BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR OF STAR COMMAND: THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

Starring: Patrick Warburton, Stephen Furst, et al.
Director: Chris Rutkowski, Victor Cook

Edition Details: Region 2 encoding (Europe, Middle East & Japan only), Dubbed, PAL

Movie: * *
Disc: * *

This is a direct-to-video animated Disney movie that features the familiar character of the same name from the popular Toy Story movies.

Unlike the Toy Story movies, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins (to use its full title) uses traditional and not computer animation. The standard of animation is no better or worse than the average breakfast kiddie cartoons.

With the video market being so lucrative, Disney began pumping out a lot of "sequels" to popular movies of theirs such as The Lion King, Aladdin, Cinderella, you name it. Obviously there are a lot of parents out there who have decided that their VCRs would make ideal babysitters. (I must be honest and admit that I bought it for the same reason: for when my baby daughter is old enough to watch it one day.)

Buzz Lightyear later on became a regular cartoon by the way. Sharper kids will notice that some of the voices in this movie differ from those used in the series and in the Toy Story movies. (This 70 minute "movie" is the pilot episode basically.)

As far as this sort of thing goes, Buzz Lightyear isn't so bad. After all, my wife and I managed to sit through it once, whereas we simply couldn't sit through that awful Cinderella sequel. It is, however, not aimed at parents and kids should love it: there are some silly gags, the pace is fast and there are lots of noise and special effects.

THE DISC: The image and sound quality is excellent. There is however a shortage of features: only a comic book feature, something the kids will probably flip through disinterested one day and never again. (Like all Disney DVDs there are obviously a hell of lot of trailers before the menu appears!)

WORTH IT? If you have kids, I suppose, yeah. Mine is too young to watch it as yet, but I am sure she'll love it. Despite planning ahead, I bought this at a bargain bin for cheaper than a VHS tape.

RECOMMENDATION: Two stars for adults, three stars for kids. Rent it, put it on for the little 'uns and go do the dishes . . .