Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

Plot

Buzz Lightyear and his partner Warp Darkmatter search 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 Buzz's archnemesis, Emperor Zurg. Buzz and Warp break in and rescue the L.G.M., but Zurg escapes and triggers the self-destruct mechanism. Warp gets pinned under debris and forces Buzz to leave just before the explosion, seemingly killing Warp.

Stricken with survivor guilt, Buzz refuses to have another partner. Commander Nebula introduces Buzz to Mira Nova, a prodigy ranger and princess of Tangea with the power of ghosting, but Buzz refuses her as a partner. Buzz prevents a janitor named Booster from being fired. Meanwhile, Zurg hires a new robotic henchman, Agent Z, and learns of the Uni-Mind, a large orb on the L.G.M. home world responsible for their telepathic link.

Zurg sends Agent Z to capture it. The L.G.M. build a new robot soldier called XR, capable of being repaired after any damage, and offer XR as Buzz's partner. The L.G.M. receive a telepathic message about Zurg's attack on their homeworld. Buzz and XR arrive on the L.G.M. planet, where Agent Z destroys XR and Zurg steals the Uni-Mind.

The L.G.M. rebuild XR, accidentally making him self-aware. Commander Nebula decides to launch a full-scale assault on Planet Z, despite Mira's argument that a solo ranger could stop Zurg with the Alpha-One prototype spacecraft.

Production

The beginning of the film includes a computer-animated Toy Story sequence set in Andy's bedroom, directed at Pixar Animation Studios by Angus MacLane, while the main film is traditionally animated by Walt Disney Television Animation. The introductory sequence features Tim Allen, Wallace Shawn, R. Lee Ermey, Joe Ranft, and Jeff Pidgeon reprising their roles.

Woody is voiced by Jim Hanks, and Hamm is voiced by Andrew Stanton. Patrick Warburton recorded his lines for the film first, but Tim Allen was brought in to redub the character at the request of Disney executives; Allen had to sync his lines to Buzz's mouth movements animated to Warburton's performance. Warburton's vocals were retained for the film's airing as individual episodes on Disney Channel.

Did You Know?

• Bruce Fretts of Entertainment Weekly rated the film D+ and called it 'a straight-to-tape travesty'.
• Susan King of the Los Angeles Times described the animation as 'a cut above the norm' for direct-to-video films.
• The film compiles three episodes of the television series into a single narrative.