# Lightyear: Didn't they already make this movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** disney-hulu, movies, cartoons-animation\ **Created:** [November 8, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988 "2021-11-08T18:04:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/41 "2022-07-16T12:01:56Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > There were a lot of movie references, as well as callbacks, but the story was a bit of a jumble, and none of it landed for me. It doesn’t feel even remotely like a movie that would actually have been made, and makes no sense in the context as a plausable vehicle for children’s toys. There is no way that movie would have been a favorite of 6-year-olds with a massive line of merchandising. It would be like marketing _Interstellar_ to preschoolers. (Is there much evidence that real-world children liked the movie _Lightyear_? Because that doesn’t really seem likely to me.) And the name? Were they playing off _Solo_, another movie that never could have or would have existed without being an origin story for things that never needed origin stories? (Oh, look, that’s where Han Solo got his dice! Oh, look, that’s why Buzz Lightyear asks if people are mocking him!) You don’t name a new movie as the last name of a new unknown character. _Star Wars_ would never have been _Skywalker_. _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ would never have been _Jones_. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/42 "2022-07-16T16:24:44Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](#): > > > [@Atamasama](#): > > > > I propose that the movie be called _Buzz_. And it can be a play on words, as the actor struggles to keep his career going while trying to branch out into other roles, but people only see him as the actor from the _Lightyear_ film and are reluctant to put him in more serious projects. > > > > Meanwhile, between failed auditions and tedious Sci Fi conventions where he’s sick of saying “To Infinity and Beyond” over and over, he pays the bills as a Pizza Planet delivery driver. To top things off, he is paying child support and alimony to his ex wife who sees him as a failure, and has a daughter who sees him as the hero he played in the film. > > Then, of course, the alien race that monitored the old movie somehow, and thought it was a documentary, builds a real copy of his spaceship and kidnaps him to rescue them from a real threat, right? Right? The shocking twist is when the enemy threat is revealed to be Santa Claus, who the hero kills and replaces. ---
**Author:** ![de\_Worde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/838e76/32.png) [@de\_Worde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/de_Worde)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/43 "2022-07-18T19:12:28Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > _Star Wars_ would never have been _Skywalker_. _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ would never have been _Jones_. _A Princess of Mars_ would never have been _Carter_ (Or _John Carter,_ for that matter.) ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/44 "2022-08-10T06:01:20Z")
Just saw this, as it came out on Disney+. Overall, I liked it a lot. Fun, fast-moving, funny. One thing I didn’t grok at all, though… what happened at the end? Was the idea that this new planet was just forming its own, local version of the space rangers, to protect it from local alien invasions, but giving up forever on making contact with the rest of humanity? I also thought the world-building set up interesting stuff and then didn’t really follow through. I was _definitely_ expecting the bugs-and-vines to end up befriended in some fashion, for instance. And it was also unclear what the baddie knew, and when, and how that motivated his actions. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2022, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/45 "2022-08-25T22:09:15Z")
Previous thread: [Pixars Lightyear](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pixars-lightyear/953322) I saw it last night and, although I mostly enjoyed it, I’d agree with most of the criticisms here. It dragged at times and some of the plot didn’t make much sense to me. I liked the callbacks to other sf films, including, off the top of my head, _2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars_ and _Aliens_. It had a good if somewhat predictable message about friendship and teamwork. Glad to see a lesbian couple shown as normal people. And Sox the cute, friendly, resourceful robocat was _terrific_ - far and away my favorite character. I guess it bombed at the box office, though: [Lightyear (film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightyear_(film)) ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/46 "2022-08-26T16:25:08Z")
Got to see this on an 80" 4K screen the other day. Best thing to say about this movie is the animation is absolutely jaw dropping. The care, and time, and artistry really shows Pixar has a cutting edge top talent staff making these things. Like others have said though the story leaves a lot to be desired. What should have been a light, straight forward, space adventure ala original Star Wars that a 7 year-old would love with Zurg as a stereotypical baddie, they just went too deep with old/young buzz that was likely to fly over the head of most kids. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/47 "2022-08-26T18:41:22Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > they just went too deep with old/young buzz that was likely to fly over the head of most kids. My 4 year old thinks Zurg is Buzz’s dad. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/48 "2022-08-26T19:47:35Z")
He is in Toy Story 2. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/49 "2022-08-26T22:50:35Z")
Yes. “Buzz… I _am_ your father.” _”Noooooo!”_ ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988/50 "2022-08-27T20:04:47Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > Just saw this, as it came out on Disney+. Overall, I liked it a lot. Fun, fast-moving, funny. > > One thing I didn’t grok at all, though… what happened at the end? Was the idea that this new planet was just forming its own, local version of the space rangers, to protect it from local alien invasions, but giving up forever on making contact with the rest of humanity? Now that they have FTL travel (thanks to Buzz), they can start exploring again, possibly contacting the rest of humanity. But they have been separated from Earth and Star Command for several generations at this point. It’s not something they are pining to get back to. > [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > > [@Hampshire](#): > > > > they just went too deep with old/young buzz that was likely to fly over the head of most kids. > > My 4 year old thinks Zurg is Buzz’s dad. My kids seem to understand it was basically the same relationship (and plot device) as Emmet and Rex Dangervest from the second Lego Movie. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightyear-didnt-they-already-make-this-movie/953988.md?page=2)