Lightyear

While Pixar is at its best in the layered emotional realms of Inside Out and Soul, it’s nice to see the storied animation studio simply have fun and telling an entertaining yarn instead of balancing that with deep existential concerns.

Such musings have little place in Lightyear, an engaging romp that’s billed as the movie Toy Story kid Andy saw in 1995 that understandably stoked his desire to get a Buzz Lightyear action figure for his birthday. Truly, Angus MacLane’s feature debut is precisely the type of well-made action/comedy that would become a preteen boy’s favorite film, but it plays just as well for the young at heart.

After a clunky opening, the adventures of Buzz (voiced by Chris Evans) hit their groove as he begins flying test missions to help get a marooned colony of space explorers back home. Plenty of thrills arise via the gutsy flights, and paired with the comic relief of animatronic emotional-support cat SOX (The Good Dinosaur director Peter Sohn) and a rag-tag team of trainees voiced by Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, and Dale Soules (Orange is the New Black), Lightyear delights in classic Pixar form.

Now, on to the western that made Andy want a Woody doll.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co., Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: Disney/Pixar)