I felt bad about Lightyear making so little at the box office, so I went and saw it. I saw Toy Story as a kid in theaters, and have continued to be a Pixar fan since. Lightyear is clearly a passion project that was greenlit due to the Toy Story IP being so lucrative. Since this isn't a Toy Story movie a lot of people were confused, and the acknowledgment of gay people existing and raising kids became some kind of right wing boycott that stole some focus away from the movie. It's supposed to be a 90's blockbuster sci fi movie that the toy was a derivative of. So basically the Pixar crew was able to make a semi-throwback space adventure story. There's a subtle filter on the whole movie to look like it's on film. It's a cool little touch. There are a LOT of retro technology jokes in the movie that no kid will ever understand but a lot of adults will get. It's sort of a retro-futurist style that imagines future tech from the lens of the mid nineties. Buzz blows on some pin connectors similar to an NES cartridge, there's an R2-D2 style hologram message that Buzz's robo cat plays, and a reference to classic Macintosh OS graphics. Stuff like this kind of shows there was a lot of confidence in Lightyear being able to get some older Pixar fans to drag the kids out to see an animated film that Dad or Mom might like more than the kids. The last few Pixar flicks have gone straight to Disney Plus so I bet a lot of people are just going to wait to watch it on their living room screen. I think it's worth seeing in a theater. The movies previewed before Lightyear were other western CG kid flicks, that might entertain little ones but made me roll my eyes. Lightyear is thankfully one of those kids movies that might bore the really little ones but had a lot to enjoy for older fans. I hope they get to do more passion projects at Pixar that don't make as much money but allow the animators to make the kind of movie they'd like to.
