Pixar is one of the most popular animation studios in the world, that has created numerous films such as The Incredibles, Toy Story, Cars, Finding Nemo, Coco, and many more. The critics as well as the people applaud the animation studio for its breathtaking animation, engaging stories, and memorable characters.
However, Lightyear, the 2022 animated film doesn’t fit into the studio’s characteristics as it was a massive disappointment. Recently, Pete Docter, the CCO of Pixar Studios broke the silence on what led to the film not meeting the audience’s expectations.
Pixar Explains Why Lightyear Failed
During an interview with The Wrap, Pete Docter talked about Lightyear’s poor performance, and the reason it failed to connect with the audience is that Pixar “asked too much of the audience.” The CCO explained that the Toy Story spinoff because the character perfectly fits into the Toy Story premise, but the audience was disappointed because it was different than what they expected, and being a standalone film of the Toy Story universe it wouldn’t make sense to include other characters of the universe.
“We’ve done a lot of soul-searching about that because we all love the movie. We love the characters and the premise. I think probably what we’ve ended on in terms of what went wrong is that we asked too much of the audience. When they hear Buzz, they’re like, great, where’s Mr. Potato Head and Woody and Rex? And then we drop them into this science fiction film that they’re like, What?”
Compared to other Pixar films, Lightyear opened at a mere $51 million, which was extremely underwhelming for the studio’s expectations. Pete Docter’s explanation made sense, but some people think that another aspect that affected the film was the voice, because the space ranger was voiced by Chris Evans instead of Tim Allen.
Pete Docter also pointed out that the character in the film was too distant in their concept and how they have been portrayed in the movie, as it was a sci-fi and the writers wanted to depict Buzz Lightyear as a real character, compared to Toy Story there was a huge difference between the characters.
“Even if they’ve read the material in press, it was just a little too distant, both in concept, and I think in the way that characters were drawn, that they were portrayed. It was much more of a science fiction. And Angus [MacLane], to his credit, took it very seriously and genuinely and wanted to represent those characters as real characters. But the characters in ‘Toy Story’ are much broader, and so I think there was a disconnect between what people wanted/expected and what we were giving to them.”
It was puzzling why the film failed in the theatres despite being well-recognized and one of the most loved animated characters, but after Pete Docter’s statements, it is crystal clear why the film was not loved by the fans.
It’s time for The Toys to Return
Since Pete Docter acknowledged that the Space Ranger was too distant from the original films, the fans would rejoice to learn that they can see more of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 5.
Yes, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney announced that Toy Story 5 is under development, and without a shadow of a doubt they will bring back the Buzz Lightyear that the audience loves, it was great at the end of Pixar and Disney to come up with another sequel that is so loved by the audience.
Lightyear can be streamed on Disney+.
Source: The Wrap
