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Buzz Lightyear: Adventures Of Star Command
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Before it even really begins, "Buzz Lightyear" spends a few moments irritatingly promoting itself, in a "Toy Story" opening. The film, weakly written and animated in the fashion of a Saturday morning cartoon (which, apparently, it will be), seems like an appetizer before the release of "Toy Story 2" in October.
There's one big problem with the entire thing. Where "Toy Story" told a wonderful, charming tale about friendship, "Buzz Lightyear" generally sinks to the level of most of what is offered to kids today. A lot of flash, a bit of action and really, nothing behind it. Tim Allen returns as the voice of Buzz, and that's probably the best thing about the production, as Allen did a fine job with the character in the "Toy Story" films and he does again here.
Here, he fights against the evil Emperor Zurg, and the film offers a number of action sequences that are somewhat awkwardly staged. Suprisingly, all of the action does become a little dull after a while, with the weakly written dialogue and subpar animation. Children's fare could be much better than this; even though "Buzz Lightyear" didn't carry over the stunning animation from "Toy Story", it could have at least carried over an engaging tale.
The DVD
VIDEO: Disney suprisingly offers another one of their animated titles in an anamorphic transfer and the results are very good, which makes me again wonder why they couldn't do this before with their animated features. As for "Buzz Lightyear", it's presented in 1.85:1, and although the animation isn't great, the picture is still pleasing. Sharpness is quite good, and detail is fine, as well.
Colors, as with any animated feature, is the most enjoyable element of the presentation. "Buzz Lightyear"'s space settings offer quite a few bold colors and the film as a whole varies from brighter tones to richer dark colors. All look good, and nicely saturated.
Problems are fairly minor; there are a few brief instances of slight pixelation, but other than that, there's really nothing to complain about. The print used seems clean and free of any flaws, and shimmering or other similar problems never showed up. All-in-all, fine looking image quality from Disney.
SOUND: "Buzz Lightyear" does offer Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, but suffers from sound use that is particularly uninspired. There's certainly a lot going on in the film, which offers laser fire and a few explosions. The film doesn't really seem to care to take advantage of these situations, and most of the audio remains in the front.
There is some surround use on occasion, but it's fairly subtle and not too effective. There are quite a few opportunities to have really created something more involving with the audio, but they aren't taken advantage of here. Audio coming from the front is fairly entertaining for the most part, but much of the sound effects are well, fairly "cartoonish" sounding.
The score sounds clean and clear, but not remarkable. It's a clear sounding presentation with no quality problems, but with all that goes on it could have certainly been more creative in its approach. Dialogue remains clear and easily heard.
MENUS:: As with all Disney animated titles, menus are pretty uncreative, offering nothing more than a few film-themed images.
EXTRAS: Another mistake from Disney. Originally announced as containing a commentary track, we only recieve the usual with the final product: a game, trivia and comic book. And of course, quite a few of the much-hated "forced trailers" that make an appearance on most Disney DVDs.
Final Thoughts: Maybe worth a rental for kids, who might find it somewhat enjoyable.
Before it even really begins, "Buzz Lightyear" spends a few moments irritatingly promoting itself, in a "Toy Story" opening. The film, weakly written and animated in the fashion of a Saturday morning cartoon (which, apparently, it will be), seems like an appetizer before the release of "Toy Story 2" in October.
There's one big problem with the entire thing. Where "Toy Story" told a wonderful, charming tale about friendship, "Buzz Lightyear" generally sinks to the level of most of what is offered to kids today. A lot of flash, a bit of action and really, nothing behind it. Tim Allen returns as the voice of Buzz, and that's probably the best thing about the production, as Allen did a fine job with the character in the "Toy Story" films and he does again here.
Here, he fights against the evil Emperor Zurg, and the film offers a number of action sequences that are somewhat awkwardly staged. Suprisingly, all of the action does become a little dull after a while, with the weakly written dialogue and subpar animation. Children's fare could be much better than this; even though "Buzz Lightyear" didn't carry over the stunning animation from "Toy Story", it could have at least carried over an engaging tale.
The DVD
VIDEO: Disney suprisingly offers another one of their animated titles in an anamorphic transfer and the results are very good, which makes me again wonder why they couldn't do this before with their animated features. As for "Buzz Lightyear", it's presented in 1.85:1, and although the animation isn't great, the picture is still pleasing. Sharpness is quite good, and detail is fine, as well.
Colors, as with any animated feature, is the most enjoyable element of the presentation. "Buzz Lightyear"'s space settings offer quite a few bold colors and the film as a whole varies from brighter tones to richer dark colors. All look good, and nicely saturated.
Problems are fairly minor; there are a few brief instances of slight pixelation, but other than that, there's really nothing to complain about. The print used seems clean and free of any flaws, and shimmering or other similar problems never showed up. All-in-all, fine looking image quality from Disney.
SOUND: "Buzz Lightyear" does offer Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, but suffers from sound use that is particularly uninspired. There's certainly a lot going on in the film, which offers laser fire and a few explosions. The film doesn't really seem to care to take advantage of these situations, and most of the audio remains in the front.
There is some surround use on occasion, but it's fairly subtle and not too effective. There are quite a few opportunities to have really created something more involving with the audio, but they aren't taken advantage of here. Audio coming from the front is fairly entertaining for the most part, but much of the sound effects are well, fairly "cartoonish" sounding.
The score sounds clean and clear, but not remarkable. It's a clear sounding presentation with no quality problems, but with all that goes on it could have certainly been more creative in its approach. Dialogue remains clear and easily heard.
MENUS:: As with all Disney animated titles, menus are pretty uncreative, offering nothing more than a few film-themed images.
EXTRAS: Another mistake from Disney. Originally announced as containing a commentary track, we only recieve the usual with the final product: a game, trivia and comic book. And of course, quite a few of the much-hated "forced trailers" that make an appearance on most Disney DVDs.
Final Thoughts: Maybe worth a rental for kids, who might find it somewhat enjoyable.
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