Before I begin the actual review of Lamp Life, I’d like to use this opportunity to address what’s going on. As everyone already knows, we are currently in the midst of a global pandemic, with the coronavirus basically taking over the world and affecting all aspects of life. This is evident enough in the fact that I’m currently reviewing a 7-minute short, which I rarely ever do. However, while this is far from the worst aspect of this current outbreak, the situation has unfortunately spread over into the entertainment industry. Movie theaters are currently closed, and pretty much every upcoming movie and TV show planned for release has already been delayed. This presents a weird challenge for someone like me that’s tried to see a new movie every week and post a review on the following Friday. I’ve been giving some thought on how to handle the situation, but I’m still on the fence. Part of me has considered just wiping out the “new movie Friday” reviews entirely for now, part of me has considered using the day just to review another random movie, and part of me has considered trying to just watch anything that is still coming out on streaming services and review those. As of right now, I’m leaning towards that final option, but nothing is set in stone. That’s why for this week I just decided to keep it simple and review a short. We’re currently living in a really strange, uncertain, and unprecedented time, and so I’m just trying to take things one day at a time just like everyone else. So, I just want everyone to know that as of right now, I have no plans to stop posting reviews Monday-Friday at this point, but all of that can easily change from week to week. We just have to see how everything plays out. Until then, I hope everyone stays safe, does whatever they can to help stop this pandemic (even if that means self-quarantining yourself), and tries to keep their heads straight. I’ve always found that movies, TV, video games, books, etc. help me keep myself sane, and so I want to keep encouraging people to do these things now when we need it most.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about Lamp Life. Without any context of what this is, it sounds like a strange title and subject for a short, but it’s actually just a Toy Story short that came out on Disney+ earlier this year. Specifically, it’s kind of a coda/prequel to last year’s Toy Story 4. It features Woody having a conversation with Bo Peep, who reveals where she was at and what she was doing during the time between Toy Story 3 and 4. While I didn’t think it was necessary to explain, this was a big question mark for a lot of people after Toy Story 4, and so for those people I think this short helps provide some satisfying answers.

Personally, I found Lamp Life to be serviceable, but ultimately kind of pointless. This wasn’t something that I was craving, and I didn’t feel any deeper feeling or appreciation towards the Toy Story franchise after seeing it. Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s always nice to be able to dive back into this world in some capacity, but this specific story wasn’t one that I felt like I needed to be told. I don’t think it’s a bad short by any means, it’s just not something that sat with me after in the way that Toy Story usually does. It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do, though, which is why I think some people that were craving some answers will be satisfied with this. I just personally didn’t think it was an interesting enough tale to make a whole short about. So, in the end, I say watch this if you’re interested in finding out what happened to Bo Peep, but otherwise this is a short that doesn’t feel necessary for fans of Toy Story.

3/5