‘Lightyear’ disappoints ‘Toy Story’ fans with weak character development

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Mosaic Journalism Workshop for Bay Area high school students, a two-week intensive course in journalism. Students in the program report and photograph stories under the guidance of professional journalists.

Buzz Lightyear went to infinity, but not beyond.

In the long-anticipated Pixar spinoff of the “Toy Story” movie franchise, “Lightyear” features a bad combination of rushed character development and poorly executed references to other sci-fi movies.

That might explain its low sales in its opening weekend — an estimated $51 million at U.S. and Canadian box offices, or $7.6 million behind the second weekend of Universal’s “Jurassic World: Dominion.” By the end of July, it had doubled that figure to $117.8 million. It is being released on Disney Plus on Aug. 3.

“Lightyear”’s structure relies on many worn-out science fiction storylines that have been told over and over — the classic alien bugs versus human explorers and the copy-and-paste of space capsule designs from other classic franchises were overdone to the point where the storyline seemed lacking in originality.

The movie aims to tell the origin story of “Toy Story” franchise character Andy’s toy Buzz Lightyear. Lightyear and the rest of the Star Command become stranded on a planet called Tkani Prime and struggle to bring people back to Earth. However, the plot lacks appeal or novelty except for its occasional shock factors, as past Lightyear spin-offs more or less told the same story.

Toward the middle of the movie, in a random second plot, a robot civilization competes against the Star Command’s civilization. The plot is lazily patched up by explaining that Lightyear quite literally made the problem himself  — with his alter ego creating time travel and wanting to hunt down himself.

Lightyear’s initially adorable self-narration transforms into an obnoxious, stuck-up caricature of his original self. Even when he learns to have faith in others in order to reach his ambitions, the character development is so rushed in the short film that it is difficult to empathize with its characters.

One exception is Alisha, Lightyear’s space ranger sidekick, who learns to be patient with Lightyear’s space adventures and builds a civilization on an alien planet that can sustain beyond her years.