Disney Pixar's Lightyear

[Farerb]

Lightyear will not release on Disney+ Middle East
https://www.esquireme.com/culture/film- ... isney-plus

[Daniel]

What a shocker.

[Ben]

Well…that wasn’t as bad as I was kind of expecting.

Actually, it did feel fairly authentic to being a 1980s sci-fi adventure flick, but that was half the problem: it took itself too seriously and wasn’t really any *fun*. And you know what?

Just having Tim Allen voice Buzz would have infinitively solved a lot of the lack of *fun*. Evans is largely doing an Allen impression anyway, especially on the known callback lines, but he’s just too "light" most of the time.

Having Allen doing the exact same lines would have just sounded more like Buzz and given him a more ironic sounding voice. And the callbacks would have meant more, *because it’s BUZZ Buzz saying them*, not to mention having a subliminal and knowing Galaxy Quest subtext and vibe to the whole thing.

As is, and as big as it is, it also largely felt really contained, with a lot more that could have been done with the Space Ranger/sci-fi/space movie pastiche concept, but they seemed all too pleased to just sit back on their main three sets and just let a basic chase play out from there.

Now, I did like who Zurg turned out to be, nicely in keeping with what we know from TS2, and I admit I didn’t see the reveal here coming, which was quite smart, but even before the movie ended, I was already reflecting on Zurg's plan and actually thinking that he actually kind of really does have a point, doesn’t he…?

I also liked the idea of Sox, especially the latter version, but again thought they could have done more with him in an Old Bob kind of way: he otherwise seemed to disappear as a soon as he came in. And, speaking of Sox, I’m not sure if Disney's safety police were asleep that day, but I can’t help have fears that some poor little kitties are going to have their tails shoved into plug sockets when not so smart kids to try and recharge them, and couldn’t believe that idea (shown a few times!) was allowed to pass through standards and practices…!

Giacchino's score did all the big blasts and bombasts expected of it, and there’s a nice little new motif for Buzz…well, which is nice until it literally gets played out over and over throughout apart from several moments that sounded like variations on Elfman's Edward Scissorhands, with some authentic sounding Silvestri stabs thrown in for good measure here and there.

The rest of the cast were fine, and no-one felt like they were swamping or attempting to become a forced breakout character, but it’s kind of a shame when you have a whole feature to spoof various tropes and still the best Buzz Lightyear adventure is the opening minutes of Toy Story 2's videogame sequence, which has more inventiveness and, yes, fun in those few moments than this whole film does.

As a movie, it’s not the nadir of Pixar, but it’s also nowhere near being beyond the infinity it could and should have strived for. The lack of real knockabout fun — not straight "comedy" but good time fun — means Lightyear doesn’t reach to infinity, or beyond.

[Daniel]

Guess that means you'll be buying?

[Ben]

[Randall]

Watched it tonight with my teenage son. Then, we spent a half-hour or so of discussing the plot, trying to make sense of it all. We got there, but we both thought that the storytelling could have been more clear.

I would have been even more baffled by the film if I hadn't gone in knowing what to expect. It's not the Buzz film I would have hoped for, but knowing that it was darker and more serious, I felt it was generally "okay." It's not terrible, and it's certainly not the worst Pixar film. (Maybe 4th or 5th worst.)

So many questions. And one can come up with answers, but it feels like I shouldn't have to work so hard to make the plot work.

The time travel aspect confused me at first. It wasn't clear to me how/when the timelines diverged and how we got two Buzzes. Maybe I was too sleepy while watching it, as it made more sense when I re-watched the pertinent explanation. But I really have to wonder if a young kid could make sense of it. My teenage boy seemed to grasp it fine, though.

What threw me, I think, was the siege of the planet. I hadn't caught that it had only been going on a week. (Again, maybe I was too sleepy.) It felt more like a dystopian future that had been going on a while. I would have liked a scene or two from within the city to clarify things. (Another thing is that the film just felt underpopulated.)

How is it that Zurg went back as far in time as he possibly could, but just happen to arrive in time to meet his past self? Convenient.

Why were Buzz's team members outside the city when they got cut off during the invasion? And why were they together? More backstory would have been nice. Maybe not important, but it just felt contrived.

And WHY was Zurg attacking the city? I suppose that this kept the leader from arresting young Buzz, but it wasn't really explained. It just felt like Zurg was just being Zurg, which made less sense later.

And why was Sox being "decommissioned?" And why wait until just after Buzz returns? Again, things just happened because the writers wanted them to happen. My son figured it was because the authorities didn't want Buzz to know that Sox found out how to fix the crystal, but how would they even know about that? And, again, why wait years until Buzz is back to take Sox away?

If Sox figured out how to work the crystal and assumedly has it all in his memory banks, then a) why does it matter that the plans were destroyed, and b) why can't they - young Buzz, the settlers, old Buzz - just make a new one?

I'm not sure if a second viewing will make me like it better or worse.

[Ben]

Xactly.

All of the above — and the film has a LOT of those questions and not many answers — could have been somewhat tempered by having Allen voicing Buzz and actually calling attention to some/most/all of the conveniences by going with a more ironic leaning on the tropes and twists being encountered, also making the film more fun into the bargain, which is what was really needed as, 80s sci-fi or not, this is actually a family popcorn film being released in 2022, like it or not, and it fails on those terms.

No, it’s far from Pixar's worse, as I also said above, but it’s perhaps their most confusing (the whole "how and what the heck is Cars anyway?" debate aside!). And disappointing, on that it could have literally been a feature version of the TS2 opening and packed in a ton of references and been smart and clever! I mean, you literally have James Brolin in there as the bad guy! Let’s at least get some Capricorn One juice flowing!?

Instead we got rote and fairly dumb, basically only just working as an entertainment — and only just — while it was playing, but not explaining enough along the way so as to not end up with a bunch of "what nows?" at the end. I think a second viewing would help in terms of knowing what to expect and maybe being able to enjoy it more for what it was, but, as with The Last Jedi, which also works while you watch it but ultimately makes no sense, I think it could also be just as frustrating, knowing where all the problems are and seeing how easily this could have been a rollicking good, fun ride.

Ironic that the one Pixar film that feels most like a streamer got to play in cinemas, over the last three that actually deserved to be seen that way…

[EricJ]

Ironic that the one Pixar film that feels most like a streamer got to play in cinemas, over the last three that actually deserved to be seen that way…

The MOST like a streamer?...

...Isn't that like saying you would pay ten bucks to watch Turning Red in a theater??

[Ben]

Well, I technically paid eighty quid to watch it at home, so…

[Daniel]

That's roughly $96 in American currency.

Anyway, to move away from the pointless question... anyone else think we were going to see that rookie from the beginning turn up later on? Or even be revealed to be the big bad? Kinda surprised we didn't.

[Ben]

I’m glad, though. He was fairly redundant and annoying…

[EricJ]

Not to mention, I thought "Didn't we already get a funny low-tier Indian/Middle-Eastern sidekick in one of the Marvel movies?"

And--now halfway through it, and having been mildly spoiled about the "dark" ending--the Naughty Moment that got the movie banned on three continents, surprisingly, was NOT my biggest complaint about the movie:
My biggest problem was the same one with "Finding Dory", where they take a lovably clueless character, and, stuck for a solo-spinoff sequel concept, try to make it look like they really had deep, complex motivations for all the funny comedy-relief things they did in the original film...Mostly by doubling-down on Deeply-Explored Ideas that 180-degree misinterpret what they were supposed to be, and making them tragic plot points. (Eg. Dory now having a tragic brain problem instead of being forgetful because she's a fish.)
Here, the "Is Buzz the toy or the character?" problem confuses the Toy Story gag of Buzz stubbornly refusing to believe that he's fictional, and instead tormented by his dedication to the Space Rangers--And, since he's no longer the comedy-relief, comedy has to be provided by giving him subordinates who are even more clueless by comparison, making him Hero By Default. And just as Dory had to have new comedy-relief characters to make her sympathetic, it still doesn't immediately translate with the promotion. When we get a deep plot about Buzz's need to invent crystolic-fusion cylinders, I couldn't help Woody's "...You mean your batteries?"

As for the Naughty Moment, and keeping it RELATIVELY rant-free (c'mon, give it a read first!), it's as if the current Disney management and the usual vocal animators were publicly embarrassed by out-of-the-gate wishful thinking over their last two "false alarms" in Onward and Dory, and this time went all out to grease their squeaky-wheels with "Okay, we're really doing it for real this time!--And a major character and plot point, none of this one-shot-hint LeFou crap! They can't just edit it out for the foreign release now!"
And so, not only do they write it in for a major character, but tried to give the relationship a full-on longterm sniffly-sentimental Carl & Ellie montage, so there!...And still annihilated their overseas box-office overnight.
I'm not doing a victory dance over it, but let's face it, when you make less money than "Good Dinosaur" made just for being regular-awful...I know the progressive ambitions the current boardroom has, but there's an old show-business motto, "Nem de gelt". Which translates as "Take the money".

[Daniel]

Disney Movie Club cover:

[Randall]

Um. Boring?

[Daniel]

Yes and it has my pity.