Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

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Buzz Lightyear of Star Command:
The Adventure Begins
Buzz Lightyear of star command poster.jpg
Promotional poster
Directed byTad Stones
Written by
Based onToy Story
by John Lasseter
Pete Docter
Andrew Stanton
Joe Ranft
Produced by
  • Mark McCorkle
  • Bob Schooley
  • Tad Stones
Starring
Edited byJohn Royer
Music byAdam Berry
Production
companies
Distributed byBuena Vista Home Entertainment[1]
Release date
  • August 8, 2000 (2000-08-08) (United States)
Running time
70 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States[1]
LanguageEnglish

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (originally advertised as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Movie and also known as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command) is a 2000 American animated science fiction action-adventure comedy direct-to-video film. It serves as a spin-off of the Toy Story franchise and was released on August 8, 2000.[2] The film later led to a television series, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, which aired on UPN and ABC from October 2000 to January 2001, and a CGI-animated feature film, Lightyear, which was theatrically released in the United States in June 2022, serving as an origin story for the character, voiced by Chris Evans. The film was nominated for two Video Premiere Awards: Best Animated Video Premiere and Best Animated Character Performance for Allen.

Plot[edit]

A framing device shows Andy's bedroom (after the events of Toy Story 2) where all of his toys are about to watch the VHS copy of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins.

In the film, Buzz Lightyear and his partner Warp Darkmatter are searching for three missing Little Green Men (L.G.M.), a noosphere-dwelling race working as scientists for Star Command's Universe Protection Unit. They discover the lost L.G.M. in a hidden lab belonging to an organization led by the evil Emperor Zurg. Buzz and Warp break in and rescue the L.G.M., keeping Zurg's robots busy while they escape. However, Zurg triggers the self-destruct mechanism; Warp gets pinned under debris and forces Buzz to leave just before the explosion happens, apparently killing Warp. Stricken with survivor guilt over Warp's death, Buzz refuses to have another partner, fearing that Zurg would kill them as well.

He then meets up with Commander Nebula, who introduces him to Mira Nova, a prodigy ranger and the princess of the planet Tangea, which Buzz saved from Zurg a while back, and offers her to Buzz as his new partner. With the power of "ghosting", Nova is nearly invincible, but Buzz is still reluctant. Afterwards Buzz later prevents a well-meaning janitor named Booster, who dreams of becoming a space ranger himself one day, from being fired. Meanwhile, in Zurg's fortress, a new henchman called Agent Z arrives with a multi-weapon robotic arm. Zurg learns of a huge orb on the L.G.M. homeworld called the Uni-Mind, responsible for the telepathic link between them; he sends his new agent to capture it. The L.G.M.s on Star Command build a new robot soldier called XR, who is offered to Buzz as a partner as he can be repaired after any damage. They then get a telepathic message about Zurg's attack on their homeworld. When Buzz and XR arrive on the L.G.M. planet, Agent Z confronts them and destroys XR while Zurg steals the Uni-Mind. Unable to think clearly, the L.G.M. rebuild XR, but end up giving him a mind of his own. Commander Nebula decides to launch a full-scale assault on Planet Z, despite Mira's argument that a solo ranger could go to stop Zurg with the prototype Alpha-One.

Zurg corrupts the Uni-Mind with his own evil thoughts and installs it into the "Mega-Ray" to bend everyone to Zurg's will. Mira steals the Alpha-One prototype spacecraft to fight Zurg, and Buzz, who wanted to follow her plan, pursues Mira in his own craft, unaware Booster and XR have stowawayed. Eventually, Buzz catches Mira and stores Alpha-One in his spaceship's cargo bay; Booster and XR are then discovered. Zurg's Mega-Ray subverts several planets in quick succession before turning it on Star Command. Buzz, Mira, Booster, and XR discover all of the staff, including Nebula, have been suborned by Zurg; they flee in Buzz's Star Cruiser. Zurg uses Star Command's entire arsenal, planting a bomb on Buzz's ship. Buzz and the others escape in the Alpha-One just before the bomb detonates, destroying the cruiser. Zurg presumes Buzz dead.

Booster accidentally causes the ship to crash-land on Planet Z. There, Buzz, insistent on finishing the mission alone, orders the others to leave. Buzz fights Agent Z, but is incapacitated and delivered to Zurg when Agent Z reveals himself to be Warp, who, in addition to having faked his death, was secretly working for Zurg for years as a double agent. Buzz dictates his "final log entry", a coded distress call to Mira, Booster and XR.

Zurg plans to use the Mega-Ray on Buzz, but XR and Booster intervene in time to rescue him as it fires. Booster and Mira destroy Warp's mechanical arm after Booster lands on him. Buzz fights Zurg, who escapes before Buzz's allies can arrest him. Booster and XR arrest Warp and skydive from Zurg's exploding tower. Mira uses her "ghosting" power to push Buzz to the core of the Uni-Mind and restore it to normal, freeing the suborned peoples and leaving Zurg momentarily helpless and dismayed. The unity of the L.G.M. is restored and Warp is taken to prison for treason.

Buzz, having finally admitted that he cannot work alone, creates a new team called "Team Lightyear" with XR, Mira and Booster.

Voice cast[edit]

In addition, there is the cast of characters that appeared in the film's opening sequence:

Production[edit]

Set in the fictional universe of the Disney/Pixar film series Toy Story, the film inspired a line of Buzz Lightyear toys. The opening computer-animated sequence was directed by Angus MacLane at Pixar, while the main parts of the film are traditionally animated by Walt Disney Television Animation. It was the only production that was a spin-off of a Pixar film until 2013's theatrical Cars spin-off film Planes produced by Disneytoon Studios. The movie was written and produced by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle, who would later go on to create Kim Possible for Disney Channel.

Originally announced and advertised as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Movie, the series had not yet premiered, so the title was later changed to The Adventure Begins. This marks the one time that Pixar had involvement with a straight to video movie.

Tim Allen, Wallace Shawn, R. Lee Ermey, and Joe Ranft reprised their roles from the films. Woody is voiced by Jim Hanks, the brother of his original actor Tom Hanks,[3] and Hamm is voiced by Andrew Stanton replacing his original actor John Ratzenberger.

Originally, Patrick Warburton voiced Buzz for the film, but when it was released to video, he was replaced by Allen.[citation needed] When the movie was later aired as the first three episodes of the television show Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, the opening sequence in Andy's bedroom was removed, and Warburton's vocal performance replaced Allen's.

During the film's end credits, the song, "To Infinity and Beyond", was arranged by Randy Petersen and Tim Heintz and performed by William Shatner and the Star Command Chorus.

DVD and VHS[edit]

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins was released to VHS and DVD on August 8, 2000.[4] At its initial release, the VHS sold for $25, and the DVD sold for $30.[5] The VHS has trailers for Disney’s 102 Dalmatians, The Emperor’s New Groove, The Tigger Movie, Fantasia 2000, Toy Story 2.[6] It also includes previews for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command TV series and Buzz Lightyear of Star Command video game.[7]

The DVD bonus features are titled as follows: Rogues’ Gallery Game, Digital Comic Book, and Star Command Trivia Game.[8] Rogues’ Gallery Game asks the player to identify villains from the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command series.[9] The participant uses their DVD remote to select an icon with that character’s face.[9] There are a total of 10 villains to choose from.[10] The gamer must answer two questions about each character.[11] After answering the first question correctly, the player is presented with a character profile of that villain.[12] After the second correct answer, a short video on that character is displayed.[13] After answering all the questions correctly, there is a concluding video and then the activity ends.[9] The digital comic book has two options, read to yourself or have it read to you.[14] The comic book is titled The Emperor’s New Throne, and it tells the story of how Buzz Lightyear stopped Zurg from taking over Princess Mira Nova’s home planet.[15] The Star Command Trivia Game asks the participant a total of 16 questions about the movie.[9] They are multiple choice with four options per question.[16] At the end, the gamer is presented with a screen that tells them how many questions they answered correctly.[17]

The DVD audio track is recorded in 5.1 Dolby Digital with optional English subtitles.[18] The DVD previews are 102 Dalmatians, The Tigger Movie, Fantasia 2000, Toy Story 2, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command TV series, and the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command video game.[19] This movie has two different versions, a 1.33:1 (4:3) full-screen version on the VHS and a 1.78:1 (16:9) wide-screen version on the DVD.[20] Although the DVD uses a wide-screen aspect ratio, it is not enhanced for 16:9 wide-screen TVs.[21] The disc was designed to be played on a 4:3 TV, so there is a built in black boarder on the top and bottom of the video.[22] This feature had originally been slated as the pilot episode for the TV show and as a result was intended to be shown in 4:3 but was later cropped to 16:9.[23][24]

Reception[edit]

Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly rated the film D+ and called it "a straight-to-tape travesty".[25] Susan King of the Los Angeles Times described the animation as "a cut above the norm" for direct-to-video films, and she said the script is "breezy and funny".[26]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Year Award Title Recipient Result
2001 Video Premiere Award[27] Best Animated Character Performance Tim Allen (voice), Greg Guler (key character designer: Buzz Lightyear) Nominated
Best Animated Video Premiere Mike Karafilis (producer),[c] Mark McCorkle (producer), Bob Schooley (producer), Tad Stones (producer) Nominated

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Patrick Warburton voices Lightyear in the television edit of the film, presented as three episodes of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command television series.
  2. ^ Animation outsourced to Walt Disney Animation Japan.
  3. ^ Credited as associate producer

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (2000)". Allmovie. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Stack, Peter (August 13, 2000). "Buzz Lightyear Tops Stack of Kid Stuff". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved March 25, 2011.
  3. ^ Fretts, Bruce (August 8, 2000). "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command Review". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on December 8, 2012. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  4. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  5. ^ independent, Susan King Susan King is a former entertainment writer at the Los Angeles Times who specialized in Classic Hollywood stories She also wrote about; foreign; Movies, Studio; TV, occasionally; Orange, theater stories Born in East; N.J.; History, She Received Her Master’s Degree in Film; Examiner, criticism at USC She worked for 10 years at the L. A. Herald; in 2016, came to work at The Times in January 1990 She left (2000-08-10). "Buzz Is Back". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  6. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [VHS]
  7. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [VHS]
  8. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  9. ^ a b c d Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  10. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  11. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  12. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  13. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  14. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  15. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  16. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  17. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins. Walt Disney Home Video, 2000. [DVD]
  18. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  19. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  20. ^ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (Video 2000) - Technical specifications - IMDb, retrieved 2023-03-09
  21. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  22. ^ "Anamorphic DVD - Anime News Network". www.animenewsnetwork.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  23. ^ "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins DVD Review". dvdizzy.com. Retrieved 2023-03-09.
  24. ^ Tucker, Neal (2020-05-19). "Complete Guide to "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins" [WITH VIDEOS]". D Is For Disney. Retrieved 2023-03-30.
  25. ^ Fretts, Bruce (August 11, 2000). "Video Review: 'Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  26. ^ King, Susan (August 10, 2000). "Buzz Is Back". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 18, 2020.
  27. ^ "Video Business Video Premiere Award winners". Variety. February 25, 2001. Retrieved January 18, 2014.

External links[edit]

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