So my understanding is Pixar’s “Lightyear” is supposed to be the movie within the world of Andy, and watching it made him want the Buzz Lightyear toy.
But then they also tried to make it a serious movie?? With comedy, sure. But it doesn’t feel like a kids movie from the mid-90s, which is when Toy Story is set. What’s with the muted color palette? Where’s the neon, huh? The random geometric shapes?
Buzz Lightyear, the toy, does not look like he came from a serious Star Wars type movie. He looks like a toy company SAW Star Wars and made a knock-off Saturday morning cartoon to sell toys. And I think they could’ve done something interesting and funny and meta with that.
Also, Buzz Lightyear’s media in the Toy Story universe is clearly 2D. All the posters of him in Andy’s room are in 2D, he’s 2D on the bedsheet, etc. I don’t mind retconning if it improves things, but Realistic 3D Human Man Buzz is unsettling; I don’t like looking at him.
However, if they REALLY wanted to make him 3D they should’ve shown Andy watching the movie (on VHS of course), which should have intentionally janky CGI. Imagine Andy reverently saying “He looks sooo real!” as Buzz clips through scenery and does that awkward early-CGI picking-things-up animation where items magnetically stick to his hands.
Okay, so I was thinking about what the theme of the movie would be if I made it (with 2D cartoon Buzz Lightyear). In the original Toy Story, Buzz was devastated to learn he wasn’t a Space Ranger but “just a toy, a stupid toy” until Woody told him as a toy they emotionally supported Andy and that WAS important.
So I would set this movie between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. in this movie Andy would be struggling with some real world, typical kid problem–maybe he screwed up his upcoming art project and feels too defeated to fix it. Simultaneously, he gets in trouble at school for bringing Buzz Lightyear trading cards to school; they’ve been banned, like Pokemon cards and slap bracelets used to be, for “being a distraction”.
As the art teacher takes Andy’s trading cards away, he complains about how the Buzz Lightyear TV show is insipid and stupid and worthless and laments that kids are wasting their time watching speculative “junk”. The thing is, Andy actually likes this teacher (who is usually nice) so instead of feeling defiant, Andy actually is pretty upset by this. Andy stops watching the Buzz Lightyear TV show after school and stops playing with his toys so much, instead trying to do what he “should” and Be More Grown-Up.
But he still is getting nowhere with his art project, he just freezes up every time he tries to start it. The toys are trying to help him without him knowing, which results in many funny mishaps. But finally Buzz and the gang remember Andy’s favorite episode of the Buzz Lightyear cartoon has a lesson about, idk, persevering and approaching a problem from a different angle until you succeed. A very cliched moral that you’d see in any cartoon series. But it’s just what Andy needs; the toys manage to get the VHS running in a way that seems “accidental” and Andy watches it and is inspired.
And this time he draws on elements from his own imagination and play sessions (not just the show since we don’t want to encourage plagiarism, lol) and, i dunno, the teacher’s previous lesson about color theory finally snaps into place when Andy looks at Buzz’s green and purple, and Woody’s blue and yellow.
Anyway, his art project turns out great and the teacher also learns a lesson … through some means … and realizes that art doesn’t have to be highbrow or even perfect to inspire us, because it’s how we engage with art that matters. It’s not one-sided with the art pouring inspiration into our head, it’s a dialogue.
So the moral would kind of combine the first Toy Story’s moral (you can be “for kids” and be truly valuable) and Ratatouille’s (inspiration can come from unlikely places.)
Also Andy gets his trading cards back.