!