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‘Lightyear’ Falling Without Style
Disney’s new animated film, Lightyear, is flopping at the box office and I couldn’t be happier. The film was projected to take in $70 million at the domestic box office and it looks like it will take in $50 million. It was projected to be #1 at the box office this weekend but not will come in #2 behind Jurassic World Dominion in that film’s second week.
Now understand, I don’t usually root for bad box office. I love going to the movies and post-pandemic I want movie theaters to prosper so I can continue to go. But I am not rooting for this film.
There has been much speculation about the reasons for this film’s failure. The last three Pixar films (including the excellent, Soul) have gone straight to streaming, included free with subscriptions to Disney +, so many families probably decided to save their scarce entertainment dollars when it will probably soon be on the home screen anyway. Perhaps many were unclear on the concept of the film and how it relates to the beloved Toy Story franchise. It is supposed to be the film that launched the character Buzz Lightyear, which was so beloved by young Andy in the first Toy Story. So instead of featuring all those beloved characters – Woody, Slinky-Dog, Mr. Potato Head, etc. – there is only Buzz. I have talked to a couple of people that were annoyed that the character in the film is voiced by Chris Evans rather than the original Buzz, Tim Allen. (Could it be that the studio chose to use a different actor for political reasons? The more woke Evans over Allen who is rumored to be…Egad! A Trump supporter? No, no, of course not. We all know Hollywood is solely driven by profit.)
But there is another factor that surely lost this film some bucks, “the Kiss”. In the film, there is a brief kiss between a married, black lesbian couple. After this scene was animated, it was for a time cut from the film because including it would lead to the film being banned in certain countries (particularly Muslim nations.) And, of course, the scene makes no sense in the context of the story’s premise. If Lightyear was a film made in the early or mid-1990s, when it would have been viewed by Andy, there is no way any studio of that time would include a lesbian couple in an animated film for kids, it just wouldn’t have happened at that time. (The first animated film targeted at a children’s audience which included a gay character that I know of is ParaNorman in 2012.)
So what led to the kiss being reinserted into the film? Why Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill of course, the bill which censored all content about the Alphabet People (as Dave Chappelle calls them) from film, television, and print! Oh, that’s right, that’s not what the bill was called or what it did. The bill just said that schools wouldn’t explicitly teach sexuality to children in kindergarten through the third grade. But that bill led the executives at Disney to a public spat with Governor Ron DeSantis (#BestCandidate2024). So Disney/Pixar apparently thought they would really stick it to the people of Florida by having two cartoon women swap spit in front of the kids. (Side note, “What is a cartoon woman?”)
Besides all this, the film just doesn’t look good. (The reviewer from Vanity Fair says this film “nearly reaches the nadir that is Cars 2” and Christian Toto dubs it “lackluster”.) Woody said of Buzz in the first film that he wasn’t flying, he was “falling with style.” May this film continue to crash quite painfully.
Published in Entertainment
Oh yeah, I saw this. I was laughing so hard at a lot of these titles.
The Drinker is movie gospel as far as I’m concerned.
Oh, but I was referring to the idea of opening a classics-movie theater.
I guess artless hacks need to eat too. But maybe instead of making stupid movies, they should learn to code.
If they keep making woke garbage, they’re gonna become non-profits . . .
After WALL-E, I realized that Pixar and Disney were going to ignore the wisdom of Walt Disney and never again care that “The most important thing is family.”
No one should know this better than Disney. The dark forces of modern culture motivated Walt to create Disney Land in the first place.
Broadway went through (or is possibly still there) a period of onstage nudity that was disturbing, to say the least. It really got raunchy in language and plot and sexual content in comparison to the original musicals. (I say that reservedly–Oklahoma and Carousel, in which there was some of the most beautiful music ever written for musicals, had storylines that were pretty low, and of course South Pacific was the original woke musical.)
But Broadway is a free market, and the theaters lost tourists and audiences over time. I was wondering how it would turn out. Lo and behold, Disney entered the Broadway market with a kids’ movie-turned-Broadway-show–The Lion King–in 1997. It is still running. Why? Because families go to New York City and want to go to a Broadway show as a family. Now there are several Disney shows running.
If any company has the numbers on the moneymaking capacity of family entertainment content, it’s Disney.
I suspect what has happened to them is that they have become so unbelievably rich that they no longer need customers. That may last for a while, but I suspect they will realize eventually, as the Broadway theaters did, that wholesome family entertainment is far more lucrative than sleezy content.
We went to see Top Gun as a family of 5 for about $85. We hadn’t done that in a while, and we won’t be making a habit of it. But it was so worth it to see that movie in the theater.
When we have the option to watch any good, time-tested movie from the past 80+ years at home, why do we need to see something lackluster in the theater? Last weekend, we watched The Philadelphia Story for the first time.
I remember the months following the Disney takeover of ESPN where we were inundated with top down instructions to the folks in the production truck. “SYNERGY!” became (pardon the expression) the buzzword. Mention Disney product. Make cultural reference to ABC entertainment and other shows on “the ESPN family of networks.” And then came the mantra, “Repeat your best stuff!” which meant recycling the same stat panels and sound bites (and boring the crap out of the viewer that’s been with you the entire telecast.)
You want original ideas from these people?
The movie lifecycle can be seen in the credits and goes something like this:
Stage One – Written by I.M. Clever
Stage Two – Written by I.M. Clever and C.D. Ripoff
Stage Three – Written by Weir Hacks
Based on characters created by I.M. Clever
The worst words in the English language have become “origin story,” “gritty reboot” and, the Disney favorite, “reimagined.” Their whole DIE strategy is branded “Reimagine Tomorrow.” I’m not sure how you “reimagine” something that hasn’t happened yet, but let’s not get confused by logic, shall we?
Be sure to catch the musical remake, High Society.
I would say the same of the NCIS shows.
The way their stock price has been trending, they are going to have to start looking for those customers very soon now.
It makes me wonder. In the past few decades, movies went from an affordable form of entertainment to a major investment — especially if you wanted snacks as well. The small theaters fell quickly by the wayside, leaving most just the giant megaplexes in place. A lot of the success of the latter depends on Hollywood making movies people want to see, and people having money to see these movies. So much money goes into making a film that the days where my dad and I would go to the local twin cinema theater where they’d show two movies for the price of one and Mondays were $1 day — well those days are gone.
My suspicion has been that Hollywood for the previous decade had been moving into a coasting territory. They had momentum. People went because that’s what they were used to doing. Then the COVID lockdowns hit and the worst thing that could happen to Hollywood happened — people broke the habit of going to the movies, primarily because they weren’t allowed to. Then their pocketbooks were hit hard, and now people look at what’s being made and legitimately ask, “Is this worth it?”
And a lot of people are thinking about it and going, “nah.”
My wife bought tickets for us, without letting me know until afterwards… our son is a big Buzz Lightyear fan. So am I, as, noted by Mr. Lileks earlier in the thread, Buzz is an archetype, brave, fearless, strong, good. He is the kind of leader whose patrol would charge a pillbox with. I contend that he’s smart, too.
He is also a graduate of Star Command Academy. And he instructs newbies. Note: the 2000-era cartoon space opera BLoSC is good, if you prefer the Adam West Batman to whatever. See it just for the ridiculous villains…
I walked out of Lightyear after – spoilers – he had to be instructed by his lesbian superior (after she announces her marriage – “who is she?” asks Buzz) on time dilation. The real Buzz has the KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) of a flight engineer; if anyone is close to being the proverbial “Ph.D. Who can win a street fight” it’s Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, and not this fake, wretched, pathetic milquetoast who needs to rely on his robot cat. (How’d I know that if I walked out? Easy: IMDB has the full run-down.) Buzz would have known and everyone involved would have prepped for it in advance – including the audience who likely knew how Star Trek danced around the subject. And we’re supposed to believe that a 1995 SF movie, that would have been rated R, maybe, at the time, would portray computer screens as CRTs vs. some flat screen when 2001 predicted iPads. (Same thing made the original Alien, along with the use of paper magazines, that harshed my reality suspense, but I digress.)
The story is lousy, the movie is bad, false Lightyear made me real mad.
Reminds me of this:
Is it possible that Buzz was always more of a Walter Mitty type character, just pretending to be what he really wasn’t, but there was no one would could set things straight?
Channeling Sarah Hoyt: No, next question.
My wife and I sort of play “Guess where they’ll insert the homosexual character” in the new TV and streaming shows. It’s so gratuitous, and it grates on me. I’ll still watch it if it’s for my wife and me, but not in something for our children. I want them to treat everybody with grace, but I don’t want this normalized for them, and that’s what this is surely all about.
No idea who Sarah Hoyt is/was.
Well I’ve never seen any of the Toy Story movies and probably never will, but it was a possibility. And if I did see them, I might be able to make an argument. But I’m not that interested.
Maybe Buzz Lightyear is the Ted Baxter of the Toy Story movies.
There is definitely some Ted Baxter in Buzz.
@jameslileks had a fine “rant” on a past Northern Alliance Radio Network (I checked my archives, it was Feb 28, 2009) about Ted Baxter and the other MTM characters. Turns out I had previously created an excerpt of just that rant, too.
The cost of handling reels of film is more.
That’s a $250,000 fine for each DVD you rip. Not that anyone would care to enforce…until they do;)
Unless SCOTUS reverses that, personal backup copies are legal.
For those interested, here is the NARN clip on Ted Baxter:
https://www.adrive.com/public/EHExsg/NARN%2002-28-09%20clip%20NARN%202%20Hour%201%20James%20Lileks%20on%20Ted%20Baxter.mp3
And here is the whole hour, including other topics:
https://www.adrive.com/public/wT8SJh/NARN%2002-28-09%20NARN%202%20Hour%201%20James%20Lileks%2C%20Pt%201%20incl%20DC%20Statehood%20Constitution%20%20Shredding%20Lambada%20etc%2C%20Ted%20Baxter%20at%2026.00%2C%20and%2024%2C%20Budgets.mp3
Damn, even my archives aren’t that good.
For those who haven’t the time, I think I was pointing out that Ted Baxter was the only character who really had his bleep together, in the end. Mary couldn’t maintain a relationship; Murray was consistently bitter over his station of life, which was due to his meager talent; Lou’s wife left him; Rhoda got divorced.
Ted stayed married, adopted a kid, and kept his job.
I think this is why.
I keep the important stuff. :-)
And to be sure, you probably have match books older than me.
Oh, here’s hour 2 of that part of the show, still with James:
https://www.adrive.com/public/QsyPVP/NARN%2002-28-09%20NARN%202%20Hour%202%20James%20Lileks%2C%20Pt%202%20incl%20Online%20Newspapers%2C%20Spock%20War%20Downer%2C%20Star%20Trek%20Trivia%20Seven%20Of%20Nine%20Buck%20Rogers%20Thunderbirds%20Battlestar%20Galactica%20Space%201999%20UFO%20Sighting%20Art%20Bell%2050s.mp3
No it isn’t. It’s no different than recording an LP to a cassette tape. It’s always been about distribution, that goes for recording a football game, transfering your iTunes purchases to your phone, screen recording an online event, or any number of additional endeavors that fall under Fair Use. How do you think all of those YouTubers get away with doing videos using movies footage (The Critical Drinker, Cinema Sins etc..) trashing, praising, or reacting to them? If you were to upload the ripped copy somewhere, look out, but even then the laws get a little murky depending on the use, length, and purpose.