The Reel Rejects - LIGHTYEAR Movie Review!!

Episode Date: June 13, 2022

FRESH FROM THE MOVIE THEATER, We give our Review for LIGHTYEAR starring Chris Evans (Captain America) & Sox The Cat! It's been a while since our Trailer Reaction for The Toy Story Spin-Off / Pixar Film which also features Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, & James Brolin among others. Do Buzz & Friends go to Infinity & Beyond?!? Here's our Movie Review! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-reel-rejects/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This podcast is brought to you by Carvana. Buying a car shouldn't eat up your week. That's why Carvana made it convenient. Car buying that fits around your life, not the other way around. You can get pre-qualified for an auto loan in just a couple of minutes and browse thousands of quality car options, all within your terms, all online, all on your schedule. Turn car buying into a few clicks and not a full week's endeavor. Finance and buy your car at your convenience.

On Carvana. Financing subject to credit approval, additional terms and conditions may apply. At Chipotle, we also have a playlist. Guacamole as it's being hand-mashed. The sizzle of adobe chicken on the grill. The chopping of onions and cilantro. We call our playlist real. Order now.

Chipotle, for real. What's happening there, Reject Nation? Greg and John here today. We just got out of the premiere for the movie Light Year. John, I picked up one of these two at the hour. after party. I gave mine away to a little kid who wasn't able to get one. I took mine from a little kid who was. So all these people who think John's nicer than me.

No, I'm definitely more humble. And I think it shows. Your humbleness is off the charts right now, my guy. It's been a while since we've seen like one of the trailers for this film, but I was really much looking forward to it. Now, I want to get this out of the way. There's a lot of things that people debate about this. One thing to debate is, should you guys at the like button on this video? Yes, you absolutely should. I definitely think you should. I definitely think you should help us out on the algorithm. Secondly, what exactly is this movie? Is it a prequel? Is it based off a real life astronaut? I feel like I've always had it right and

John's had a very different point of view. Again, John, I'm much more humble than you to say that I was right. Can you please tell me what it was? I still don't know. This movie makes it abundantly clear at the very top of the film. This movie could have saved us a lot of confusion. Put it in the trailer. It's the literal first thing on screen. It's the context. Basically, what they set up is that there was a movie that Andy watched. that is about Buzz Lightyear and then the toys that you watch that he plays with with Buzz Lighter and Zerg and all that. That is based off of the movie that Andy watched. So it's like an in-universe film that you're watching.

With that in mind, I was kind of wondering very early on. It took a little bit of adjusting of... Could I really get into this movie, though? Because it made me so aware at the very top that this is a piece of fiction. This is a movie. I know that sounds silly and stupid because Toy Story is obviously a piece of fiction. But this is a movie within a franchise. Yeah.

Yeah, and it's drawing attention to itself that this is not real. Maybe the stakes won't feel real, but I got to say that I really think this movie actually very much delivered. So this film, in a lot of ways, is a big blend, a splice of a whole bunch of different space, sci-fi opera films that you've seen before. Things like Interstellar, Gravity, Star Trek, Star Wars, 2001, a Space Odyssey, Alien. And the best way I can describe the way they handled this space sci-fi genre was the way I felt with Incredibles, how they did the superhero genre, Pixar, of wow, they managed to do like a great animated medium version of a superhero genre and do things that you couldn't normally do in a superhero film. I thought that they did that here, but also keeping it very family-friendly and at times heart-wrenching, but always full of wonder. A lot of existential themes. We'll get into the plot in a little bit.

You want you to tell them, I imagine, do we echo the same? I think we do. Yeah. We want you to tell what the plot of this movie is actually about. The plot of the movie within the movie. Yes, within the movie. Basically, Buzz Light, you're the titular hero is on a mission to fix a mistake he made that basically strands all of Star Command, or at least his unit on this desert planet

that is very hostile. And then from there, beyond that come Zerg and other threats to deal with. He has to challenge himself as well as his. young group of cadets to rise to the occasion and save the day and hopefully complete the mission, get everybody back home. Yeah, you know, in the movie, Interstellar, it's a few years old, so slightly ruining the plot of Interstellar for you guys. What is that version of time travel called time? Not dilation. Time dilation. It is time dilation? Yeah, where if you're traveling at a different rate in time, time moves differently for you than it does for other people,

yeah. That painful experience of, oh my God, I've missed out on a few years, although my loved ones around me have aged. And the trailers do show that that is what he goes through in this film. One thing I thought that was so wonderful about this film of how they capture their characters is that so much of the way the plot unfolds is the protagonist making just human errors, human mistakes from trying to do the right thing. Yeah, it's always that one little thing you missed. Yeah. It's not just with Buzz Lightyear, who by the way is great in this film. I think Chris Evans had an exceptional job at capturing the essence that we knew and loved from what Tim Allen did with the toy version of Buzz Light Year, but he truly makes it his own. Like, it's very easy to

distinguish the two of them. And the fact that they do space travel in here, my mind to drift off for a split second going, oh man, it'd be cool if they did some like weird multiverse thing where he goes into the real world. Right, where he goes into like Andy's world specifically than our real world or something like that. We see like Buzz Light Year from Toy Story. How cool that mean? And Tim Allen shows up. Yeah, I think that would be a really awesome film. And I do think that he did such a great job here. A big part of what they set up with his character is his struggle to be able to cooperate and work with others, his ability to accept help, feeling like he always has to kind of do everything on his own. He has trust issues. Not that they really dive into the

background of that, but that is such a core essence of this character. And I think it's another movie that's great for family. And I think easily, easily the standout character, though. disgust it, but I'm just going to throw it to you. You know. Who is it? It's, it sucks. It's got to be socks, the cat. Yeah. The most adorable supporting character.

And I mean, Disney Pixar, they are known for these kinds of marketable supporting characters. But, hey, they knock it out of the park again. Sox is so much fun, a very useful character, but also a character with a huge amount of personality and really rounds out the ensemble for sure. Usually a bit cynical, whenever a character like that shows up at first, like, oh, here we go, the toy. And it's like literally a cute merchandise. It's a robotic cat.

So I'm like, you've designed merchandise. now to sell. Congratulations, Disney. And as I say, cynically, while attending your premiere. Thank you, Mickey Mouse. Easily, like, the crowd you could tell just fell in love with this character and was seriously the best part of the film. I actually would be like, no, yeah, no, Sox was the best part of the movie to me. Hands down. There's a, in a movie filled with good stuff and a lot of great, really enjoyable characters and voice performances, yeah, I mean, Sox is a scene stealer, absolutely. And as you see in the trailer, again, again, I'm referencing the, The trailer has to make sure not to spoil, because there's a lot of big plot things in this movie that are not revealed in the trailer. In the trailer, as you see, that when you start this movie off with Buzz Lightyear, his partner, Space Ranger Hawthorne is his partner, his best friend. And then as he gets a little bit more into the future, now he's dealing with the granddaughter.

Is the granddaughter, Kiki Palmer. Both Kiki Palmer? Or is only the granddaughter Kiki Pomer. Uzo Duba, I believe, is Alicia, the grandmother, his best friend. And then, yeah, Kiki Palmer is her granddaughter, is he? Well, both characters are wonderful. It's the really great characters. Moved to me, yeah.

There are all sorts of reasons people roll their eyes at like, oh, yeah, spunky young female astronaut or whatever. But yeah, like their friendship was so endearing and tangible. And then the relationship that unfolds with Izzy, the granddaughter, and, you know, the more sort of workplace struggles that they face as they try to solve these intergalactic problems set before them. Yeah, like there's a lot of really wonderful growth. There are moments, especially featuring those characters

in their relationship to Buzz that made me emotional. made me tear up, even during scenes that were also involving action and, you know, heavy stakes and whatnot. I mean, I'm glad you brought the action because this is some of the best action Pixar has done. It's like, do I think the fight scenes are as good as the Incredibles? I wouldn't necessarily say that, but it's very different. It's all sci-fi space stuff, you know, bugs, aliens, lasers, a lot of great camera movements.

I would say that this is one of the more intense Pixar movies. There are sequences in here that are just flat out suspenseful, and you do get that awe-inspiring space travel experience and it's pretty existential film you know yeah it manages to do what I think a lot of great space travel sci-fi even action sci-fi movies do while never feeling like it's pandering too young and never feeling like it's aiming way above anybody like it really has yeah some sci-fi themes some existential themes a lot of great character humor and beats and a you know big high concept story yeah yeah it's not like the more reflective sci-fi thing that Wally was.

But it's got shades of that. It's got, no, that's what I mean. It has, like, contextual exploration of those things. But the vibe is very space adventure. Yeah, absolutely. And I think they do a really wonderful, like, this is out of A, Pixar movies, and B, just animated movies right now. This was the most, I sort of lost the line between watching an animated film and watching

just a live action movie, like, even just the melding of Chris Evans' voice with the animation of that character. But even further, you mentioned. like the camera work, and I know there's been a big debate in movie culture recently about how do we credit cinematographers in, you know, these big CG movies because people think, oh, it's just effects animators, but no, like, cinematography is a huge part of it, and there's so many really amazing camera choices, lens choices, lighting choices, that really bring this to life and make you feel like you're watching a real movie, which is a weird thing

to say, because it is a real movie, but yeah, it makes you feel like you're watching a live action movie and you exist in the animated realm. Needless to say, like, the music is also great, I think there's a couple of supporting characters that took a little bit of time for me to warm up to, but eventually you do. And yeah, I don't really have an issue with this film. I'd actually say I want to watch this again on IMAX. Yeah, and I could have watched it for 10 or 15 minutes longer. And this is the first time and a long time I thought I want to see that in 3D. There's some really great scope.

Well, guys, the film delivered. Don't know what else to say. Thank you guys so much for being here because, yeah, this was a pretty blast. Thank you guys. Subscribe. Click that bell, and we'll talk with you guys soon. Dore, buddy, listen, man, we asked each other, who would we want to go to space with? You know, well, we decided who at our Patreon would be fun to go to space with, Lance Dore.

Tell them why, John. Lance, oh my God, in space where clearly strength means everything, you would be the person to command our intergalactic mission. We would go to infinity and beyond because of your. Or leadership, Lance, Dore. Your leadership, Lance, you would not make any mistakes whatsoever. And that's what I love about you, is just your unhuman levels of perfection, Lance. I just want you to know how much I hold you on this pedestal, all right? Space, the wonders of the cosmos.

Screw all that, buddy, all right? It's all about that beautiful, tan-canadian I know called Lance. Canadiens in space. Space Canadians and the world of the great white beyond Yeah man So hey

He's a fighter Now I can be a firefighter Dude How cool would Lance look putting out a fire in it In some kind of like spaceship corridor Yeah Yeah it would be cool It would be sexy

It must be a great way to get away from that family Once or for all Yeah Right Lance In space No one can be like hey, what about us, your life, your rocks. Best, best astronauts, stars go once.

Provide for us and be emotionally supportive. We've seen stories of people being like, I've got to be away from my family. It's heartbreaking, but what if there was a story about one who was like, I'm going to space to get away from my family? I didn't even want to go to space, but now that I'm up here, I don't have to talk to any of those people. A few lands.