Lightyear

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Sotiris
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Re: Lightyear

Post by Sotiris »

They should have stuck to the original plan. The villain being yourself has been done to death too, especially in the superhero genre.
Pixar did work on a version of Lightyear where Zurg was Buzz’s father, but that idea was abandoned because the similarly themed “Ad Astra” opened while they were in production. “A lot of it comes down to how much value as an audience you have in seeing a person get into a fight with their father,” MacLane said.

Instead, MacLane used the sequence (and the idea of an evil, time-traveling Buzz) to zero in on one of “Lightyear’s” biggest themes. “One of the things that the movie is dancing around is how nostalgia can poison us into repeating ourselves or falling into the same rut over and over again,” MacLane said. “And being convinced that if we look backwards, the solutions we had in the past were better than the present that we have.” Also, he said, the idea of multiple Buzz Lightyears is something that is inherently “Toy Story”-esque. “I wanted to have echoes,” MacLane said.
Source: https://www.thewrap.com/lightyear-direc ... interview/
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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Even Disney forgot about this movie so much that they don't even know who Izzy Hawthorne is:
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https://twitter.com/DisneyPlus/status/1 ... vmp9Q&s=19
carolinakid
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Re: Lightyear

Post by carolinakid »

I swear I thought that character was male from pictures alone til I learned her name and read her character description. (I haven’t seen the film yet, though I have the DVD.)
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blackcauldron85
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Re: Lightyear

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Farerb wrote: Sat Mar 18, 2023 2:27 pm Even Disney forgot about this movie so much that they don't even know who Izzy Hawthorne is:
Someone did respond to the tweet to correct them (https://twitter.com/JohnnyQ2497/status/ ... 8410459140); I doubt Disney will update their post...
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Re: Lightyear

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Instead, MacLane used the sequence (and the idea of an evil, time-traveling Buzz) to zero in on one of “Lightyear’s” biggest themes. “One of the things that the movie is dancing around is how nostalgia can poison us into repeating ourselves or falling into the same rut over and over again,” MacLane said. “And being convinced that if we look backwards, the solutions we had in the past were better than the present that we have.” Also, he said, the idea of multiple Buzz Lightyears is something that is inherently “Toy Story”-esque. “I wanted to have echoes,” MacLane said.
Source: https://www.thewrap.com/lightyear-direc ... interview/


I am nourished by the irony of Pixar condemning the pitfalls of nostalgia in this of all movies.
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

Post by Farerb »

Lightyear
Pixar/Walt Disney
Total Loss: -$106M

One would think an extension of the Toy Story franchise, a spinoff about Buzz Lightyear, would be a sure-fire win, but devoted fans weren’t thrilled that Tim Allen wasn’t doing the voice-over (Chris Evans took over), not to mention their issues with the movie taking liberties with Toy Story canon. The $50.5 million domestic start wasn’t going to get Lightyear to the moon at the summer box office. Also potentially impacting grosses: former moviegoers getting too comfortable with seeing Pixar movies at home on Disney+ after Soul and Turning Red were sent straight to the service. Per CEO Bob Iger, Disney is returning to the regular Toy Story franchise with a fifthquel. With an A- CinemaScore, Lightyear had the lowest grade to date for a Toy Story movie. Critical reception fell from the typical 90%+ on Rotten Tomatoes to 74% on Lightyear.
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https://deadline.com/2023/04/biggest-bo ... 235325138/
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Sotiris
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Re: Lightyear

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I thought this was an interesting video about why Lightyear and Strange World didn't resonate with audiences beyond blaming the LGBT representation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNBTxB-mkes
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carolinakid
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Re: Lightyear

Post by carolinakid »

I liked the comment that Disney movies today seem more like lectures than entertainment. Puss in Boots got raves so I actually want to see it now.
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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carolinakid wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:31 am I liked the comment that Disney movies today seem more like lectures than entertainment.
They have been like that since 2012, but it has become increasingly worse.
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Re: Lightyear

Post by carolinakid »

Farerb wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:46 am
carolinakid wrote: Wed Apr 19, 2023 4:31 am I liked the comment that Disney movies today seem more like lectures than entertainment.
They have been like that since 2012, but it has become increasingly worse.

Farerb,
I trust you and Sotiris so much to be fair and balanced.
By 2012 I had stopped watching most Disney/Pixar movies for various reasons, not just disappointing content. I still bought all the DVDs, just kept putting off watching them which I alluded to in another thread.
Anyway.... you would say the “lecturing” began with Wreck-It Ralph and Brave, neither of which I’ve seen yet, is that correct? So it’s been 11 years now. Holy s**t!

I assume the mega success of the Frozen films gave them a false sense of security that this crap is what audiences really wanted to see.
I’ve read their excuses (and blaming) for Lightyear and Strange World being toxic bombs, so I don’t think Disney has learned the lesson yet.
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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Wreck-It Ralph hammered in that whole nonsense about "I'm bad and it's good" or whatever that never made any sense because he was never a bad guy, it was all just an act (for example like if all the cast of The Lion King hated Jeremy Irons in real life because he played Scar), it was just a way to have a message of "accept who you are" but really came off as "accept society's expectations of you" (sometimes their messaging is really botched).

The thing is there are similar themes and messages in previous movies, but they are more nuanced and subtle. I can say that "toxic masculinity" was a theme in Beauty and the Beast, but the movie also focused on a good story, good characters and the entertainment of it all, and not just "kids need to learn something by watching it".
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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Exclusive: Walt Disney's Pixar targets 'Lightyear' execs among 75 job cuts
https://www.reuters.com/business/walt-d ... 023-06-03/
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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My prediction is that within the next 3-5 years we are going to see Pixar and Disney Animation merged into one studio, which ultimately mean the end of Pixar, Disney will use the name for branding purposes for sequels, etc...
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Kyle
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Re: Lightyear

Post by Kyle »

people have been saying that since they purchased them, never gonna happen.
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Farerb
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Re: Lightyear

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Pixar was profitable back then, they aren't now. It's a possibility when a studio becomes unprofitable. It happened to Disney Toons, it happened to Blue Sky. They even considered shutting down their own animation studio twice. Unless Pixar can change things around, that's the fate that awaits them because in the executive's eyes, there's no point in keeping two unprofitable animation studios. And no, eventually relying on sequels alone is unsustainable.
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Sotiris
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Re: Lightyear

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So, the director of Lightyear got fired, huh? No accountability for Pete Docter and his poor management? :eyebrow: He needs to go back to just directing and leave the studio's leadership to someone else. I wonder if the next Pixar director on the chopping block is Pete Sohn given Elemental's poor box office projections (and the fact the only other film he directed was a flop too). Then again, maybe he'll be spared because he's a minority.
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Re: Lightyear

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Sotiris wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:15 pm So, the director of Lightyear got fired, huh? No accountability for Pete Docter and his poor management? :eyebrow: He needs to go back to just directing and leave the studio's leadership to someone else. I wonder if the next Pixar director on the chopping block is Pete Sohn given Elemental's poor box office projections (and the fact the only other film he directed was a flop too). Then again, maybe he'll be spared because he's a minority.
I know I’ll get flamed here 🔥 as usual when I bring this up, but I have to wonder in all sincerity if Disney/Pixar would be in this same pickle if they had continued to make films with the primary purpose of entertainment, rather than checking off boxes.

I hear TLM is being sunk this weekend by the new Spiderverse film with an Afro-Latino hero who is NOT Peter Parker rather than a race swapped imposter protagonist. Hard to blame this one on “racism”...

(Sotiris, this isn’t directed at you....I just piggybacked on the latest post!)
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Re: Lightyear

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Kinda sad that this movie's flop and the subsequent firing of several people involved with it is being blamed on the lesbian couple kiss rather than it being terrible... the whole basis for this is terrible and the idea should have never went forward. Like, WHO was claiming for a Buzz origin story? lol Really hope they can move Pixar around... I agree with making movies for entertainment rather for lecturing their audience
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Re: Lightyear

Post by D23ExpoVisitor25 »

carolinakid wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 4:44 pm
Sotiris wrote: Sat Jun 03, 2023 2:15 pm So, the director of Lightyear got fired, huh? No accountability for Pete Docter and his poor management? :eyebrow: He needs to go back to just directing and leave the studio's leadership to someone else. I wonder if the next Pixar director on the chopping block is Pete Sohn given Elemental's poor box office projections (and the fact the only other film he directed was a flop too). Then again, maybe he'll be spared because he's a minority.
I know I’ll get flamed here 🔥 as usual when I bring this up, but I have to wonder in all sincerity if Disney/Pixar would be in this same pickle if they had continued to make films with the primary purpose of entertainment, rather than checking off boxes.

I hear TLM is being sunk this weekend by the new Spiderverse film with an Afro-Latino hero who is NOT Peter Parker rather than a race swapped imposter protagonist. Hard to blame this one on “racism”...

(Sotiris, this isn’t directed at you....I just piggybacked on the latest post!)
TLM isn’t being sunk, it’s just dropping on par with Aladdin the same way Aladdin dropped 50-55% when Godzilla 2 came out.
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Re: Lightyear

Post by Mooky »

Galyn Susman is the woman who saved Toy Story 2 from complete deletion and it's a question if Pixar would even exist today had she not had a copy of TS2 saved on her home computer.
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