The past few years have been a wild time for Pixar, with several new movies released in theaters and on Disney+.
We’ve seen new additions like Luca, Turning Red, Soul, and Lightyear since 2020, and some have performed well, while others…not so much. Pixar’s Lightyear was the first pandemic-era film from the studio to return to theaters and it had a bit of a struggle. So what happened?
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter opened up about what might have gone wrong with Lightyear. The film’s lackluster performance at the box office was perhaps one of the biggest speedbumps the company has faced in recent years.
Pixar had high hopes for Lightyear — choosing a character that was beloved by Toy Story fans, filling the cast with stars like Chris Evans and Keke Palmer, and having it directed by Pixar mainstay Angus MacLane. It was set up for success in many ways. But ultimately, the audience did not respond in the way they hoped. When asked why, Docter had some thoughts.
“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?”
“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, 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.”
But even though Lightyear didn’t meet performance hopes, Disney CEO Bob Iger recently announced that Toy Story 5 is in the works at Pixar. Pete Docter was asked about that project as well and said “I think it’ll be surprising,” Docter teased. “It’s got some really cool stuff that you haven’t seen before.”
Well, here’s to getting excited about Toy Story 5 and all that Pixar has to offer in the future! We’ll make sure to keep you updated if any more movie announcements are made.
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Did you see Lightyear in theaters? What did you think? Tell us in the comments!
Word of mouth is what hurt Lightyear. It just wasn’t a good movie. I mean, it tells you from the outset that you are watching a movie of a movie that was created with Andy was a child, and it didn’t get any better after that.
Disney/Pixar animated films have had a rough time the last few years, so I think that is why they are planning to go with familiar franchises with the upcoming Toy Story 5 and Frozen 3. Zootopia 2 is a bit of a surprise, but it was a good film and deserves a sequel.