I've always been more of a Pixar kid than a Disney kid. Just like Andy, I fell in love with Woody, Buzz & Co back then, just as much as all the other Pixar movies that came after. As soon as Juxo Jr. jumps over the picture and turns to the I before stomping it, I knew I was now being pulled into another world by an extremely creative, unique and emotional story and could forget everything around me.

In recent years, it's been noticeable that the Mouse House is restructuring quite a bit at its subsidiary. More is being tried out, other directions are being taken, and up-and-coming talent in particular is being encouraged, and rightly so. But this also leads to the fact that the way of storytelling is stretched further and enters into other atmospheres. There were always very charming and sweet stories, but with the exception of "Soul", not a single Pixar film in the last 3-4 years really got me.

With "Lightyear", however, I had hope for a very big vision: to expand the Toy Story Universe and explain the background of one of its most popular characters. Now after watching it, I feel like I got the Han Solo treatment and wonder if I really needed it. Not only was it the first time a short film was missing beforehand, but I also missed that certain creativity I was used to from Pixar. In "Lightyear" there are rudiments of what I wanted to see, the space-fascinated child in me looked at some points to emerge and was quite carried away by the visuals, but what I was missing was a coherent story: Instead of an obscure quest from station to station to play through, where I never really felt as if there was a big drop and sentences that were repeated by the characters over and over again, I asked myself:

What really makes Buzz Lightyear so special? Why is he this action figure that Andy got so carried away with? And why does the movie, which is supposed to explain to us what makes this Space Ranger tick, manage to give so much more heart to a robot cat, so that it suddenly steals the show from him? I would have much rather owned a Sox as a kid (and even now) instead of a Lightyear. I feel like the mystery surrounding this character was touched on, but now in hindsight I would have preferred not to know his background. The more I think about it, the less I need prequels to already established personalities, because even without this movie, I would have followed Buzz to infinity and beyond either way.