Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins
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Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins is a 2000 Disney animated direct-to-video film that acts as pilot to the television series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. In this film, Buzz Lightyear, is a space ranger that fights against the evil Emperor Zurg, and canonically this show inspired the existence of the Buzz Lightyear toyline that exists in the Pixar films Toy Story and Toy Story 2. Tim Allen reprises his role as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. The movie was later edited into three episodes of the television show, with the "Andy's Room" sequence removed and Allen's voice replaced by the series' voice actor for Buzz, Patrick Warburton.
[edit] Plot
The movie starts in the fictional world of Toy Story where Woody, Buzz, Jessie and the other toys exist. They are about to watch the "film" about Buzz Lightyear, starting the story-within-the-story.
Buzz Lightyear is a Space Ranger, and at the beginning of the film is on the last mission he will have with his partner Warp Darkmatter's last one. They are told to find three missing L.G.M. (Little Green Men-- the telepathic scientists of Star Command's Universe Protection Unit). The scope then switches to an uncharted moon somewhere in the Zeta Quadrant, which is filled with craters billowing puffs of smoke. While Buzz and Warp are double-checking the moon, three new Little Green Men appear in their rover. These three have come as stow-aways, intending to use their noosphere to find their brethren. As Buzz, Warp, and the L.G.M. are talking, a monster called a Crater Viper attacks them.
Several others of this species emerge from craters and move in to the attack. After a skirmish with Warp's gun, they withdraw, revealing themselves to be mere appendages of a larger being called a Crater Viper/Slag Monster Mutant. Buzz and Warp, using their jet packs and grappling irons, drag the strange creature away from that which its bulk conceals; that being a hidden artificial outpost belonging to Emperor Zurg. In the torture chamber of this outpost, the Lost Ones of the L.G.M. are being examined. It is Zurg's intent to find out how their noosphere is generated; ergo, how it is that they act like parts of a single, integrated whole rather than like isolate individuals. He seeks to bend this power to his will, so as to use it as a method of subjugation.
Buzz enters Zurg's laboratory and frees the L.G.M.; all six of that species depart for the waiting spaceship. Zurg escapes dramatically, causing on his way out a series of explosions that will destroy the outpost fortress. Warp is buried under a pile of metal; when Buzz tries to help him, Warp sends him away. The base explodes, and Warp is presumed dead.
In the aftermath of Warp's supposed death, Buzz vows to never take another partner. His mentor Commander Nebula tries to get him to accept the psychically powerful Princess Mira Nova, but Buzz refuses to accept her. Later, we see a shy janitor called Booster making eyes at the glistening star cruisers while presumably at work. Buzz spares Booster the punishment for shirking, saying that the custodian has come into the launching bay against the rules in order to clean it. Booster wishes to become a Space Ranger himself.
On Zurg's Center of Operation-- the heavily industrialized, polluted planet referred to as Planet Z ( or in the Disney Adventures magazine, Xrghthung)-- plans are under way to create a new second-in-command. This officer, called Agent Z in order to save Zurg a fortune on monogramming, is flesh and blood but has one robotic arm, which he can transform into a variety of weapons.
A spying robot has been sent to the L.G.M. homeworld, where it records on camera-film the presence of a corporeal Axis mundi; a huge orb called the Uni-Mind. If an L.G.M. touches this thing, all the beings of that race are instantly connected by a noetic link that causes them to think and feel as one. Zurg sends assault forces to capture it.
Buzz, meanwhile, is introduced by Star Command's L.G.M. to a robot called XR, which acts in the capacity of a soldier. XR is nearly indestructible, in that he can be rebuilt within minutes of being shattered. At this stage, his mind is a blank slate, a "tabula rasa"; he learns from experience, but thinks no thoughts except those related to the experiences.
Buzz is a little skeptical of the idea that Commander Nebula allowed the creation of this project; the Commander hates robots. Shamefacedly, the Little Green Men admit that Nebula has not been in the know. At once, Nebula appears on the scene and begins reprimanding them. The L.G.M., however, have all official permission to create XR, having tricked Nebula into signing the authorization form.
Before the discussion can become a quarrel, the Little Green Men become aware that Zurg has invaded their home planet. Buzz, with XR in his footsteps, sets off to the defence.
When they arrive, the temple of the Uni-Mind has been breached, and the natives' attempt to defend it has failed. Buzz and XR appear and begin shooting down Zurg's battle robots. Later, Agent Z enters the combat and leads the Rangers on a tense chase over the surrounding city.
Throughout this, XR appears to be taking his cue from Buzz. When Buzz shoots the battle robots but leaves the "little green citizens" alone, proclaiming that Star Command is on the job, XR imitates him; when Buzz chases Agent Z, XR is beside him; when Buzz uses his wits in combination with his weapons, XR learns to do the same. Inspired to teach his new partner more, Buzz shows a deception technique wherein he leaves a LASER-based weapon shooting, though his hand is gone from it while he circles around to capture the opponent. Agent Z is not fooled. He destroys Buzz's weapon, shatters XR, and gives the order to steal the Uni-Mind.
Without the Uni-Mind, the L.G.M. are insecure and purposeless. Without their sharing of minds, they no longer know how to think clearly. This is demonstrated by their attempt to rebuild XR; they manage to replicate his body, but instead of the regulation's prescribed equipment fill him full of such miscellany as a rubber duck, a plumber's toilet-plunger, an anvil, a skateboard, an inflatable rubber raft, a stepladder, a Teddy bear, an oil lamp, an extra arm, a rubber lifeboat, and a live chicken. It is obvious that if the Uni-Mind is not recovered, Star Command's operation will grind to a dead halt.
Zurg, for his part, is up to further mischief. Making contact by simply stabbing his metal claws (one of several qualities which lead fans to speculate that Zurg is, like Darth Vader, a tiny or crippled life-form encased in a mechanical suit) into the Uni-Mind, he bends it to his will, making it "evil". In this converted form, he can use it to control the minds of others.
The Space Rangers convene to discuss strategies of battle, but their meeting is disrupted by a newly rebuilt XR. By some unrecorded development, the robot has acquired a very frivolous and hedonistic personality. Commander Nebula orders him out of the meeting, wherapon the L.G.M. literally hand him over to Booster as a helper.
In the meeting room, Mira Nova offers that she use the experimental Alpha-One spacecraft to infiltrate Planet Z and spy on Zurg. Buzz, who is quick to understand her plan, offers that which he considers greater experience-- that is, his own services in that role. Commander Nebula calls them "pig-headed show-offs" and orders them into silence. His plan is to attack openly from two sides and recover the Uni-Mind in battle. Evidently, the political situation stops him not.
Booster and XR, assigned to clean the cafeteria, take a break to play make-believe in Buzz's Star Cruiser 42.
Zurg's people are hard at work making a "Mega-Ray" that will use the corrupted Uni-Mind to bend entire populations of people to Zurg's will. This Mega-Ray resembles a satellite dish, with the Uni-Mind in the center of the bowl. Below is a large battery that, for all its size and its extravagant name of "crystallic fusion cell", requires the same co-ordination as any in our real life.
Mira and Buzz each attempt to steal the Alpha-One prototype spacecraft, but Mira wins the face-off and leaves with the ship. Buzz pursues her in his own craft, much to the dismay of Booster and XR, who are still playing around in it. Eventually, Buzz catches Mira and stores Alpha-One in his spaceship's cargo bay. At this time Booster and XR are also discovered.
Zurg's Mega-Ray, in quick succession, subverts the Utopian people of Rhizome, the piscatorial people of Bathios, and several other planets. He then turns it on Star Command, enjoying the irony.
While Buzz is interrogating Booster and XR, the Mega-Ray's shot passes them and strikes Star Command. The four of them board it and find that Zurg is now literally speaking and acting through the Space Rangers. He is all around them.
The four free ones escape and re-launch their rocket. They are pursued by Zurg, who sends the subverted Space Rangers after them. Ultimately, a detonator is planted on the rocket. Buzz and Company enter and launch Alpha-One just as the larger craft explodes.
Cramped in Alpha-One, Buzz and his new friends infiltrate Planet Z. Buzz sends the other three away to supervise evacuation of any planet Zurg has not subverted, much to their displeasure. According to Booster, it is against the rule for any Space Ranger to go into battle without backup.
Buzz tries to enter Zurg's fortress, but is led into conflict with Agent Z. In the consequent duel, Agent Z is defeated. He pulls off his helmet, revealing himself as Warp Darkmatter, and captures the astonished Buzz.
At first, Lightyear is unwilling to believe that Warp is a traitor. He invents several excuses, to the effects that Warp has had amnesia, that he has been cloned, that Agent Z is an android replica, or that the Mega-Ray is used on Warp-- the last in defiance of all evidence. Darkmatter puts all of these down, saying that he has been Zurg's spy "since the Academy", and later became his personal lackey. Zurg, enjoying Buzz's shame and anger, mocks his faith in his "dear partner".
In a last, desperate effort, Buzz sends a radio message to the Alpha-One, keeping up a pretence of making a final entry in his Mission Log. Warp Darkmatter, believing the cover story, lets him do it.
"I do not know whether anyone will be left untainted by Zurg's evil to receive this last chapter..." says Buzz; "As I go to my doom, I pause to pay tribute to three of the best and the brightest to ever come out of Star Command. I have taken a one-man stand against darkness and depravity... and I have failed. I was wrong. Perhaps if I had taken a new partner... or two... or three... Buzz Lightyear; Over and Out."
Zurg, relishing irony as before, sends Buzz to be shot by the Mega-Ray. Before it can fire, however, XR and Booster snatch him out of harm's way. Mira distracts Warp Darkmatter, while Buzz tries and fails to destroy the Mega-Ray's battery. Zurg shoots him down with a massive ion blaster.
Booster and Mira break Agent Z's mechanical arm, rendering him weaponless. Buzz and Zurg face each other in front of Zurg's inner sanctum. Zurg thinks he has won, but he has not. Buzz and his three friends surround Zurg and pronounce him under arrest-- presumably for his overstepping of interplanetary courtesy.
Zurg manages to escape, due to a flying saucer and a rocket which he had available. Booster and XR capture Warp Darkmatter and float down from the tower on a parachute. Mira and Buzz proceed to find the Uni-Mind and return it to normal. Using her inborn abilities of mind-matter interaction, Mira sends Buzz into the sphere's core, from which he transforms it to its original state. The resulting change almost literally throws off Zurg's attempt at galactic mental control, leaving even Zurg himself momentarily helpless. His last words before being thus rendered are "Curse you, Buzz Lightyear!"-- an oft-repeated phrase throughout the later television series.
Mira recovers Buzz from the Uni-Mind's core. The L.G.M. restore their noetic unity. Buzz forms Team Lightyear, composed of himself, Mira, Booster, and XR.
