Lightyear

[Mike Blakesley]

I'm glad social media provides more visibility into the behaviors of different businesses so that customers can make informed choices in a competitive free market.

While everyone's free to do what they want, I think it's stupid to patronize or not patronize a business due to their political leanings. Maybe this is because I'm in a small town here; if I stopped visiting everyplace that ever offended me for whatever reason, eventually there would be no place left to go.

I don't always like what Disney does (and although this particular thing falls into the "who gives a shit?" realm for me, I think people would be better off to just let it go), but regardless, we're planning a trip to Disney World this fall. They provide a great experience that I enjoy, so why would I want to deny myself that? Even though I think they're a bunch of money grubbing scoundrels a lot of the time, you can't deny they put out a quality product.

Of course if your objection to this particular theater would be that they shouldn't edit movies, then that's a good reason to stop visiting them. But they deserve a good chewing-out from the studio, not to be put out of business for their beliefs.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Seeing how "Murica" is wrestling itself through this home-made Left v.s. Right crisis from the outside is really painful to watch... It's not only painful, it hurts "the west" and it doesn't help make this world a better place, quite to the contrary...

It's not like those political controversies don't exist here, but they usually don't become part of your personal identity, unless you're really going for it. Whom and what you vote for, is something that's still very private and it's a personal choice, not something forced upon you by groupthink. Also, a normal business will never associate with any political party and will try to stay out of any potential religious-inspired conflicts. While there are still religiously motivated political parties, I'm glad that all but some niche parties have mostly let go of their hardcore beliefs. Combining religion and politics is the stuff of many unfortunate horror stories...

Maybe we're lucky that our politics isn't just between voting left or right and there are actually more choices to be made, or maybe our politics hasn't advanced to the stage yet, where people are being set-up against each other, I don't know...

What I do know though is, that this really has to stop, or it will eventually tear the country apart and the 6th of January 2021 is just a minor preview of how such things eventually materialize... So, calm the fuck down, give each other a hug, it's just fucking politics. Democracy isn't easy, but the whole idea is that you can live together and respect each other despite having different opinions about each other. So, I think, your job is to give all those motherfucking politicians that don't respect this basic concept of democracy a single ticket to the dark side of the moon and make sure they stay there...

[Marcel Birgelen]

And they deserve to be. Once you start allowing individual theaters to edit the movies they play (and the scary thing is that by means of "jump forward to [timecode]" cues, this is now very easily done), no paying customer can ever be sure that they've seen the complete picture. Even without the political dimension, it would allow some theater manager to decide that a given movie drags a bit, and that by taking 20 minutes out of it, they can squeeze an extra show into the day.

This place either needs to play the complete movie as it was supplied to them, or not play it at all.

I completely agree, but cutting stuff out of a movie was also pretty easily done back in the film days... And I can still remember discussing back in the day, to cut out a few minutes from a movie, to make it fit with the rest of the busy schedule, which I bluntly denied to do... But, those things have happened in the past.

Also, like Jon indicated, there are often many different cuts available for movies. Most Arabic countries, for example, receive edited versions of many Hollywood movies with nudity and religious controversy removed and I'm really wondering whether or not this "same sex kiss" will be shown in places like Dubai and more so in places like Riyadh...

Technically, DCI could be more protected from any rogue theater creating their own edit than film, for example by throwing some visual cues on screen. It may look a bit unprofessional, like someone playing a movie with a DVD player, but if your server throws a big "skipped 3m10s..." on screen, the audience can easily see something is off and the fact that it looks unprofessional will reduce the amount of usages to those situations where it really is necessary.

[Steve Guttag]

Just think...back in the Cinema Paradiso days, the clergy (which controlled the lone theatre featured in the movie, during the first part) would have all kissing scenes removed. We have progressed so far!

[Leo Enticknap]

Maybe we're lucky that our politics isn't just between voting left or right and there are actually more choices to be made, or maybe our politics hasn't advanced to the stage yet, where people are being set-up against each other, I don't know...

Given the gains made by Melanchon and Le Pen on Sunday, and the polarization of opinion for and against the train strikes in the UK I'm hearing about from relatives (the rail unions are either heroes defending their members against the ravages of inflation, or the subject of this song, depending on, essentially, whether you travel by rail or not), I would venture to suggest that Europe is not entirely immune from the political polarization projected by the news media here. I would also venture to suggest that the news media doesn't portray everyday life in any way accurately. Most of us do not subscribe either to the Washington Post or the Breitbart view of the world uncritically. Our own outlook is somewhere between those two poles. If you rely on the TV news networks or the social media presences of major media organizations, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we spend all our time either shooting up schools and attending Trump rallies, or burning down Portland and Minneapolis and teaching second graders (those that haven't been shot up yet) how to do sadomasochistic orgies. 99.99% of the population has no interest in, or time for, either.

Returning this to the topic, Lightyear got sucked into that political polarization, and no discussion of the film can completely ignore that and fully understand what is happening. Disney's involvement in Florida politics, the firing and replacement of the actor who originally voiced the character (and Gina Carano from another Disney franchise), who was known for his conservative political views, the leaked emails from Disney middle managers announcing their desire to introduce and ramp up overtly sexual material in children's films for political and ideological reasons, and, of course, the actual scene we've been discussing, were likely a part of the reason why a significant number of parents decided to give this one a miss. But its release in direct competition with another family movie, inflation and the threat of recession, and the fact that we're in the dead zone between Memorial Day and the July 4 weekend, were likely bigger parts of the reason.

My gut feeling is that if the lesbian kiss scene had been in the movie without the very recent history of Disney and political controversy, it would have attracted some comment, but nothing like the amount that it has. Once again, the takeaway is to keep even a whiff of contentious politics out of children's movies.

[Terry Monohan]

Disney & Pixar chose the wrong title 'LIGHTYEAR' Needed something like the 'Toy Space Story' name. Pixar did not use the original Toy Story voice people in the new film. The kids are not going to see it nor are adults. A big lose for Disney and the Summer family film business because of marketing mistakes.

[Mike Blakesley]

Pixar did not use the original Toy Story voice people in the new film.

"Voice people?" There's only one character from the Toy Story films in this movie. And they wouldn't want to title it anything to do with Toy Story because this movie has nothing to do with the Toy Story universe.

Anyway, I think that choice of voice actor might have been intentional, for two reasons.

1. Chris Evans was probably about 1/10 the price of Tim Allen.

2. Kids don't care who the voice is, as long as it sounds like the character is supposed to sound. I highly doubt any kid said "Hey, this is a different voice actor than the Toy Story films...I don't want to see this!" when watching the trailer.

I was figuring, if this movie was a hit, we'd probably see a "Woody" movie next, but now I'm having doubts that'll happen. Maybe they'll make a girl-hero movie about Mrs. Incredible.

Pixar is definitely past its peak... Disney needs to give them free rein again and put a real visionary at the helm of that company.

[Darin Steffl]

Our movie booker said Disney may let us drop this after 2 weeks instead of 3. He said we'll know Monday if that's possible then we'll bring back Top Gun for a week since it did so well here.

[Carsten Kurz]

Disney needs to give them free rein again and put a real visionary at the helm of that company.

They had one. But they kicked him off.

[Jon Dent]

They had one. But they kicked him off.

You talking about Lasseter? The guy was a PR nightmare after all the press about his behavior. I don't see how they could have realistically kept him around in any capacity.

And while it can be argued that he was a 'visionary' during his time there, He also spearheaded "Cars", which might have moved merchandising mountains, but was a pretty weak movie.

[Mike Blakesley]

Well the problem is, the bulk of the great Pixar movies were made before Disney "took over" running the company. They're still their own management, but they have to answer to the Disney bean counters. And when a movie idea came up, the first question used to be "is it a great story?" That has been replaced by "Do we already own the IP?" and "How much can we do it for?" The story question is now third or fourth in consideration, or maybe lower, after all the financial considerations.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Pixar's output started to become more hit-and-miss after they were acquired by "Big D", but it surely took them a few years to run out of great stories. After they were acquired back in 2006, they still managed to output Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3. Many people say that they had most of the stories already worked out before they were acquired and many of which, according to the lore, dated back from "that famous Pixar lunch in 1994" at the Hidden City Café.

It all started to go south with Cars 2, which ironically, was directed by Lasseter... most of their output ever since has been hit-and-miss.

So, Lassenter was still there, while it happened. He clearly is co-responsible for some of Pixar's brightest moments, but also for some of their greatest duds. This really makes it hard for me to judge if the situation improved or worsened once he left the stage at Disney.

You talking about Lasseter? The guy was a PR nightmare after all the press about his behavior. I don't see how they could have realistically kept him around in any capacity.

I'm not able to judge this, but what I do know is that it's often pretty simple to get rid off someone by pulling the "Me too" card. In the end, no sexual harassments suit has been filed against him. Sometimes, I have the feeling that overpopulation will sort it self out, once the entire world has implemented the "new rules of inter-person engagement", where every action you do must have been mutually agreed upon in writing and filed in threefold at the "relevant authorities"...

And while it can be argued that he was a 'visionary' during his time there, He also spearheaded "Cars", which might have moved merchandising mountains, but was a pretty weak movie.

I often feel that the original Cars movie is somewhat underrated for what it was, because it also was the first movie Pixar worked on, without the input of Disney and as such, wasn't even developed to become Disney property. Cars, when it was launched, was an entirely new and original idea, with a great bit of American nostalgia thrown right in there.

Also, people seem to be shocked by the fact that Disney sells toys of their popular franchises. I'm somewhat shocked that almost no cinema actually ever tried to sell toys of popular movie franchises too, instead of just popcorn and soda.

Given the gains made by Melanchon and Le Pen on Sunday, and the polarization of opinion for and against the train strikes in the UK I'm hearing about from relatives (the rail unions are either heroes defending their members against the ravages of inflation, or the subject of this song, depending on, essentially, whether you travel by rail or not), I would venture to suggest that Europe is not entirely immune from the political polarization projected by the news media here. I would also venture to suggest that the news media doesn't portray everyday life in any way accurately. Most of us do not subscribe either to the Washington Post or the Breitbart view of the world uncritically. Our own outlook is somewhere between those two poles. If you rely on the TV news networks or the social media presences of major media organizations, you'd be forgiven for thinking that we spend all our time either shooting up schools and attending Trump rallies, or burning down Portland and Minneapolis and teaching second graders (those that haven't been shot up yet) how to do sadomasochistic orgies. 99.99% of the population has no interest in, or time for, either.

Polarization in politics is an universal problem and Europe is by no means immune to the symptom, just look at the entire Brexit debacle for a good dose of polarization, no matter if you're for or against it, the end-result is years and years of drama that's not helping anyone. But one of the dangers of how the American democratic system is structured, is that it allows for a political minority to control vast amounts of decision making for the entire country. Something which isn't impossible over here, but much harder to pull off. In the end, if a country votes a certain way, it's the vote of the country, as long as the vote represents the population equally.

But for a "Western country" that should lead the way in democracy, the division of U.S. politics is like a poison for the "western world" at large. This is becoming even more clear, when even something irrelevant and ultimate benign thing like a half-second same-sex kiss in an animated movie is made into a political football. When something like that happens, some big honking alarms should go off, but I'm affraid we're somehow passed that point years ago.

The majority of people may not always agree with their political party, heck, I've never ever voted for "the ideal party" in my life. But even if you're not a hard-core left or right-wing activist, in the end, the only options for you to vote for are red or blue, there is nothing in between... even worse, even if you voted at the last election, all the drama about "voting fraud" may make you think if your vote even counts for something, or if politicians now can make up their own numbers as they go, whether there be evidence or not...

I guess I ventured deep enough into political waters... not really my intention, but still something that worries me deeply..

[Lyle Romer]

Pixar's output started to become more hit-and-miss after they were acquired by "Big D", but it surely took them a few years to run out of great stories. After they were acquired back in 2006, they still managed to output Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up and Toy Story 3. Many people say that they had most of the stories already worked out before they were acquired and many of which, according to the lore, dated back from "that famous Pixar lunch in 1994" at the Hidden City Café.

It all started to go south with Cars 2, which ironically, was directed by Lasseter... most of their output ever since has been hit-and-miss.

So, Lassenter was still there, while it happened. He clearly is co-responsible for some of Pixar's brightest moments, but also for some of their greatest duds. This really makes it hard for me to judge if the situation improved or worsened once he left the stage at Disney.



I'm not able to judge this, but what I do know is that it's often pretty simple to get rid off someone by pulling the "Me too" card. In the end, no sexual harassments suit has been filed against him. Sometimes, I have the feeling that overpopulation will sort it self out, once the entire world has implemented the "new rules of inter-person engagement", where every action you do must have been mutually agreed upon in writing and filed in threefold at the "relevant authorities"...



I often feel that the original Cars movie is somewhat underrated for what it was, because it also was the first movie Pixar worked on, without the input of Disney and as such, wasn't even developed to become Disney property. Cars, when it was launched, was an entirely new and original idea, with a great bit of American nostalgia thrown right in there.

Also, people seem to be shocked by the fact that Disney sells toys of their popular franchises. I'm somewhat shocked that almost no cinema actually ever tried to sell toys of popular movie franchises too, instead of just popcorn and soda.



Polarization in politics is an universal problem and Europe is by no means immune to the symptom, just look at the entire Brexit debacle for a good dose of polarization, no matter if you're for or against it, the end-result is years and years of drama that's not helping anyone. But one of the dangers of how the American democratic system is structured, is that it allows for a political minority to control vast amounts of decision making for the entire country. Something which isn't impossible over here, but much harder to pull off. In the end, if a country votes a certain way, it's the vote of the country, as long as the vote represents the population equally.

But for a "Western country" that should lead the way in democracy, the division of U.S. politics is like a poison for the "western world" at large. This is becoming even more clear, when even something irrelevant and ultimate benign thing like a half-second same-sex kiss in an animated movie is made into a political football. When something like that happens, some big honking alarms should go off, but I'm affraid we're somehow passed that point years ago.

The majority of people may not always agree with their political party, heck, I've never ever voted for "the ideal party" in my life. But even if you're not a hard-core left or right-wing activist, in the end, the only options for you to vote for are red or blue, there is nothing in between... even worse, even if you voted at the last election, all the drama about "voting fraud" may make you think if your vote even counts for something, or if politicians now can make up their own numbers as they go, whether there be evidence or not...

I guess I ventured deep enough into political waters... not really my intention, but still something that worries me deeply..

The USA is not a democracy, especially at the Federal level. It is a representative republic. 1/3 of our elected federal government is designed to represent the states, not the people.

[Marcel Birgelen]

The USA is not a democracy, especially at the Federal level. It is a representative republic. 1/3 of our elected federal government is designed to represent the states, not the people.

Yeah... "The USA is a Republic, not a Democracy"...

I say: Potato-potato... Because, in practice, that argument is mostly a lame excuse for a system that's essentially broken, because it's outdated. It's "We the People of the United States" and the rest of that document makes it clear that the government is there to serve the people, not the states.

The system that was implemented back then was a compromise, based on what both political and technical achievable at the time. It's largely based on demographics that have long since shifted, hence it's outdated and has since become vulnerable for abuse. If any party would carry real "democratic" or "republic" values, they would put fixing it high on the agenda. Back in 1787 they tried to create a "More perfect Union", maybe that wasn't a one-time job, but a work in progress...

Sorry, we're venturing even further into swampy political waters, where monsters lurk around every corner...

[Lyle Romer]

Yeah... "The USA is a Republic, not a Democracy"...

I say: Potato-potato... Because, in practice, that argument is mostly a lame excuse for a system that's essentially broken, because it's outdated. It's "We the People of the United States" and the rest of that document makes it clear that the government is there to serve the people, not the states.

The system that was implemented back then was a compromise, based on what both political and technical achievable at the time. It's largely based on demographics that have long since shifted, hence it's outdated and has since become vulnerable for abuse. If any party would carry real "democratic" or "republic" values, they would put fixing it high on the agenda. Back in 1787 they tried to create a "More perfect Union", maybe that wasn't a one-time job, but a work in progress...

Sorry, we're venturing even further into swampy political waters, where monsters lurk around every corner...

It is what it is. Heck, the UK still has a monarch (I know with very little power). Talk about "outdated."

I can't remember which but one of the US founding fathers said that the ideal government was a benevolent dictatorship and that since that wasn't likely in reality, what they came up with was the next best thing.

It was a "more perfect union" between the individual states. It's managed to last almost 250 years. Whether it lasts another 250 I can't predict but I won't likely be around to see if/when it ends.