Director: John LasseterCo-Directors: Ash Brannon and Lee Unkrich
Year of Release: 1999
Genre: Animation
The scene begins in space, where all that can be seen is distant stars. Then, the words “Gamma Quadrant, Sector 4” appear on the screen. These words appear to be written in a Sci-Fi/military theme, which suggests there will be an element of action in the following moments. When the text disappears, we see what is thought to be an asteroid, hurtling through space towards a planet. In the next shot, we realise it is in fact Buzz Lightyear flying towards the planet at a great speed. As he approaches the planet, upbeat orchestral music begins and builds to a crescendo, at the same time, the glow of colours around him intensify. This suggests that he is a heroic character. In actual fact, the glowing is caused by the intense heat from the planet’s atmosphere. The fact that this character can withstand such temperatures shows that he possesses considerable strength and resilience. After infiltrating the planet’s atmosphere, he soon reaches the surface where he activates his wings and rockets. We see Buzz flying dangerously close to the uneven ground, narrowly dodging the sides of a narrow ravine and other obstructing rocks. There is a great use of Point of View (POV) shots in this sequence. We see the action through the eyes of the character, which is quite thrilling for the audience as he is travelling at immense speeds and executing expert aerobatics. All the other external shots of the character show him relatively central on the screen. These central shots, along with the Point of View shots tell the audience that this scene will revolve around him.
We then see Buzz landing gracefully in a crater on the planet’s surface. The graceful landing further enhances the fact that Buzz Lightyear is a character of considerable skill. In the next Point of View shot, we see the reflection of Buzz’s face in his visor, again reinforcing the point that the scene is focussed on him. The sound of heavy breathing increases tension and adds a sense of mystery in the scene. Buzz then starts taking his Mission Log, which gives the audience further knowledge of what he is doing. He says “All signs point to this planet as the location of Zurg’s fortress.” He then goes on to say, “but there seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere.” As he says this, red dots appear all over him, suggesting he is being targeted by many enemies. He looks up to see him surrounded by thousands of robots aiming lasers at him. This irony adds to the comedic value of the film, even more so by the fact Buzz was not wrong when he said there was no sign of intelligent life, as the robots are computerised machines. The audience sees Buzz think for a split second, then jump into action as he dives and fires his laser at a crystal deposit in the ground, this refracts his laser in many directions, thus destroying all the robots in near perfect symmetry. As the robots are destroyed, the explosion creates a mass of green smoke. We see Buzz flying upwards as a result of the explosion and crashes to the ground a short distance away from the blast zone. This shows that Buzz, although extremely skilful, is not perfect. He narrowly avoids getting crushed by falling debris and takes cover by some rocks, then a camera-like robot emerges from a hidden flap in the rock next to Buzz. The camera looks from left to right, then focuses on Buzz. As soon as the camera gets a glimpse of him, there is a look of terror and panic in the camera’s expression. Although the camera doesn’t have a face as such, the lens widens and a satellite dish-like object on top of the camera spins quickly. This is a form of personification, as the animators have given emotion to a computerised object, again adding to the comedic value of the production. Buzz then jumps in front of the camera robot and shoots it with his laser. All that is left of this robot now is the jointed arm it was attached to, which soon retracts back into the hole in the rock in a comedic manner.
