Lightyear is so unbelievable sweet in the story that it tells and it’s a beautiful look at time, loss, and accepting the help of those around you. For someone like me, who grew up with the Toy Story movies, I found myself drawn to Woody over Buzz Lightyear (which I know is weird given my love of space). But Lightyear showed me why Andy would have wanted that new toy, the joy that this movie would have brought to an entire generation.
It’s release was plagued with nonsense. People missing the point on why it was Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz and not Tim Allen, the “controversy” of a gay couple being happily in love with each other. But through all that, Lightyear kept pressing on just as Star Command would have wanted and now the film is out on Disney+ and is available on DVD and digital! In preparation for the release, I spoke with star Dale Soules about the film, the reception of it, and the joy of playing Darby Steel.
Darby comes into Buzz’s life after he has time traveled too much and missed a life with his best friend Alisha (Uzo Aduba). Instead, he’s working with her granddaughter Izzy (Keke Palmer) and her team of officers whether they want to be or not. Darby is there on parole and definitely would rather be somewhere else but she works with the team and together, they all try and figure out how to get home or, for Buzz, how to accept his own failure and why that’s okay too.
Speaking to Dale Soules for the DVD release of the film was a blast and while she has a very varied career, she seems to love playing Darby very much. I asked her what has been some of her favorite reactions to the film so far now that it has been out and more people are seeing it.
“Well I have, of course, the children of some very good friends who thought I was very funny,” she joked. “And I liked that a lot. And generally speaking, the reactions from kids and adults that I know personally, they’ve been very very positive. They feel like the emotional lessons that are there are embedded in such a way that you’re not like ‘oh I see what they’re trying to say.’ It’s very subtly done but they get it by the end.”
You can see our interview here:
Lightyear is available on DVD now and it’s worth the watch, whether you were a Buzz Lightyear fan before or not.
(image: Pixar)
