Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and Lloyd in Space: Two Space Shows in Succession

10:20 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "buzz lightyear x warp darkmatter is catradora for men"

Content Warning: This post has allusions to police brutality, sexual harassment, and school shootings. This is only in the Buzz Lightyear section.

A few of the shows we've talked about so far are shows I watched a bit of as an adult before the Disney watch. Pepper Ann and Teacher's Pet fall neatly into this category, and looking at today, Buzz Lightyear and Lloyd in Space do as well. As a result, I don't have a lot of old tweets to place around about either.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is the objectively better show. It's got great characters, villains, and jokes, and naturally, it's by Tad Stones so it must be good. (Hercules cartoon do NOT interact.) Honestly, my biggest issue with it quality wise is that sometimes the chemistry is off, which is a little disappointing as these are all great characters.

I watched a good chunk of the 13 episodes I usually watch with my friend Alice, and we had a lot more fun with it than we did with say, PB&J Otter. I also spent a lot of my adulthood in general memeing on this woman.

Like geez, she looks sooooo Deviantart. It's funny. I also think this woman is responsible for the first time I have heard the word "himbo" in the Disney Watch.

Really I only have one big comment on Buzz Lightyear, and it's kind of haunting me.

10:31 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "this show is really copaganda..... buzz lightyear called star command "the thin green line""

At the end of the day, Buzz Lightyear is pretty much just a space cop, and he is very willing to identify himself as much, what with the thin green line comment. Of course Star Command is a fictional world. All the people who turn bad are kicked off the force, and anyone can be a cop if they're a good person. A janitor? If he works hard, he can be a cop. A princess? She can be a cop if she has the ability. A robot? Yeah of course!. One of the dudes who got into Homestuck kin drama at my 19th birthday party? Fucking yeah I guess...

And I'm not bringing this up to "ruin your childhood" or anything. I still really enjoyed Buzz Lightyear. I still do. Talking about Buzz Lightyear had me reflecting a lot. The year is 2022. Five years ago, I was super aggressively told by a cop that I would be nowhere without the police. Four years ago, I almost got arrested because I mixed up two different stores. Two years ago, someone with very close police ties threatened to call the cops on me for something I didn't do, but did nothing when that same something happened to me. Less than two weeks ago, I was scolded by a cop at a pride event.

I'm a fairly unassuming white guy who tries to not invite trouble, and yet I cannot think of a single instance where the police have been helpful to me. But without trying, I can think of four where they've talked down to me, scared me, and/or refused me deserved justice. I couldn't even imagine what I'd have to deal with if I wasn't white.

And it's been getting worse. Rise in police driven hate crimes, true crime podcasts where you essentially figure out the killers have police ties, plainclothes cops packing in schools without telling anyone so people think there's a school shooter, cops absolutely refusing to help children when there's an actual shooter. It's increasingly evident that cops only exist to protect the people they like. Usually the rich bigoted assholes who let them shoot freely.

Perhaps I'm wildly speculating, but I can imagine a big rich company like Disney that's super protected by dumb laws to think "Hmm. We did push all these movies that got people hyped for the US military with funny comic book superheroes the mainstream likes. We could do it for cops, but what popular mainstream character would we use?" And that's how we get a gritty Buzz Lightyear movie for adults.

Granted, I haven't seen Lightyear yet. It doesn't show up in theaters here until tomorrow. But a space cop is essentially what Buzz is, unless you want to refer to him as a space soldier, but is that much better?

Honestly, it's kind of depressing to think about, and with the Teacher's Pet posts I made in January of this and last year hitting harder than normal, I just get kind of tired and upset. So to lighten the mood, I decided to bring up, uh, the show that has 4 times as many war crimes in its universe.

11:35 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "WORLD WAR NINE??????????? HOW MANY WORLD WARS HAVE THERE BEEN"
11:36 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "nine!!! apparently."

 

Another middling show, though I'm surprised that it is. Lloyd in Space was a show I watched a lot as a kid, and not really in a "nothing else is on" sort of way. I genuinely enjoyed it. But I wonder if that had some consequences. 

I rewatched some episodes throughout adulthood like "Neither Boy Nor Girl" and "Caution: Wormhole!" But when I was watching Lloyd in Space for the Disney watch, I became incredibly aware that I'd seen these episodes so much when I was a kid. I could quote upcoming lines in "Daydream Transceiver," "Incident at Luna Vista," "Nerd from Beyond the Stars," "Cheery Theerlap Lloyd," and of course "Kurtlas, the Symbionic Boy." I have to wonder if it was just played so many times in my childhood and I finally grew tired of it.

Instead of talking about the gender episode which everyone has talked about, let's talk about Kurtlas actually, because his episode is fucking insane.

11:56 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "god this is the stevonnie ep"

The episode is about how Kurt and Douglas have to deal with bullying, but essentially "fuse" to combat it once they learn about symbiosis in school. Things go great for a while, until Kurtlas (is this Disney Channel's first he/they?) realizes they can bully others, and decide to get really creepy with it

 

wew. Fortunately everything gets solved by the end, but imagine they went the whole rest of the series like that. Dang. The gritty Lloyd in Space reboot needs me.

I actually had a hard time finding episodes I didn't know almost by heart, but finally I found one... "A Place For Larry." Larry, of course, being an alien voiced by Eddie Deezen who sucks absolute shit, and yet the kids still care about him losing his job for some ungodly reason.

12:26 PM · Jan 6, 2021 "eddie deezen alien fills me with so much rage and this randomly selected episode is ABOUT HIM"
12:27 PM · Jan 6, 2021 "they keep calling him "our friend larry" i dont think he should be anyone's friend"

I think "A Place For Larry" might be the one thing that solidified my opinion on Lloyd in Space being not just.... whatever the opposite of nostalgia bias is. I definitely don't remember watching this episode as a kid, and it's very decidedly... not that great. Not to mention to Deezen-y for my tastes.

Speaking of Deezen, the show does have a pretty recurring cast, with this being the third (and final) show where Courtland Mead plays a protagonist.

11:01 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "im never not gonna hear gus or ned when lloyd opens his mouth and im never not gonna hear patrick or broadway when large blue friend opens his mouth"

Fare thee well Courtland Mead, you were such an essential component to the One Saturday Morning era. 

Also there's a character named Boomer.

11:05 AM · Jan 6, 2021 "ok boomer"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall Rating for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: A Tier

Overall Rating for Lloyd in Space: C Tier