Pixar Animation Studios has produced some of the most celebrated animated films of all time, from A Bug’s Life and The Good Dinosaur to Cars 2 and Cars 3. But the Emeryville-based dream factory couldn’t have anticipated such a negative reaction to Lightyear, its latest film now boasting, embarrassingly, only 84% on widely trusted and rarely criticized or misunderstood movie review aggregate site, Rotten Tomatoes on its first day of published reviews.
Granted, pretty much every other animation studio on the planet, including the other Disney-owned one, would probably call these supposedly high numbers an absolute win. But others are wondering if the “Pixar Decline” is here. As opposed to ten years ago.
“I can’t believe this,” says frequent Pixar film watcher and Young Folks contributor Will Ashton. “Every single Pixar movie has been seriously good. Except for maybe half of them over the last few years. I just expected better from Pixar at this point.”
No sign of intelligent life. Anywhere.
Lightyear, which features the voice talents of Chris Evans, is a spin-off of the Toy Story movies, telling an origin story for the toy…probably? Asking the question, “What if Pixar decided to make a ton of money without Pete Docter going through an existential crisis?” Apparently, the answer is…not enough to save the studio from the ruin of some critics giving a Toy Story-adjacent film a less-than-perfect rating.
“Why are you quoting me for this article?” remarks Young Folks contributor and someday co-star on Abbott Elementary, Adonis Gonzalez. “I literally have nothing to add to this. I’ll probably watch Lightyear, though.”
Public relations representatives at DreamWorks refused to comment when reached. Though they did send over a question mark emoji. This is probably in reference to the confusion many had around Pixar dumping so many of their other recent movies on Disney+, which also signals the end of Pixar. Everything does.
“This could be the end of Pixar,” repeats Jon Negroni, who also wrote this article. “Why? I’ll tell you why. That’s how companies work. They end when their movies are so successful, most critics like them and say nice things about them.”
Lightyear opens in theaters everywhere on June 17. It will probably make a ridiculous amount of money no matter who says what about it. Watch the trailer here.
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