The film is a spin-off of the Toy Story film series, but does not take place in the same fictional universe as them; rather, it is presented as a film that characters in the main Toy Story films have seen. After graduating from City University, London, she covered LGBTQ+ news and pursued a career in entertainment journalism, with her work appearing in outlets including Little White Lies, The Skinny, Radio Times and Digital Spy. Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 57 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.

Variety's Owen Gleiberman wrote: " Lightyear in its eminently conventional and likable way, is a far less audacious movie than that. There's a fun spin on a classic moment from that sequel, yet the presence of Zurg only adds to the feeling that Lightyear didn't really need to be a spin-off. However, after a four-minute test flight, Buzz finds that four years have passed on T'Kani Prime, due to the effects of time dilation from having traveled at relativistic speeds. Furthermore, Sox follows alongside Mo, Izzy, and Darby in a plan to rescue Buzz who is captured by Zurg. Later, Sox, Buzz, and the rest of the Space Rangers board onto the SR-01, embarking on a new adventure.With every test, four more years pass on T'Kani Prime, until eventually over sixty-six years have passed. According to Lee, a 3D animator, who also worked on Toy Story 2 and 3, said "The director wanted to make a film that felt true so he asked for a much more toned-down version of Buzz's personality. Given how big Toy Story is, it's perhaps a surprise that we've waited this long for a spin-off movie with Lightyear arriving in cinemas 27 years(!

If you can ignore that, however, the movie is also a visually spectacular sci-fi throwback, full of wit and emotion. Evans was the first and only choice MacLane had for Buzz; [21] MacLane defended the recasting as "Tim's version of Buzz [Lightyear] is a little goofier and is a little dumber, and so he is the comic relief. American food manufacturing company Lightlife, collaborated with Disney and Pixar for launching several food packages inspired from the film.

In a deleted scene, after Lightyear and the junior patrol were lock up, Sox was taken by the Space Rangers and had his memory wiped.