Why Lightyear Failed
Breaking down why Pixar's Toy Story spin-off failed to connect with audiences.
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00:00To say it's been a rough week for Pixar is quite the understatement.
00:03The beloved animation studio just released their first theatrical film in two years in
00:07light year and sadly it wasn't quite the big comeback that everyone hoped for.
00:13With a $200 million budget, the movie is going to have to make around $500 million just to
00:18make a profit and given the opening weekend's box office numbers, it's actually looking
00:24unlikely that it's even going to break $400 million.
00:27Now $400 million might be a lot of money to me and you but in Pixar terms and especially
00:32in Disney terms, that is not a good margin.
00:35Consequently, in the days since, everybody has been trying to rack their brains to figure
00:40out why this happened.
00:42Why did a spin-off to one of the most successful movie franchises ever completely fall flat?
00:48Well there isn't really just one reason.
00:50There are a bunch of elements which informed Lightyear's failure.
00:54With that in mind then, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and this is Why Lightyear Failed.
00:59Now one of the biggest reasons why Lightyear didn't make a dent with the millions and
01:03millions of Toy Story fans around the globe is the simple fact that this isn't our Buzz
01:08Lightyear.
01:09Fans of course love this character.
01:11I mean anyone my age probably grew up with a Buzz Lightyear toy but the version that
01:17we see in this movie, a human voiced by Chris Evans, is a far cry from the neurotic toy that
01:23we all fell in love with to begin with.
01:26Knowing that the goofy Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story films was inspired by a relatively
01:30poor-faced version of the character from a 1995 movie isn't all that appealing really.
01:36Quite simply, this is a movie that is clearly cashing in on nostalgia but the issue is,
01:41fans are only nostalgic for the version of Buzz Lightyear that they grew up with, that
01:46they know.
01:47In fact, it's the same issue that Solo A Star Wars Story had and yes, be warned I will
01:51be mentioning that movie throughout this editorial because the similarities are too
01:55obvious to ignore.
01:56Like Buzz Lightyear, people love Han Solo but they didn't like this imposter who was
02:01calling himself Han Solo that Disney decided to make a movie about.
02:05So had Lightyear been presented in the style of the Star Command movie or TV show with
02:09Buzz being a version of his toy self, then it would have attracted the interest of longtime
02:15fans rather than what we got which didn't really interest longtime fans and also didn't
02:21have enough original pull to get a brand new, intrigued audience.
02:26Talking about the new Buzz as well, it would be remiss to not mention the fact that the
02:30voice actors had changed with original actor Tim Allen being swapped for Chris Evans like
02:35I mentioned earlier.
02:36Now of course, that does make sense.
02:38As I've mentioned, this is a different version of Buzz, we're not talking about the toy so
02:41getting a new actor in isn't sacrilege or anything like that.
02:45However, the swapping of the actors does just strengthen the idea to audiences that this
02:51isn't the Buzz that they know and why should they care if they don't have that connection
02:56to him.
02:57Now, am I saying that Tim Allen's involvement would have made this a billion dollar movie?
03:02Absolutely not.
03:03I'm just saying that the instantly identifiable switch between voice actors again strengthens
03:08the fact that this is a very different movie from the thing that people actually remember.
03:14And all of this can be rolled into one of the most common complaints ever since the
03:18first trailer dropped and that's the question of, who is this movie actually for?
03:23Now the obvious answer to that might of course just be, well, Toy Story fans, you idiot.
03:27But you need to bear in mind that the first trailers for this movie kind of underplayed
03:32these Toy Story connections.
03:34Instead, it focused initially on the gritty sci-fi elements and then in later trailers
03:38the emphasis was on the goofier comedy.
03:41Yet, the final film itself is an awkward stew of elements that don't quite cohere.
03:46The sci-fi adventure story is too formulaic and familiar to make much of an impression
03:50with older viewers while the time dilation mechanics will simply be too complex for younger
03:55viewers to make sense of.
03:57And one of the biggest criticisms levelled at this movie is that despite supposedly being
04:01Andy's favourite movie ever, his Star Wars is actually a little bit too drab and a little
04:07bit too boring for kids to even get excited about.
04:10And that's criminal, right?
04:11This is supposed to be the movie of Andy's formative years, yet in real life it can't
04:16even keep kids engaged for the full duration of the runtime.
04:20The marketing for the movie just generally as well was also needlessly convoluted.
04:25Like you needed to know Toy Story lore to fully understand what Lightyear even was.
04:30This should have been a straightforward sci-fi romp, but instead you needed to know all of
04:34his backstory going into it.
04:36This confusion led to people watching the first trailer and assuming that it was an
04:40in-universe biopic of the real Buzz Lightyear that the toy in Toy Story was inspired by.
04:47It was only later trailers which revealed that this is actually a 1995 movie in-universe
04:52that Andy saw when he was a kid.
04:54Throwing confusion over its tone with it at once being this serious sci-fi movie as well
05:00as a goofy family drama, many people were just going into it confused as to what Lightyear
05:05was.
05:06How was it related to the franchise it was spinning off of and what kind of movie was
05:10this going to be?
05:11Speaking of brand confusion as well, I can't talk about the next point without jumping
05:15into spoilers for the film, so if you haven't seen Lightyear and you do want to see it,
05:19this is your warning that I'm about to spoil the big twist.
05:22By far the most divisive aspect of a Lightyear story is the fact that they completely change
05:27Zurg's origin.
05:28As you may know in Toy Story 2, villain Zurg is revealed to be Buzz Lightyear's father
05:33but in this movie he's actually an older Buzz Lightyear from an alternate dimension.
05:39Yeah this is a multiverse movie, like we haven't had enough of those this year and last.
05:43Now this twist naturally rankled many long-time fans because like I mentioned, this goes against
05:48the canon that was previously established.
05:51More than that, many felt like it was just an attempt at shock value to change something
05:55because otherwise the movie would have been even more predictable because this beat had
05:59been revealed previously.
06:01So despite people understanding why a change like this might have been made and despite
06:05actor Josh Brolin being fine in the role, a lot of Toy Story fans were just annoyed
06:10that it was going against the canon and again establishing itself as this different entity
06:14that didn't really even have connections to the thing that it's spinning off from.
06:18And so the vitriolic response to this big reveal ultimately didn't help the movie
06:22garner any strong word of mouth after it came out and if anything, only further put
06:26people off who were on the fence to see fan reactions.
06:30Outside of the movie's own quality in its marketing though, it's also important to put
06:34it into context because animation movies generally on the big screen haven't fared all that well recently.
06:41And while yes, many might put that down to services like Disney Plus putting some movies
06:45day and date, it doesn't account for the animation industry at large.
06:50This isn't just a Disney Plus problem.
06:52For instance, since the pandemic started, the highest grossing animated movie in theatres
06:57has been Sing 2 which got $407 million at the box office which is paltry compared to
07:03the highest grossing live action movies even in the pandemic era.
07:08And the reason for this?
07:09Well, it could just be that families are struggling to justify a trip to the cinema to see a movie
07:14like this because when you take into account tickets, parking, petrol, snacks and everything
07:19else, you could be looking at $100 plus for this trip when the movie is going to drop
07:25on a streaming service in like six weeks anyway and that streaming service generally has a
07:30lot of material that would please the family already.
07:34Likewise, taking into account the current global inflation crisis, it's easy to see
07:38why this is an expense that people will just be cutting out because again, these movies
07:43will trickle onto streaming services sooner rather than later.
07:47And in Lightyear's specific case, it didn't help that it was going up against two titans
07:51in the form of Top Gun Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion.
07:55Both of these were just box office smashes.
07:57In the case of Top Gun Maverick, that has been helped by strong word of mouth and some
08:01incredible reviews while Jurassic World Dominion, well it's Jurassic World isn't it?
08:06That thing is just an excuse to print money.
08:08Still, even with all of these in factors, the prevailing idea is that animation just
08:11generally is in a kind of weird place on the big screen.
08:15Likewise, it is somewhat ironic that Pixar's first big screen effort in two years is actually
08:20probably the most Disney plus feeling movie that they've ever released.
08:25Now that's not to slight Disney plus movies at all.
08:28There is a lot of great material that comes straight to that service, but simply the fact
08:32that Lightyear lacks the finesse that defines almost all of Pixar's work, including their
08:38three prior films, Soul, Luca and Turning Red, which were themselves sent straight to
08:42Disney plus when they probably should have been in theatres.
08:46Despite a stonking $200 million production budget, which is way more than the previous
08:50three movies I just mentioned, by the way, this feels like an amusing little Toy Story
08:56spinoff, something designed for a Disney plus audience.
08:59Yeah, the visuals might be something else, but every other element feels too safe.
09:03Furthermore, while it would be silly to call Lightyear a critical dud or anything like
09:07that, it did score 76% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 6.8 out of 10 average score, which
09:13definitely puts it on the lower end of the Pixar spectrum.
09:17Considering the film's aforementioned marketing wars then, these three star tepid reviews
09:21didn't really get people excited to want to go out and see an amazing movie.
09:26Strong reviews can lead to better box office.
09:28I mean, again, like I mentioned, just look at something like Top Gun Maverick, which
09:32did insanely well, partly because critics were calling it the best movie of the year.
09:37In Lightyear's case, they were just calling it a movie of the year.
09:40And yet, perhaps the primary reason why Lightyear failed, well, it was just a spinoff ultimately
09:46that nobody asked for and when they got their first look at it in the trailers, weren't
09:51all that interested in.
09:52It's the same issue that killed Solo.
09:55You can't just take a recognisable name and slap it in the title and put it in the
09:59trailers and expect to print $1 billion in return.
10:04If movie making was that easy, let me tell you, I'd be doing it and I'm a fool.
10:09Stories need intrigue.
10:10They need some kind of justification and to quote Ed from Shaun of the Dead, audiences
10:15aren't just a bunch of performing monkeys.
10:17We're not just going to go flock out and see something because we recognise the thing.
10:21So yeah, I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to drop $200 million
10:25on a brand new blockbuster, probably make sure people are interested in seeing it before
10:31you, you know, spend the money.
10:33I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:35What did you think about Lightyear?
10:36Do you think it deserved a bum or do you think it's an underrated gem?
10:40Let us know and if you can, while you're down there, could you please give us a like,
10:43share, subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single
10:47day.
10:48Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching and I'll see
10:50you soon.