Following the recent release of the trailer for Lightyear, many fans were quick to point out how much more seriously this movie might take itself than the Toy Story franchise. The intense visuals of space travel, determined looks, and a David Bowie backing track meant that this movie would certainly stand apart from the world of living toys. While this apparent shift in tone might seem somewhat jarring to those that were used to the often more light-hearted Toy Story movies, it’s ultimately nothing new for long-running franchises.
Originally released in 1995, the first Toy Story made history as the first computer-animated feature film. While the animation doesn’t quite hold up to today’s standards, the story is undeniably timeless and spawned three sequels. This franchise tells the story of a world wherein toys come to life when not being looked at. There’s a fun charm to this world, especially for children, as they’re allowed to believe that their toys love them just as much as they love their toys. While these movies had a solidly performing trilogy, and a not so well-received fourth movie, the sci-fi-forward Lightyear seems to sit apart from these.
Lightyear tells the story of Buzz Lightyear, a heroic astronaut who braves new worlds and encounters new life on distant planets. Pixar has touted this film as the origin story for the toy character, however there has been some confusion about this. With the initial announcements, people believed this movie would solely be the in-universe movie that Buzz Lightyear was based on. However, later press releases teased the movie as being the origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the toy. This has led many to debate what the implications are for the world of Toy Story and how exactly this fits in, and it’s likely this movie will address at least some of these concerns.
These two very different tones mark a slow shift the Toy Story franchise has actually been integrating for quite some time. As the movies have aged alongside audiences, so have the stories. Andy’s journeys to college or Woody’s struggles with who he is are much more adult themes than the first movie. This shift is similar to that seen in other franchises and is actually often how long-running franchises continue feeling fresh or even reinvent themselves.
Thor in the MCU is one major example of these tonal shifts. In the beginning, Thor’s films were rather serious and very much cemented him as one of the more serious Avengers. However, after Thor and Thor: The Dark World underperformed, the character was reinvented. Thor: Ragnarok was released and introduced what is almost a new character. While this was very different from the character known up to that point, it was a reinvention that revived the character.
This shift is nothing new to MCU in general either. Despite initially being somewhat lighter superhero movies with a lot of jokes, the franchise transitioned into being much darker and more serious movies with mature themes. The most telling difference here can be seen when comparing the first Avengers to Avengers: Infinity War. While this transition is often natural and slow, it is still very noticeable when tracing back tonal shifts.
The Fast and Furious franchise as well reinvented itself, however this was a far more obvious difference. After being solely street racing movies for the first three, the fourth movie transitioned the franchise into car-based action movies. Past this, the movies essentially became superhero movies with the ability of the characters to drive cars well being their superpowers. What started off looking to be a dying franchise, was soon one of the biggest blockbuster releases every year.
The most interesting aspect of these tonal shifts is how often it brings about success. Thor: Ragnarok brought about a huge breath of fresh air for the character, and that film found immense success, making nearly double what the first Thor made in box office revenue. The shift in tone for the Fast and Furious franchise meant that the series is now a tentpole summer spectacle. From these comparisons, it seems as though changing tone might be the key to success.
Even seeing this comparison, it’s admittedly unlikely that Lightyear’s tone shift is intended to maximize profitability. It’s instead more likely that it’s a continuation of the maturation trajectory already seen within the franchise. Despite the likely innocence in why Lightyear’s tone looks so mature, it does point to this movie more easily finding success. Evidence of this can be seen with most major franchises that have already shown a minimum level of quality. It’s also certainly possible that this trailer may simply show the more serious moments of the movie to engross adult fans of the franchise, while the next trailer will be attempting to enrapture children. Either way, here’s hoping this is a movie fans will enjoy watching to infinity and beyond.
Lightyear releases June 17th, 2022 in theaters.