Lightyear

The concept of a human Buzz Lightyear, who exists in a fictional universe within a fictional universe, was first introduced in the 2000 direct-to-video film Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, which was then used as the pilot to the TV series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000–2001). MacLane, an avid science-fiction fan, pitched the idea of a film featuring Buzz Lightyear at Pixar, after finishing work on Finding Dory (2016). The project was officially announced in an investor meeting held by Disney in December 2020. The animators gave the film a “cinematic” and “chunky” look, evoking the science-fiction films MacLane grew up watching. To design the vehicles of the film, MacLane used Lego pieces to build various ships and pitch them to the designers and artists. For its IMAX scenes, the team used two virtual cameras, a regular camera with a 35mm equivalent sensor, and a larger sensor equivalent to 65 millimeters, a procedure earlier initiated by Pixar in WALL-E (2008). Development on Lightyear lasted for five and a half years, on an approximate $200 million budget. Michael Giacchino composed the film’s score, while Ren Klyce served as its sound designer.

Lightyear premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on June 8, 2022, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 17, in RealD 3D, 4DX, Dolby Cinema and IMAX formats. It became the first Pixar film to be released in theaters worldwide since Onward in March 2020, and the first to include scenes specifically formatted for IMAX theaters. The film underperformed at the box-office, grossing $226.4 million worldwide against a $200 million production budget, and losing the studio an estimated $106 million.

One year later, the crew has constructed a new colony to conduct repairs. However, after a four-minute test flight, Buzz finds that four years have passed on T’Kani Prime, due to the effects of time dilation from having traveled at relativistic speeds. Buzz is introduced to an orange robotic feline Sox and continues testing the hyperspace fuel. With every test, four more years pass on T’Kani Prime, until eventually over sixty-six years have passed. During this time, the colony develops, with Alisha raising a son with her wife Kiko, subsequently dying of old age, while Sox improves the fuel’s composition, allowing it to obtain faster-than-light speeds.

Against the orders of Alisha’s successor Commander Burnside, Buzz uses the new fuel composition for a successful hyperspace test. However, he skips another twenty-two years into the future during which T’Kani Prime has been invaded by Zyclops robots led by Zurg, the robots’ commander. Buzz meets up with members of the colony’s defense forces, including Alisha’s now-adult granddaughter Izzy Hawthorne, Mo Morrison, a fresh, naïve recruit, Darby Steel, an elderly paroled convict, and the robot DERIC. While initially reluctant to work with them, Buzz eventually warms to them after they escape from a nest of insects and investigate a mining facility to repair their ship. Together, they plan to destroy the invading force at Zurg’s mothership.

As they head back to the ship, Zurg intervenes and captures Buzz, then reveals himself to be an older version of Buzz from an alternate timeline, which split upon Buzz’s return to the planet after the successful hyperspace test: without the robot army to detain them, soldiers from the colony attempted to arrest Buzz under Burnside’s orders, forcing him to flee into space. This Buzz and his Sox escaped at full speed and, via time dilation, flew hundreds of years into the far future, where he encountered extremely advanced technology, and eventually developed a way to travel back in time to prevent himself from stranding the Star Command crew upon the planet. Having worn out his own fuel, Zurg needs fresh fuel to travel further into the past and complete his mission, so he requests it from his younger self. Realizing this would erase Alisha and Kiko’s life together, along with Izzy and the lives of all the other colonists, Buzz refuses.

Aided by Zurg’s Sox, Buzz and the cadets escape Zurg’s ship and set it to self-destruct. On their return to the planet via a crash landing, Zurg attacks and takes the fuel for himself. Buzz ejects to shoot the fuel, causing an explosion that seemingly kills Zurg. With the fuel gone, Buzz finally accepts T’Kani Prime as his home. Burnside arrests the group with the intention of detaining them for their reckless actions, but relents in light of Buzz’s bravery against the robot armada. Allowed to revive the Space Ranger Corps, Buzz unexpectedly selects Izzy, Mo, Darby, and Sox as his first trainees. With a new fuel crystal created using the computer left behind during the mutiny, Buzz and his team embark on a new adventure.

In the second post-credits scene, Zurg is shown to have survived the explosion.