The charm of Buzz is a toy who thinks he's a space hero; not in a real space hero. Plus, the plot was pretty damn convoluted for a kids movie.

I don't think it needed Woody or Rex. It needed to feel like the same character. I don't buy that toy Buzz thought he was this guy, and his blocky suit completely clashes with the strangely gritty tech.

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command did this much better.

It should have been released on Disney+, and Turning Red should have been released in theaters last summer.

That's what went wrong.

It was fine for a streaming movie. Turning Red had hit written all over it.

The thing is that Interstellar is not any 10 year old boy's favorite action movie. The Buzz Lightyear toy could definitely not have come from the movie that they made. That's the core problem. The Buzz Lightyear TV show understood this. They could definitely have made an action adventure movie along those lines and gotten buy in.

I still feel like he's struggling to understand the appeal of Buzz Lightyear. Audiences love that he's a slightly dumb but well intentioned and heroic good guy. He's a great contrast to Woody, a character who is wimpy, emotional, insecure and anxious while Buzz is brave, strong-hearted and a bit naive.

The problem was that the Buzz in Lightyear had none of the appeal of the Buzz Lightyear audiences love. This portrayal was one-dimensional and boring. His character journey is - his inability to let go of the past? His need for control and learning to work with others? This is an action movie for children. The original character was inspired by the 50s action serials like Flash Gordon. He needs to be a barrel-chested hero getting into crazy adventures. Why the hell would they go with a drab, boring, gray movie inspired by Interstellar? What kind of pretentious bullshit is that?

That character can lead his own franchise, but get to the core of what made him work. People liked the straight man in a whacky world. Give him a colorful cast of aliens and 90s silliness instead of that boring, forgettable, braindead, nothing, bleh cast in that movie we got instead. That animated series got the appeal of the character way better, plus paired him with a great supporting cast - Mira Nova was pragmatic and sensible when Buzz was naive, Booster was wimpy and unconfident while Buzz was headstrong, and XR was a know-it-all when Buzz himself is kinda dumb.

It's not the audiences' fault for not understanding the movie. It's Pixar's fault for not understanding their own character.

“We did a lot of soul-searching” and then proceeds to not take accountability and instead says that the audience is just too dumb to like it.

Maybe, just maybe, it wasn’t all that great of a story?

Lol, still not admitting it.

I mean seems about right, even Tim Allen said there was a lot of confusion regarding what the movie was about and who it was about when he got asked about it

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That is a lot of words to say ‘people thought our movie sucked’.

Because if they didn’t, he wouldn’t be saying anything.

There’s no way this was 9-year-old Andy’s favorite movie, it had more in common with a gritty reboot made by people who didn’t see the original

The movie could have started with Andy as an adult going to the theater with his friends to see the new reboot movie of Buzz Lightyear. Then the lights dim and Lightyear plays as the "movie within a movie" premise.

They should’ve based it off that cartoon show they had in like 2000 or so.

That was a funny little show

Remember the opening of Toy Story 2? With Buzz fighting Zurg’s army? That’s the movie I wanted. Didn’t have to be Tim Allen - CE was fine. But give me that fun, little bit campy, kid-friendly sci-fi space flick.

I think the biggest problem is they tried to tell us this was a kids movie from 1995 and then showed us a very 2022 movie. They could have leaned into all of the cheesyness of the Buzz video game intro we saw at the beginning of Toy Story 2 but instead tried to get way too real.

My girlfriend and I saw this film and we were surprised because it was very cliche. So many of the lines were catch phrases. It just kinda...moved forward. It wasn't anything more abstract than it was just poor writing.

It failed because it wasn't very good

'I think probably what we’ve ended on in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience.' Gee thanks. No, you didn't ask too much of your audience, you made a movie so shit that your audience didn't like it. Your audience's sensibilities are not to blame for your inability to make a movie that satisfied what they were looking for in a Lightyear movie. A movie that you already had a perfect template for in the form of a previous television program.

> we asked too much of the audience

Hey Pete Docter - the audience wasn’t too stupid to “get” your shitty movie.

This reads to me as him saying "the movie was good, you all are dumb for not understanding why it's good"

No sorry, the movie was unnecessary and boring. It's up there with Cars 2 and The Good Dinosaur.

My biggest problem with it was that it didn’t seem like a movie Andy would have enjoyed very much or would have inspired him. I’ve always imagined the buzz lighter story to be more of a star wars space opera which what toy story portrayed it to be or made it seem like that’s what it was. I think Andy would have been bored by what this movie ended up being.

I liked it, but ppl who were fans of Toy Story were looking for a different Buzz. How tf they didn't understand that was beyond me.

Guess I'm in the minority, cause I liked it. But the people saying the toy can't be based on that movie are spot on.. or like the toy buzz clearly doesn't think the same. There were a bunch of jokes.. the cartridge bit had me loling... and the cat was hilarious. Me and my kid were laughing at that cat all movie. The anti-woke fearmongering surrounding the movie was ridiculous. I went in pretty blind ( I hate trailers), so I didn't know about any of the time plot, and I was surprised by how sophisticated it was. I though it was good sci-fi, because it took a premise and ran with it.

I liked it

“We asked too much of our audience” is such pretentious thing to say…about a children’s movie.

What a crock of shit. They made it abundantly clear in the trailers what the movie was.

I liked it. I thought is was a good story and a valid movie that makes sense being something Andy liked.

The tone should have been like that videogame scene that starts TS2. That was perfect. Funny, imaginative, and exciting. BL had a shit story and wasn't funny at all. It was terrible.

anyone remember the Buzz Lightyear cartoon? Pixar hates that cartoon apparently but I think it was far better than Lightyear.

I liked the movie. I don’t think it’s the movie Andy saw. They say it is but the way the toy says to infinity and beyond, how he is already battling the emperor and the fact that not one did the toy ask where his companion was? All of it didn’t match up.

Solid movie. Both my kids liked it 7/10.

It was no “Toy Story” though. Just a good family sci fi.

For me, it was the robot cat. I saw it in the trailer, recognized it as a cynical marketing attempt, and lost all interest I had in the film.

Why don’t they just say that it was the gay scenes they put in it I remember when it came out there was articles left and right people pissed off about it. I mean I don’t give a shit about the movie either way but let’s call a spade a spade and not say some dumb shit about expecting to much of the audience and it’s because it was science fiction..

Honestly there were parts I like but aside from its commercial issues, I thought plot-wise it's a hard sell to present us with a new scifi premise every 30 minutes and hope that adds up to a movie.

Not a bad film, but one without a clear story to tell. That for me is as big an issue as the uncertainty of how it fits in with Toy story.

Tim Allen is buzz Lightyear

I wouldn't even put it in my Top 10 of 1995.

I think probably what we’ve ended on in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience

Aye pal, you blame the audience.

If only there was a movie called Buzz Lightyear of star command that already existed and was better than Lightyear…

It's a pretty solid Sci Fi movie. I'd give it a 7/10? However, I would've preferred another kind of story for Buzz instead of what we got.

He should try a coneheads reboot

Is he saying it's the audience's fault?

It would have been perfect if it wasn't a time loop movie. They easily could of had an after credit scene with andy watching it as if it were a show.

I would say time travel can be a very holit or miss thing in a story. Another problem they are in space yet stuck on one planet. No other alien races. The Buzz Lightyear animated show had both these elements which helped. Add in a rotating cast of characters no wonder why it did not work.

I just watched it about 2 hours ago and thought it was a pretty solid sci-fi movie. I think it gets a lot more hate than it deserves honestly. Everyone speaks to its disconnect from Toy Story as a reason that it did poorly but for me at least I couldn’t care less, he’s a cool character on his own. I even loved the Buzz Lightyear cartoon when I was a kid and that had nothing to do with Toy Story either as far as I can remember, and that didn’t seem to be a problem at the time. Admittedly the “this is the movie Andy watched” text at the beginning of the movie definitely felt like a weird add-on after the fact because it makes no sense that this is supposed to be a 90s movie, but I can’t understand how that apparently ruined the movie for a bunch of people. It’s pretty easy to ignore.

My take on why it didn’t do well is just because it wasn’t a great movie, it was just fine. And since it wasn’t really targeted to kids in the same way most of Pixar is, I think it needed to be great in order to have a more significant impact. I was excited to watch it because it looked like a cool sci-fi movie, and frankly it was, but that’s probably not how you get a ton of people to watch your movie.

Hold on... someone mentioned time dilation in this movie and that the plot is too convoluted for children.

So is this actually a good sci-fi movie for adults potentially?

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I liked it and my son watches it on repeat. I guess it depends , my son is a big buzz lightyear / Toy Story fan.

Lightyear was essentially Interstellar for kids. Seeing how most adults still struggle to grasp interstellar to this day I can see how most kids would be confused too. I watched it on a plane though and thoroughly enjoyed the film. It featured good action, nice character development and simple fun too. I’d certainly watch it again but I’m a 32 year old and not a kid.

I didn't watch it because they tried to piggyback an IP with a premise and genre it had nothing to do with, rather than in invest in a new IP; they didn't have faith in the story standing on its own legs without brand recognition, so why should I.

Pixar Forehead more like

It’s funny and a good sci-fi film. I get why Toy Story fans weren’t particularly thrilled by it though. ‘Film’ Buzz and ‘Toy’ Buzz are very different characters. I took my 4 year old to see it, she loves Toy Story, and she has a lot of questions, but still enjoyed it and has watched it at least 5 or 6 times on Disney+ as well. Sox is her fav.

He fails to mention the pretty strong campaign against it because of LGBT themes and lack of Tim Allen playing Buzz (which the campaigners attributed to Tim being conservative.)

Now I havent seen the movie myself so I don't know if anything is true about it, but this was the only buzz I heard about buzz at the time, and I do think it influenced a fair number of people on wether to take their kids to see it.

People had a fondness for the television show and the movie said "nah, it ain't like that"

He still doesn't get it.

It would be funny if he just blamed Chris Evans.

They were just so secretive about it, only saying that it's his origin story, but also not at all nudge nudge, wink wink.

I was set up for disappointment by the intro; don't tell me Buzz Lightyear was a character in a mid 90's alien action flick and then not deliver an homage to the genre.

I still liked it. My nephew is obsessed, so we watch it all the time. But there was a better movie in there somewhere.

Uh yeah. Other reasons come to mind on why it failed but I don't even want to open up that can of worms. All I can say is enough already.

It was a bad idea…I guess these guys who think they know everything about telling stories, don’t.

They could have done the sci-fi movie, if it portrayed Buzz as the space hero like in the Toy Story 2 opening.

I mean I liked it, but I have no attachment to toy story. I saw it as a decent Sci fi movie

Honestly none of the plot should matter. Kids don't go to a movie for the plot and no one really knows before they see it. The appeal is or buzz himself and thafs it.

My six year old daughter loves the movie so I dunno what to say lol

Better for them to have done this as a standalone movie with a new character at a lower budget. I Ben if it failed, they would have lost a lot less $$ and not punched a hole in their Toy Story franchise.

“We asked too much of the audience” reeks of condescension: it’s not our fault you didn’t want to buy tickets to our movie. Toy story is the gold standard of Pixar and Disney animated franchises. Lightyear was an ok movie, but they chose to cut ties with Buzz Lightyear, a character they’d spent decades building. For a beloved animated character, altering the look and replacing the voice is guaranteed to throw an audience. Nothing against Chris Evans, but imagine replacing Tom Hanks with him for Woody with similar changes. It’s just not Woody any more. Yes, Pixar says this is the movie Andy watched, but they’re not fooling anyone.

Pixar has made some of the best animated films ever. I hope they get their mojo back.

I loved Lightyear and think the general public have no taste.

Maybe zerg being buzz was a dog shit twist and everything related to the cartoon for the nearly 100% of people this movie would have mattered to was invalidated

Watch them make a b&w Woody film in the John Wayne western style and wonder why it also bombs at the box office.

I really liked this movie. I can't imagine a kid liking it

It didn't feel like a 90s SF-action film - and definitely not one a kid would've considered his favorite movie.

My headcanon is Andy saw Strange Days instead.

I didn't hate it like everyone else did, but I understand why people didn't like it even if I don't agree. I thought it was a fun movie, separated from the main canon by being an in universe Buzz Lightyear movie.

The problem boiled down to the fact that most people who grew up with the Toy Story movies all have their own ideas about what a Buzz Lightyear movie should be, and those ideas and expectations prevented a lot of people from just enjoying the ride.

I feel like years down the line it'll get a better shake and be a cult classic.

This sub has more posts deleted or removed than any place on the internet. It's a real problem.

Wowsers, pretty crazy that no one has stated the obvious or pointed out the giant elephant in the room. It’s not rocket surgery. Homosexuality is niche, don’t make niche products for general release and get surprised when the general public doesn’t buy the product. Every product that has been released in the last two years that has been released like this from Hollywood has underperformed.

It's less like "a film from which the toy Buzz Lightyear is based on" and more like "a gritty reboot/reimagining inspired by the Buzz Lightyear toyline".

They should have done an introduction scene of the kid from Toy Story walking into the theaters with his mom to watch the movie. And then a credits scene of him buying the Buzz toy in a store.

They should’ve animated it intentionally bad like a 90s cartoon. Satire, basically.

Lots of copium. It failed because the story was garbage, it was political so received negative press and positive word of mouth was nonexistent

It should have been a movie of how buzz got to Andy’s bedroom.

I loved the movie. As a stand-alone thing, it makes sense. I don’t get how people see two different iterations of the character, notice they are different iterations of the character, and get upset that they’re different.

It’s a film character. Then they make a toy for the character who has their own personality - because Toys in Toy Story are sentient and have their own personalities. People compare TS2 Buzz to Lightyear Buzz and complain they’re not the same, but TS2 Buzz had a completely different story arc in the first, had completely different relationships and wants, and was a different person.

Like…why are you so angry? It’s not like you can’t watch the Toy Story franchise anymore to see the Buzz you know and love, Lightyear was just a different take on the character.

I really liked the movie... I guess that's all I have to add here

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Damn, this thread is surprisingly toxic. Did people hate this movie? I thought it was okay.

Is just justification so they can do a new Toy Story no-one asked for right?

Because we wanted Tim Allen and not a serving of wokeism in a kids movie? Honestly, this movie is on Disney+ and I still haven’t bothered with it.

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You must be right. I loved it. I'm a 52 year old white male heterosexual. What we used to call a man. But it's supposed to be for kids. I think I'm gonna watch it again now. Gn.

"Failed"

A few homophobes throwing a tantrum over a little kiss hardly constitutes failure.