Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

After the success of Toy Story and Toy Story 2, Disney released a direct to video pilot of the television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Starring Tim Allen, Nicole Sullivan, Stephen Furst, Larry Miller, Adam Carolla, Patrick Warburton, and Wayne Knight, it was the only film spin-off of a Pixar film until Planes.

Andy’s toys watch a VHS copy of the film.

Buzz Lightyear (Allen) vows to go solo after his partner dies searching for three missing Little Green Men (Warburton). However, Commander Nebula (Carolla) gives him new recruit Princess Mira Nova (Sullivan).

Meanwhile, Zurg (Knight) steals the Uni-Mind from the Little Green Men homeworld. He corrupts the universe, leading Buzz, Mira, a robot soldier named XR (Miller) and the janitor (Furst) to stop him.

This is actually quite a fun movie in every possible way.

The story is silly enough to be enjoyable, but not stupid enough to ruin what made Toy Story an enjoyable film in the first place. It provides us with the world Buzz originally believed himself to be from. And even though we can’t get a completely detailed setting within 71 minutes, it’s able to establish the vastness and uniqueness of the galaxy.

The characters are also good. They’re not completely one note and just complex enough to not go overboard for it being the pilot for a children’s television series. Zurg’s minions are also quite funny. They get that they’re working for an evil villain, but still hope that he’ll live up to promises made to them. It’s also telling that some of the characters are voiced in such a way that gives away their voice actors. Without effort, it’s not easy to tell that such distinct voices were warped for the LGMs and Zurg.

For a direct-to-video pilot, this may be one of the best that Disney’s put out.

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