Why Lightyear Failed
Breaking down why Pixar's Toy Story spin-off failed to connect with audiences.
Transcript
00:00 To say it's been a rough week for Pixar is quite the understatement.
00:03 The beloved animation studio just released their first theatrical film in two years in
00:07 light year and sadly it wasn't quite the big comeback that everyone hoped for.
00:12 With a $200 million budget, the movie is going to have to make around $500 million just to
00:18 make a profit and given the opening weekend's box office numbers, it's actually looking
00:23 unlikely that it's even going to break $400 million.
00:27 Now $400 million might be a lot of money to me and you but in Pixar terms and especially
00:32 in Disney terms, that is not a good margin.
00:35 Consequently in the days since, everyone has been trying to rack their brains to figure
00:39 out why this happened.
00:41 Why did a spin-off to one of the most successful movie franchises ever completely fall flat?
00:48 Well there isn't really just one reason, there are a bunch of elements which informed
00:52 Lightyear's failure.
00:54 With that in mind then, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com and this is why Lightyear failed.
00:58 Now one of the biggest reasons why Lightyear didn't make a dent with the millions and
01:03 millions of Toy Story fans around the globe is the simple fact that this isn't our Buzz
01:08 Lightyear.
01:09 Fans of course love this character.
01:11 I mean anyone my age probably grew up with a Buzz Lightyear toy but the version that
01:16 we see in this movie, a human voiced by Chris Evans, is a far cry from the neurotic toy that
01:23 we all fell in love with to begin with.
01:25 Knowing that the goofy Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story films was inspired by a relatively
01:30 poor faced version of the character from a 1995 movie isn't all that appealing really.
01:36 Quite simply, this is a movie that is clearly cashing in on nostalgia but the issue is,
01:41 fans are only nostalgic for the version of Buzz Lightyear that they grew up with, that
01:45 they know.
01:46 In fact, it's the same issue that Solo A Star Wars Story had and yes, be warned, I
01:50 will be mentioning that movie throughout this editorial because the similarities are too
01:54 obvious to ignore.
01:56 Like Buzz Lightyear, people love Han Solo but they didn't like this imposter who was
02:01 calling himself Han Solo that Disney decided to make a movie about.
02:05 So had Lightyear been presented in the style of the Star Command movie or TV show with
02:09 Buzz being a version of his toy self, then it would have attracted the interest of longtime
02:14 fans rather than what we got which didn't really interest longtime fans and also didn't
02:21 have enough original pull to get a brand new, intrigued audience.
02:26 Talking about the new Buzz as well, it would be remiss to not mention the fact that the
02:30 voice actors had changed with original actor Tim Allen being swapped for Chris Evans like
02:35 I mentioned earlier.
02:36 Now of course, that does make sense.
02:38 As I've mentioned, this is a different version of Buzz, we're not talking about the toy,
02:41 so getting a new actor in isn't sacrilege or anything like that.
02:45 However, the swapping of the actors does just strengthen the idea to audiences that this
02:50 isn't the Buzz that they know and why should they care if they don't have that connection
02:56 to him.
02:57 Now, am I saying that Tim Allen's involvement would have made this a billion dollar movie?
03:01 Absolutely not.
03:02 I'm just saying that the instantly identifiable switch between voice actors again, strengthens
03:08 the fact that this is a very different movie from the thing that people actually remember.
03:14 And all of this can be rolled into one of the most common complaints ever since the
03:17 first trailer dropped and that's the question of "Who is this movie actually for?"
03:22 Now the obvious answer to that might of course just be "Well, Toy Story fans, you idiot!"
03:27 But you need to bear in mind that the first trailers for this movie kind of underplayed
03:32 these Toy Story connections.
03:34 Instead, it focused initially on the gritty sci-fi elements and then in later trailers
03:38 the emphasis was on the goofier comedy.
03:40 Yet, the final film itself is an awkward stew of elements that don't quite cohere.
03:45 The sci-fi adventure story is too formulaic and familiar to make much of an impression
03:50 with older viewers, while the time dilation mechanics will simply be too complex for younger
03:55 viewers to make sense of.
03:57 And one of the biggest criticisms levelled at this movie is that despite supposedly being
04:01 Andy's favourite movie ever, his Star Wars is actually a little bit too drab and a little
04:06 bit too boring for kids to even get excited about.
04:10 And that's criminal, right?
04:11 This is supposed to be the movie of Andy's formative years, yet in real life it can't
04:16 even keep kids engaged for the full duration of the runtime.
04:20 The marketing for the movie just generally as well was also needlessly convoluted.
04:25 Like you needed to know Toy Story lore to fully understand what Lightyear even was.
04:30 This should have been a straightforward sci-fi romp, but instead you needed to know all of
04:34 his backstory going into it.
04:36 This confusion led to people watching the first trailer and assuming that it was an
04:40 in-universe biopic of the real Buzz Lightyear that the toy in Toy Story was inspired by.
04:47 It was only later trailers which revealed that this is actually a 1995 movie in-universe
04:52 that Andy saw when he was a kid.
04:54 Throwing confusion over its tone with it at once being this serious sci-fi movie as well
04:59 as a goofy family drama, many people were just going into it confused as to what Lightyear
05:05 was.
05:06 How was it related to the franchise it was spinning off of and what kind of movie was
05:10 this going to be?
05:11 Speaking of brand confusion as well, I can't talk about the next point without jumping
05:15 into spoilers for the film, so if you haven't seen Lightyear and you do want to see it,
05:19 this is your warning that I'm about to spoil the big twist.
05:22 By far the most divisive aspect of a Lightyear story is the fact that they completely change
05:27 Zurg's origin.
05:28 As you may know in Toy Story 2, villain Zurg is revealed to be Buzz Lightyear's father
05:33 but in this movie he's actually an older Buzz Lightyear from an alternate dimension.
05:39 Yeah this is a multiverse movie, like we haven't had enough of those this year and last.
05:43 Now this twist naturally rankled many long-time fans because like I mentioned, this goes against
05:48 the canon that was previously established.
05:50 More than that, many felt like it was just an attempt at shock value to change something
05:55 because otherwise the movie would have been even more predictable because this beat had
05:59 been revealed previously.
06:00 So despite people understanding why a change like this might have been made and despite
06:04 actor Josh Brolin being fine in the role, a lot of Toy Story fans were just annoyed
06:09 that it was going against the canon and again establishing itself as this different entity
06:14 that didn't really even have connections to the thing that it's spinning off from.
06:18 And so the vitriolic response to this big reveal ultimately didn't help the movie
06:21 garner any strong word of mouth after it came out and if anything only further put people
06:26 off who were on the fence to see fan reactions.
06:30 Outside of the movie's own quality in its marketing though, it's also important to
06:34 put it into context because animation movies generally on the big screen haven't fared
06:39 all that well recently.
06:41 And while yes, many might put that down to services like Disney Plus putting some movies
06:45 day and date, it doesn't account for the animation industry at large.
06:50 This isn't just a Disney Plus problem.
06:52 For instance, since the pandemic started, the highest grossing animated movie in theatres
06:56 has been Sing 2 which got $407 million at the box office which is paltry compared to
07:03 the highest grossing live action movies even in the pandemic era.
07:07 And the reason for this?
07:08 Well, it could just be that families are struggling to justify a trip to the cinema to see a movie
07:13 like this because when you take into account tickets, parking, petrol, snacks and everything
07:18 else, you could be looking at $100 plus for this trip when the movie is going to drop
07:24 on a streaming service in like 6 weeks anyway and that streaming service generally has a
07:30 lot of material that would please the family already.
07:34 Likewise, taking into account the current global inflation crisis, it's easy to see
07:38 why this is an expense that people will just be cutting out because again, these movies
07:43 will trickle onto streaming services sooner rather than later.
07:47 And in Lightyear's specific case, it didn't help that it was going up against two titans
07:51 in the form of Top Gun Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion.
07:55 Both of these were just box office smashes.
07:57 In the case of Top Gun Maverick, that has been helped by strong word of mouth and some
08:01 incredible reviews while Jurassic World Dominion, well it's Jurassic World isn't it?
08:05 That thing is just an excuse to print money.
08:08 Still, even with all of these in factors, the prevailing idea is that animation just
08:11 generally is in a kind of weird place on the big screen.
08:14 Likewise, it is somewhat ironic that Pixar's first big screen effort in two years is actually
08:20 probably the most Disney+ feeling movie that they've ever released.
08:25 Now that's not to slight Disney+ movies at all, there is a lot of great material that
08:29 comes straight to that service but simply the fact that Lightyear lacks the finesse
08:34 that defines almost all of Pixar's work including their three prior films, Soul, Luca and Turning
08:40 Red, which were themselves sent straight to Disney+ when they probably should have been
08:45 in theatres.
08:46 Despite a stonking $200 million production budget, which is way more than the previous
08:50 three movies I just mentioned by the way, this feels like an amusing little Toy Story
08:55 spin-off, something designed for a Disney+ audience.
08:58 Yeah, the visuals might be something else but every other element feels too safe.
09:03 Furthermore, while it would be silly to call Lightyear a critical dud or anything like
09:07 that, it did score 76% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 6.8/10 average score, which definitely
09:13 puts it on the lower end of the Pixar spectrum.
09:17 Considering the film's aforementioned marketing wars then, these three star tepid reviews didn't
09:22 really get people excited to want to go out and see an amazing movie.
09:26 Strong reviews can lead to better box office.
09:28 I mean again, like I mentioned, just look at something like Top Gun Maverick which did
09:32 insanely well, partly because critics were calling it the best movie of the year.
09:37 In Lightyear's case, they were just calling it a movie of the year.
09:40 And yet, perhaps the primary reason why Lightyear failed, well, it was just a spin-off ultimately
09:46 that nobody asked for and when they got their first look at it in the trailers, weren't
09:51 all that interested in.
09:52 It's the same issue that killed Solo.
09:55 You can't just take a recognisable name and slap it in the title and put it in the
09:59 trailers and expect to print $1 billion in return.
10:04 If movie making was that easy, let me tell you, I'd be doing it and I'm a fool.
10:08 Stories need intrigue, they need some kind of justification and to quote Ed from Shaun
10:13 LeDead, "Audiences aren't just a bunch of performing monkeys.
10:16 We're not just going to go flock out and see something because we recognise the thing."
10:21 So yeah, I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to drop $200 million
10:25 on a brand new blockbuster, probably make sure people are interested in seeing it before
10:31 you spend the money.
10:32 I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:35 What did you think about Lightyear?
10:36 Do you think it deserved a bum or do you think it's an underrated gem?
10:39 Let us know and if you can, while you're down there, could you please give us a like,
10:42 share, subscribe and head over to whatculture.com for more lists and news like this every single
10:46 day.
10:47 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching and I'll see