Lightyear‘s trailer has already notched some impressive numbers in a short amount of time. Deadline reports that the Chris Evans movie managed to snare 83 million views in the first 24 hours of being online Wednesday. Other Pixar movies haven’t managed that feat, except for Incredibles 2 which managed 114 million. But, Lightyear‘s wild performance dwarfs Luca at 28 million, Soul at 32 million, and even its cousin Toy Story 4 at 62 million. All of this is impressive without even mentioning that the Space Ranger managed more views than Eternals, which had 77 million in its first online trailer. From these early indications, Pixar has a massive hit on its hands. A lot of social media jeering during the title’s unveiling has given way to a genuine interest in a nice comedic action movie with jaw-dropping animation. (It doesn’t hurt that the finished product is infinitely meme-able.)
Director Angus MacLane was very excited about this project and the potential of working with Evans on such a beloved property. He recently chatted with Fandango about how Lightyear links up with Toy Story itself. It’s not as cut and dry as some commenters on the Internet would have you believe.
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“There’s a core idea about Buzz that we noticed when we really drilled down looking at all of the Toy Story movies: That Buzz has a disagreement over the nature of reality,” MacLane began. “In the first Toy Story, he believes he’s a space ranger when Woody says he’s a toy. In the second movie, they had to bring in another Buzz Lightyear to kick jumpstart that again. And he had to convince his other self that HE was a toy. And there’s Spanish Buzz in [Toy Story 3], and then the inner monologue in [Toy Story 4]. That was a bedrock for something we knew we needed to pay off.”
“Buzz is somebody who takes his job very seriously, and is very much a rule follower,” the director added. “And has a steadfast belief in himself. There’s these tropes of that kind of hero that we’re recognizing, feeding on, and playing with. But he’s such an amalgam of weird sci-fi cliches. How do you make that more than a punchline? That was really the charge of [the] film.”
Are you excited to see Lightyear? What did you think of the trailer? Let us know down in the comments!
