Lightyear
Forum Hungary | Release Date: June 17, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 57 Critic Reviews
Positive:
29
Mixed:
26
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 13, 2022
This is a funny spinoff with suspense and heart, a captivatingly spirited toon take on splashy live-action retro popcorn entertainment. The title character is given splendid voice by Chris Evans, balancing heroism and human fallibility with infectious warmth. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJun 17, 2022
Lightyear’s dazzling first half showcases the wittiest comic action from the Pixar folks in many years. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonJun 13, 2022
As far as spin-offs go, “Lightyear” is a lot of fun. The voice talent is topnotch, especially Palmer and Evans. Read full review
85
Film ThreatAlan NgJun 17, 2022
Returning in Lightyear is the trademark Pixar sense of humor. Like every film, all jokes are meticulously crafted in a way that will make children laugh and adults laugh harder. Read full review
84
PolygonTasha RobinsonJun 13, 2022
Lightyear is so clearly calibrated to be something more: a thoughtful meditation on the passage of time. And on that level, the film never hits as hard as it’s meant to. Read full review
83
Original-CinKaren GordonJun 16, 2022
True to Pixar’s magic storytelling, Lightyear offers a much deeper and more complex set of ideas for adult viewers on that very theme, without being heavy or depressing. There is much sweetness here. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 13, 2022
The film just bounces along, zipping through its running time. Read full review
80
Screen RantBen KendrickJun 13, 2022
Lightyear is a clever expansion of Pixar's beloved Toy Story franchise - packed with fun moments, warm sentiment, and downright gorgeous animation. Read full review
79
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzJun 14, 2022
If you can divorce Lightyear’s shareholder-appeasing origins from its actual cinematic accomplishments, then we’re left with a rather beautiful, often thrilling, sometimes devastating adventure. Read full review
75
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJun 17, 2022
One side effect of a tagalong project like Lightyear is that even while the movie is rightly being shrugged off as another reheat, moments of real artistry will get overlooked. The animation in this Toy Story-adjacent adventure is astounding; with each new movie, the studio advances the art form in incremental ways. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJun 16, 2022
The movie is one of the better pieces of family entertainment released so far this year. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJun 16, 2022
This is a high-concept and yes, meta, film that springs from a clever premise and delivers wholesome, energetic, positive-messaging entertainment — even if there are some plot developments straight out of “Interstellar” meets “Back to the Future” that will sail above the heads of the little ones. Read full review
75
ObserverOliver JonesJun 14, 2022
In the end, Pixar has made essentially a gritty prison movie for kids disguised as a large sci-fi spectacle. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyJun 14, 2022
Lightyear overcomes gravity of the physical sort. That’s what Space Command specializes in. It has a harder time with the emotional kind. Read full review
75
USA TodayBrian TruittJun 13, 2022
“Lightyear” is a crowd-pleasing effort that doesn’t shoot for the moon but manages to be a nostalgic blast anyway. Read full review
75
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJun 13, 2022
Lightyear is a beautiful starship with precious genre cargo, functional and direct in its simple mission to carry on. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyPatrick GomezJun 13, 2022
Kids will love Lightyear. Adults will enjoy it. The only reason it falls short of what we've come to expect from Pixar is that they've set their own bar so damn high. Read full review
75
ConsequencePaulo RagusaJun 13, 2022
If Lightyear is a spaceship heading to infinity and beyond, it's a little bit stuck in its own solar system for now — but that doesn't mean it's not worth the ride. Read full review
73
CNETSteph PanecasioJun 15, 2022
It'll definitely keep the kids entertained and ultimately, if it gives another generation reason to fall in love with Buzz, that's all that matters. Read full review
70
VoxAlex Abad-SantosJun 17, 2022
Lightyear itself is a sweet musing on the value of friendship, an origin story that gives the titular character a sense of purpose, and a zippy ride through an often-gorgeous cosmic world. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalKyle SmithJun 17, 2022
It’s nice to know that Team Pixar can still recognize the importance of fun. Though Lightyear isn’t as funny as the original “Toy Story,” nor as emotionally potent as “Toy Story 2,” and hence probably won’t be rewatched nearly as many times as those two classics, it’s a plucky and rousing little sci-fi saga. Read full review
70
ABC NewsPeter TraversJun 17, 2022
More trifling lark than a new Pixar landmark, this toon hits the sweet spot as the story of astronaut Buzz Lightyear before he became a toy. Chris Evans voices the Buzz bluster, but it's breakthrough star Sox the cat who steals scenes to infinity and beyond. Read full review
70
SlashfilmHoai-Tran BuiJun 13, 2022
Lightyear may not reach the heights of the great sci-fi movies that it pays tribute to, or even the "Toy Story" movies themselves. But it's a visually impressive, escapist riff on the sci-fi epic that, at the very least, might become the favorite movie of some kid, somewhere. Read full review
70
IGNAmelia EmberwingJun 13, 2022
Strong performances and attractive visuals keep Lightyear afloat, but the story isn’t the quality you’d expect from Pixar. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 13, 2022
Given that it’s a spinoff of the “Toy Story” series, which is the greatest and most sustained achievement in contemporary animation, it should be noted that this is one of those Pixar movies that feels like it has 50 percent Disney DNA. Read full review
70
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJun 13, 2022
So maybe Lightyear isn’t the kind of movie that Hollywood would have made in 1995. As a 2022 movie, it works just fine. Read full review
67
ColliderRoss BonaimeJun 13, 2022
Lightyear is still an extremely fun action sci-fi film that is better than most animated films released in a given year, and will bring a smile to fans of this character. Read full review
65
CNNBrian LowryJun 13, 2022
The most interesting aspect of "Lightyear" is dispensed with in the first 15 seconds, when it's explained how and why you're watching a movie devoted to the action-figure character from "Toy Story." After that, the movie works primarily as a fairly likable action vehicle mixed with a familiar rumination on what defines a life, without rising into that top tier of Pixar fare its predecessors occupied. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJun 17, 2022
Had there been more to Lightyear than a retread of sci-fi cliches with a beloved character, I would have been less disappointed. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJun 16, 2022
Nostalgia rarely factors into Lightyear, which makes the franchise connection feel almost like a bit of window dressing slapped on to an entirely unrelated sci-fi story. Maybe that’s the only way to get butts in seats these days. Especially to watch what is, at the end of the day, a film that does the job it needs to do but without a crumb of anything more. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottJun 15, 2022
Lightyear, directed by Angus MacLane from a script by Jason Headley, aims to please by pandering, to be good-enough entertainment. As such, it succeeds in a manner more in line with second-tier Disney animation than with top-shelf Pixar. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 13, 2022
One of Pixar’s most beloved characters gets an origin story with Lightyear, a lacklustre sci-fi adventure which misses the wit and wonder that have been the studio’s hallmarks for decades. Read full review
60
Rolling StoneDavid FearJun 13, 2022
It is, in essence, a light, breezy, better-than-average Disney movie that just happens to feature a most-valuable Pixar player, while barely feeling like a Pixar movie at all. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJun 13, 2022
It’s a film of modest charms and secondhand pleasures, enough to help pass a summer afternoon, if not to quell the sense that it was made for less-than-creative reasons. Read full review
60
Total FilmJamie GrahamJun 13, 2022
Andy’s favourite sci-fi movie won’t be yours. But it’s a fun adventure with animation that sucks your eyeballs from their sockets. Read full review
60
EmpireSophie ButcherJun 13, 2022
Despite its messy plot and underwhelming villain, the strong voice performances and stunning visuals — and, of course, Sox the cat — make Lightyear a solid space adventure. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJun 13, 2022
“Lightyear” is an OK movie. Chris Evans as the voice of this version of Buzz is a nice touch. But there’s just no magic here. Read full review
58
The PlaylistCarlos AguilarJun 13, 2022
Following Pixar’s two most refreshing releases in years, “Luca” and “Turning Red,” both of which were deemed unworthy of a full theatrical release, it’s difficult not to perceive “Lightyear” as a far less compelling and safe bet. How tiresome it is that most studio productions must now exist as part of a larger multiverse in order to merit exposure. In the end, “Lightyear” reveals that today, given Disney’s business model, “to infinity and beyond” really only means to the inevitable sequel. Read full review
58
The A.V. ClubTomris LafflyJun 13, 2022
What ultimately waters down Lightyear, an otherwise polished, gorgeous-looking entry into the Pixar oeuvre, is an absence of the excitement and disciplined storytelling spirit that made Toy Story such a pioneering hit. Read full review
50
The AtlanticDavid SimsJun 21, 2022
While all of the film’s visual excitement is handled with Pixar’s usual polish, the intrigue is only surface-level. Read full review
50
SlateDana StevensJun 17, 2022
There’s a rueful irony to the fact that it’s this supposedly human inspiration for the beloved toy who feels more like a plastic action figure. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMatthew MonagleJun 16, 2022
Whatever magic Lightyear musters onscreen is undermined by the unfulfilled potential of the narrative. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJun 16, 2022
While the movie feels empty and pointless overall, it’s not without its scattered interesting elements. Read full review
50
Washington PostAlan ZilbermanJun 14, 2022
If the film is aspirational, showing Andy what it means to be a dependable ally, then MacLane sacrifices pure entertainment for a loftier purpose. A more straightforward clash between good and evil might have touched on the same themes, without sacrificing the action kids could mimic with toys. Read full review
50
TimeStephanie ZacharekJun 14, 2022
While Buzz strides through every scene with plodding virility, Sox pads along breezily, minding his own business unless he’s called upon to save the day, which is often. Sox is the secret star of Lightyear. But not even he is a great enough creation to warrant his own spinoff. Read full review
50
The Associated PressJake CoyleJun 13, 2022
A dead-end wrong turn in the usually boundless Pixar universe. Buzz, himself, is a bit of a bore, too. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJun 13, 2022
Impressive as it looks, it’s emotionally lacking, humorless and kind of dull. Read full review
50
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJun 13, 2022
Rather than play like a significant departure from the “Toy Story” films that spawned it, Lightyear instead emerges as a disappointing runner-up, capturing but a fraction of the comedy, thrills and poignancy of its predecessors. Read full review
50
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 13, 2022
Lightyear is the first movie that Pixar has released in theaters since the start of the pandemic, a return to normal that would probably feel more exciting if Lightyear wasn’t also the first Pixar movie since the start of the pandemic that feels like it only belongs on Disney Plus. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonJun 13, 2022
The film is a slickly produced but soulless spectacle whose jokey banter and space-opera action drowns out the story’s emotional beats. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJun 20, 2022
The aspect that’s traditionally elevated Pixar animations, the dizzy wit and inventiveness of the screenplay, is missing from this dispiriting trudge through outer space, via some box-ticking messaging along the way. Read full review
40
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJun 17, 2022
What they’ve visually pulled off in Lightyear is stunning stuff. The story, sadly, does not rise up to meet that work. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesTara BradyJun 17, 2022
Lightyear may well feature the studio’s best opening gambit since Wall-E and Up, but the film quickly falls into, well, adequacy. Read full review
40
Time OutKaleem AftabJun 14, 2022
For Pixar, which must surely have a Woody western in mind, it’s a wake-up call. Let’s hope they’re soon back on more fertile ground, because Lightyear feels like that horrible moment when you broke a much-loved toy. Read full review
40
BBCNicholas BarberJun 13, 2022
The story is thin, repetitive, and almost entirely dependent on the heroes being clumsy. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJun 13, 2022
Ultimately, the people who made “Lightyear” bet too much on the appeal of Buzz, when they really needed to be deepening him and transforming him. Buzz is no Woody, and to sustain an entire movie, he pretty much had to be. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJun 13, 2022
For perhaps the first time in the studio’s canon, every idea in this ‘origin story’ of the Toy Story astronaut feels woefully half-baked. Read full review
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