Chickenhare Lightyear Jumps to Dead End - Renegade Animation #65
Tonight, on an INTERGALACTIC EPISODE of Renegade Animation, Captain Kaye and the Animation Guru shoot for the stars to talk about Lightyear, as well as Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness.
How’s it going, fellow Renegades? It’s I, THE DIRECTOR, bringing you probably my last transmission on the Renegade Pop Culture radio feeds for quite some time. But it’s alright, because we’ve got a helluva episode for me to see you all out on.
Today, we’re talking about Lightyear: a movie that is based on the Toy Story IP that is ideally the movie that Andy saw in 1995 that made him want to go out and buy a Buzz Lightyear that sent Tom Hanks toy on a downward spiral. Look, I have a weird history with Toy Story — I LOVE the original two films, I played them all the time on VHS, and then the third movie came out in 2010 and I cried like everyone else did. But oddly enough, Toy Story 4, although seen as the most polarizing installment of the series, I’ve always enjoyed it! In fact, it’s my personal favorite film of the series, primarily for what it means for me emotionally. I know it’s not a perfect measure of the film’s quality, but I feel if a piece of art resonates with you, that’s better than subjectivity.
So when Lightyear was announced… I was skeptical. I was open with the idea of the film coming out, but I was also worried that maybe it would be just another product in the Disney machine. But the first trailer came out, and I was very excited at the possibility of the film! I thought Pixar and Disney were taking a risk with this very recognizable character and making their take on an Ad Astra or Martian film… and then I saw the second trailer and realized “Oh… this is just Pixar Star Wars.“
I’m a bit skeptical, and I still haven’t seen the film just yet. But Lightyear as a character means a lot for a whole generation of us, and I’m not inherently against the idea of a film like this that shows the side of the world of Toy Story that had never been seen before. Even if it would be a throwaway visual in the regular films, I think it breeds creativity for these characters that wouldn’t normally be explored. Hell — I’m a fan of Buzz Lightyear of Star Command! My only hope is we get a Woody’s Roundup film directed by Andrew Stanton and starring Timothy Oliphant as Woody, Jennifer Connelly as Jessie, and Woody Harrelson as Stinky Pete — but you can’t have everything, right? I think there’s a chance for the film to do well, and who knows? Maybe it’s something special…
But hey, let’s hear from someone who HAS seen Lightyear? TAKE IT AWAY, CAP’N!
LIGHTYEAR (2022)
“Ok, everybody and their mother has gotten so needlessly pedantic about where this movie fits in the Pixar timeline that it became exhausting. However, now that I've seen the movie, I can say with full context that this should NOT have been pitched the way it was. Instead, without changing a single frame of the movie proper, if you re-contextualize this as the gritty reboot that Andy directed based on a nostalgic property from his childhood, it would hit differently. As it is, it just feels a bit too modern to have believably come from the 80's. Now, putting all that aside, what he have here is an awesome space adventure with a rag tag team of space rangers defending the planet from the evil Zurg (not Emperor, at least not yet). Chris Evans does a great job voicing the titular protagonist, disappearing effortlessly into the role. Surrounding him in this excellent ensemble are Keke Palmer as Izzy Hawthorne, Peter Sohn as Sox, Taika Waititi as Mo Morrison, Dale Soules as Darby Steel, and James Brolin as Zurg. On the one hand, this isn't exactly groundbreaking in terms of Pixar storytelling. Doesn't mean it's bad, we've just seen most of it before. It is extremely well executed, both in terms of the stellar animation and genuinely clever dialogue. They even weave several callbacks to the Toy Story franchise organically throughout the film. Now, I don't know how to talk about a major twist without giving away spoilers, so I'll leave you with this: it's not the best twist, but it's the best kind of twist. It's one that's directly in service of Buzz's character arc, and it's a great kickoff to the third act. I can't say this is even close to my favorite Michael Giacchino score, but it's still damn good, and further proof that this composer always understands the assignment. One last thing before we wrap things up: do NOT leave until the very end, for there are 3 stingers (1 mid credits and 2 post)! Lightyear, despite weirdly anachronistic context, is an upper mid-tier Pixar film. As a standalone space adventure, I had an absolute blast, and can't wait to see it again!” - Captain Kaye
CHICKENHARE AND THE HAMSTER OF DARKNESS (2022)
“The good news is that by default, this is certainly the best film produced by nWave Pictures. However, I wouldn't exactly call that a high bar to clear. It's a decent story with a good message about embracing what makes you special, but that's really all that it is. While I can't pretend to be a fan of the source material, I can at least express some disappointment in the generic designs of the characters and the world they inhabit. I like the main protagonists just fine, the side characters Abe and Meg (voiced by Joey Lotsko and Laila Berzins respectively) bring a lot to the table. However, I was unimpressed with Lapin, the main antagonist. Nothing against Danny Fehsenfeld's performance, it's just the way he's written that comes off like a lesser version of Scar from The Lion King. Even the titular MacGuffin feels off. It's too silly to be taken seriously as a sought after artifact, but the movie as a whole plays the adventure too straight. This review probably sounds more negative than I wanted it to be, but on the whole I really did enjoy this movie. It's neither the best nor the worst animated movie of the year, but it's a positive step forward for nWave Pictures, and I hope they continue to improve in the future.” - Captain Kaye
That’ll do it for this episode! Special thanks to The Animation Guru for editing this episode! Keep an eye to the stars, because a new podcast’ll be in orbit very soon…
