Remember when Andy from “Toy Story” got a Buzz Lightyear toy from his favorite movie back in 1995?  Well “Lightyear” is that movie, and this film is the prequel to the juggernaut that is the famed “Toy Story,” 

The good news is that “Lightyear” more than charts its own intergalactic, engaging and amusing course.  Directed by longtime Pixar animator Angus MacLane and written by MacLane and Jason Headley, “Lightyear” is a perfect film for the summer. Kids will love it, adults will thoroughly enjoy and be bemused by its whimsical quirkiness.  Dare not to smile every time the words, “To Infinity and Beyond” are uttered! 

“Lightyear “tells the story of the famed Captain Buzz Lightyear (Chris Evans) a proud, sometimes cocky Space Ranger who has best friend and commanding officer, Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba) by his trusty side as they lead the security for a scientific expedition across the universe.  (Note that it’s wonderful to see Hawthorne in same sex relationship, so kudos to Pixar for that.)

Now back to Buzz.  Our hero screws up, and his entire team winds up being marooned on an alien planet.  Indefatigable Buzz is head strong on fixing the problem but nothing seems to work.  One of his ‘mistakes’ though leads up to travel to the murky future where he meets Hawthorne’s granddaughter (Keke Palmer).  Of course, his loyal companion, his robot cat, Sox (Peter Sohn), is glued to his side.  Sox is one of the most endearing characters ever; he pretty much steals every scene he’s in.  Buzz quickly teams up with her and other rag tag characters (Taika Waititi and Dale Soules) to stop the evil robot Zurg (James Brolin) and his evil robot army from occupying the planet they now find themselves on. 

We see our Buzz grow up into a team player, a leader and a guy who thought who knew it all, to a guy who is evolving, into his own ‘man.’  There are plotlines that zig zag all over the place.  But what stays constant is the adorableness, flaws and the wacky resourcefulness of the characters.  Lots of winks and nods to “Toy Story,” “Aliens,” “The Empire Strikes Back,” “Star Trek” and more, all  Sci-Fi Easter eggs that the kids and adults will happily catch.

“Lightyear “delivers in the best of the Pixar way: it’s big, the visuals are thrilling, and at its core is heartwarming and poignant.  And be prepared to see the singular adorable, irresistible feline Sox everywhere. Add to that a sensational score by Michael  Giacchino. Congrats to Pixar, the talented team there hit it out of their animated universe once again. 

Considering that “Top Gun Maverick” is a such a hit, praised by one and all, you’d think its director would follow it up with a really sharp project.

But the truth is, Joseph Kosinski is director with either an eye for good material, or a feeling for what he can handle. His previous movie with Tom Cruise, “Oblivion,” was pretty bad. His other films were not exactly classics. I’d heard some time ago that Cruise and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were unhappy with “Maverick” and brought in Christopher McQuarrie to fix it.

Seeing “Spiderhead,” which Kosinski made after “Maverick” (and would have come out with more space between them had the Cruise movie not been delayed for so long), the truth is out. It’s as if the director of “Porky’s” made “Slaughterhouse Five.” Dresden would have had a disco.

“Spiderhead” is uninspired nonsense, not the work of a visionary who made “Maverick.” It’s the work of someone who took a job and never questioned for once if the material made sense, or was intended to be funny or mocked. It’s based on a short story by George Saunders (“Lincoln in the Bardo”) that appeared in the New Yorker. Hence, the famed literary magazine is somehow the producer of this movie. JD Salinger is rolling over in his grave. This is why he never gave film rights to his stories.

Netflix is letting this loose on Friday, not to theaters where people would walk out very quickly. Like “Bird Box,” “Spiderhead” is stuffed with capable actors, an implausible story, but looks just good enough that if you’re on the couch you’ll watch it because, why not?

You know the movie is bad almost instantly because there is a wall to wall jukebox of late 70s, early 80s mellow hits. There’s no score otherwise. The songs are meant to provoke emotions because the screenplay doesn’t, and no one knows what the heck is going on. But the songs keep playing to guide us through the haze since the screenplay just refuses to accommodate basic rules.

Somewhere, on some remote island, Chris Hemsworth is a scientist experimenting on really good looking prisoners. One is Miles Teller, who was responsible for deaths in a car accident. The other is Jurnee Smollett, who is too gorgeous not to forgive her for whatever she might have done. All the prisoners are hooked up to some kind of drug delivery system that floods them with emotions. Hemsworth and his assistant give them meds that trigger horny-ness, bliss, or violence.
And here’s the rub: for reasons I didn’t get, even Hemsworth has one of these devices, even though he owns the place. At night he uses the love drug to get off on his own. The guy looks like a male supermodel, but can’t get dates on the mainland? Come on.

New York’s Channel 13 always finds some indie movie you’ve never heard of to play on Saturday nights. If Netflix hadn’t sunk whatever, $50 million, into this garbage, it would have turned up there or on some cable channel and we would have asked ourselves, Who financed this thing? Instead, it will get a big Netflix premiere as an original film. But how can this be a Netflix original when they also have “The Power of the Dog” and “The Irishman.” Are they all supposed to be equally good?

On the positive side, “Spiderhead” offers good acting reels for Teller, Smollett, Hemsworth, and the rest of the cast. They’re all doing their best to sell this material, make it convincing, when you know they’re praying for a lunch break.