History WesternAnimation / Lightyear

* FunWithAcronyms: Darby says that she's going to have fun with "Mr Boom". Then she pulls out a {{BFG}} labeled "MR-800M".

* NiceJobFixingItVillain: [[spoiler:Old Buzz's decision to time-travel backwards to a week or so before his arrival from his successful Fusion Crystal flight test and attacking the colony ends up causing an alternate timeline from his own where the alternate Buzz that is the movie's true protagonist learns to let go of his [[DeconstructedTrope toxic-level]] {{Determinator}} tendencies by finding fellowship amongst a RagtagBandOfMisfits on the colony.]]

* OhCrap: Buzz has this when he realizes his new team is a bunch of barely trained trainees -- not even graduated rookies, which he holds similar disdain for.

* RunningGag: People getting yanked by vines, and everybody around them being very understated by it.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although his suit is seen later, no mention is ever made of after Buzz saves him when they first arrive on the planet.

* NeverBareheaded: Averted; for the first time Buzz is depicted without his trademark purple space suit balaclava, showing off his brunet locks, as seen in the poster.

* FasterThanLightTravel: Buzz's CoolStarship the XL-01 has a "Hyperspeed Launch" button, with a robot explaining in a later scene the concept to Buzz on a whiteboard using the XL-01 and the SpheroidDropship as examples. For every one year it takes the Spheroid Dropship to travel an unspecified distance, the XL-01 can cover the same distance in one minute at hyperspeed.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Buzz's crew to defeat Zurg consists of Izzy, an untrained rookie; Darby, [[DemolitionsExpert a woman on parole with expertise in explosives]]; and Mo, a guy who just showed up wanting to do something fun. They get more competent over the course of the movie.

* VisibleInvisibility: When engaging Stealth Mode, the suits' Heads-Up Display will display an outline of any fellow ranger with a name label. As part of a RunningGag with the rookie ranger Featheringhamstan's name, the HUD labels his suit with half the name followed by an ellipsis.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Although his suit is seen later, no mention is ever made of Featheringhamstan after Buzz saves him when they first arrive on the planet.

* AdaptationalSympathy: Zurg, a CardCarryingVillain in both ''Toy Story'' and ''Buzz Lightyear of Star Command'', is [[spoiler:a future version of Buzz and a WellIntentionedExtremist trying to undo the mistake he made years ago that got everyone stranded.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After getting a sample of what he could have become in [[spoiler:his alternate future self, [[DeconstructedTrope consumed by]] [[{{Determinator}} determination]] to undo the mistake that stranded everyone on T'Kani Prime and having become monstrous]], Buzz lets go of the prospect of undoing his mistake with using the perfected [[PowerCrystal crystallic fusion core]] and consigns himself to abandoning being a Space Ranger be a colonist... [[spoiler: only for Commander Burnside to forego his punishment and commission the formation of a new Space Ranger corps for the colony in the aftermath, with Buzz in command.]]

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler:To defeat Zurg, Buzz shoots the perfected crystallic fusion core to blow it up in the madman's face. This symbolizes his total rebuke of the dangerously unleahty obsession he could have developed, personified in his obsessed alternate future self, and abandonment of an unachievable goal as represented by the fusion core that he spent so much obsessive effort already to create and make use of.]]

** This isn't the first time Chris Evans [[Film/CaptainAmericaTheFirstAvenger became a captain who wound up in the future.]] Nor is it the first time he's [[Film/{{Sunshine}} undergone a space mission to save humanity]].

*** In the first ''Toy Story'' film, Buzz asked Woody if they still use fossil fuels or have discovered "crystalic fusion". The engines in the film are fueled with a blue crystal.

*** The ominous robots in the trailer are colored yellow, just like the Zurg robots from the opening of ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory2'' and the cartoon.

* RuleOfSymbolism: [[spoiler:To defeat Zurg, Buzz shoots the perfected crystallic fusion core to blow it up in the madman's face. This symbolizes the recognition of the dangerously unleahty obsession he could have developed, personified in his obsessed alternate future self, and abandonment of an unachievable goal as represented by the fusion core that he spent so much obsessive effort already to create and make use of.]]

* EarnYourHappyEnding: After getting a sample of what he could have become in [[spoiler:his alternate future self, [[DeconstructedTrope consumed by]] [[{{Determinator}} determination]] to undo the mistake that stranded everyone on T'Kani Prime and having become monstrous]], Buzz lets go of the prospect of restoring the [[SpheroidDropship Turnip]]'s hyperdrive with the perfected [[PowerCrystal crystallic fusion core]] and consigns himself to abandoning being a Space Ranger be a colonist... [[spoiler: only for Commander Burnside to forego his punishment and commission the formation of a new Space Ranger corps for the colony in the aftermath, with Buzz in command.]]

* PowerCrystal: The crystallic fusion cores are an artificial, synthesized version that are central to FasterThanLightTravel, and the first act of the movie is Buzz's pursuit in finding the right mix to create a core that can get the colonists home. Buzz's perfected crystallic fusion core is used [[PlotCouponThatDoesSomething as the Armadillo's power source]], and is also [[spoiler:the MineralMacguffin that Zurg seeks for his plan.]]

* NeverBareheaded: Averted; For the first time Buzz is depicted without his trademark purple space suit balaclava, showing off his brunet locks, as seen in the poster.

** Buz enters Alisha's office at the end of the TimePassesMontage... [[spoiler:and it's empty.]]

** When helping Buzz escape being decommissioned to go on the test flight using the new hyperspace fuel, Sox showcases he can use {{Tranquillizer Dart}}s to sedate some star command operatives who try to arrest Buzz, with him quickly figuring out their intent was originally to be used to subdue him if he ever got too far out of line. [[spoiler:Sox uses these in the climax to immobilize Zurg, [[AlternativeSelf a version of Buzz]] who indeed got "[[ShadowArchetype too far out of line]]"]].

* HisOwnWorstEnemy: Most of the film's conflict and interpersonal issues between the characters stems from Buzz's inability to accept help from others and desire to fix his mistake of stranding the colony on the DeathWorld with his own efforts no matter the lengths he has to go to. Which steadily and literally drive him apart from his close friends as the hyperspace test flights transport him years into the future, causing him to miss most of his colleagues' lives in the interim. This is ultimately symbolized by [[spoiler:the film's version of Zurg actually being an AlternativeSelf to Buzz from a BadFuture, so consumed by this toxic determination that he's willing to go to the extreme of potentially causing a temporal paradox by stopping the crash in the first place. He even destroys his version of Sox when he finally turns against him as well, showing how he's pushed away or destroyed anything that originally mattered to Buzz to sate his obsession. Witnessing how he turns out ultimately motivates Buzz to let go of this mentality in the film's ending]].

* PoliticallyCorrectHistory: Of a sort. Not within the movie, but as noted in the quote above, the movie was released (or had been around for a while based on [[WordOfGod director comments]] on it being the first in a 1980s-era trilogy) in 1995 in the ''Toy Story'' universe, a year that in real life would be unlikely to depict women kissing in a family movie in a serious manner. Of course, this assumes that the film ''was'' intended as family-friendly (see AluminumChristmasTrees).

* SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale: Invoked in the opening sequence as a likely nod to sci-fi adventures of old -- see below under SmallUniverseAfterAll -- but then played straight as the film goes on. In particular, that hyperspeed appears to simply be lightspeed -- measured in increments of ''c'', and even [[spoiler:the completed crystal causes an ''increased'' time dilation effect of ''22'' years, as opposed to the standard four of the film up to that point]] raises serious questions on how any interstellar society can even function, or exactly what home Buzz thinks he can get everyone back to. Driven in by the ending, in which Buzz and [[spoiler:his new team consider themselves the frontline defense of a "Galactic Alliance" that was seemingly too far away to be able to rescue the colonists in the decades since the initial crash.]]

* NeverBareheaded: Averted; For the first time Buzz is depicted with a bare head, showing off his brunet locks, as seen in the poster.

* DoAnythingRobot: Sox is supposed to be a psychological recovery aid, but his A.I. is extremely sophisticated, enough to figure out the right fuel mixture to create a stable warp crystal (even though it did take him 60 years of constant study). It's implied that he was deliberately designed this way by Alisha. [[spoiler:It also can shoot a TranquillizerDart, is equipped with scanners and flashlight in his eyes, a computer interface at the tip of his tail, and a blowtorch in his mouth.]]