New insight into Disney’s failed Buzz Lightyear spin-off film has been shared by former Pixar employees.
Credit: Pixar
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While Disney has certainly struggled to produce hits as consistently as it once did, most of the company’s output has received both critical and commercial success, with Pixar’s most recent release, Inside Out 2, shattering expectations and setting world records.
The sequel to the beloved Pixar original film hit theaters this June and dominated the box office for several weeks, eventually becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time. This was a much-needed win for both Disney and Pixar, two companies that have stumbled in recent years.
However, as Pixar and Disney both enjoy the success of Inside Out 2, former employees are now shedding light on the harsh working conditions of the animated film, as well as providing new details about the box office dud known as Lightyear.
Credit: Pixar Animation Studios
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Released in 2022, Lightyear was Pixar’s attempt at creating a spinoff inspired by the adventures of Buzz Lightyear from its Toy Story franchise. While the film itself featured impressive visuals and an all-star cast, with Marvel’s own Captain America, Chris Evans, voicing this new iteration of Buzz, audiences simply did not go out of their way to see it, and those who did watch it didn’t sing its praises.
This was not the only box office bomb Disney faced that year, with 2022’s Strange World also losing Disney millions of dollars. However, that film didn’t have the luxury of propping itself up on the iconic character of Buzz Lightyear.
While sitting at respectable scores on places like Rotten Tomatoes, Lightyear failed to generate any “buzz” of its own, grossing only $220 million on an estimated budget of $200 million. This was a massive loss for Disney for what was expected to be a sure-fire hit based on one of the company’s most recognizable characters.
There’s a variety of factors that led to Lightyear‘s box office failure, though according to a new report from IGN, some at Pixar say Lightyear bombed because the film included a same-sex couple.
Ten former Pixar employees shared their first-hand accounts of what it was like to work for the animation giant, revealing that the company lost its willingness to experiment, specifically due to Lightyear’s poor performance.
While timing, marketing, and overall quality are valid concerns, Pixar reportedly blames Lightyear‘s failure on its inclusion of a same-sex couple.
Multiple sources say that Disney leadership internally put a large part of the blame for Lightyear’s financial failure on a same-sex kiss in the film, which was briefly removed then reinstated after an internal staff uproar. In a joint statement to Walt Disney Company leadership, LGBTQ workers and allies at Pixar said leadership was censoring “overtly gay affection” at a time where employees were also protesting the company’s response to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“It is, as far as I know, still a thing, where leadership, they’ll bring up Lightyear specifically and say, ‘Oh, Lightyear was a financial failure because it had a queer kiss in it,’” one source told IGN. “That’s not the reason the movie failed.”
Credit: Pixar Animation Studios
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Pixar was reportedly also hesitant to include any LGBTQ+ themes in Inside Out 2, with former employees claiming the crunch to get the movie made was immense.
Now, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter promotes making “universal stories,” which to him means “something that’s very homogenous that anyone can relate to,” one source said to IGN.
Did you watch Lightyear?
