In 1995, this could have been a decent movie, either live action or animated. But the seven year old in me would have set it aside for better stuff. (Anyone see Galaxy of Terror more than once?) If one decides not to make these characters Buzz, Zurg, and the Space Rangers, then the movie would have been one of a host of mediocre science fiction movies from 1995, that probably became a cult favorite on cable in the 2000s. We would all be talking like Taika Waititi. (I look forward to Thor: Love and Thunder, but when it is over, I think I will have reached max Taika.)
If two mommies is this much of a problem in 2022, then I can suppose it would have been an even bigger problem in 1995. The mom of Andy would have been quite progressive to let a seven year old see a movie like this. I do not think his mom was ready to give the birds and the bees speech about when a "mommy and a mommy really love each other, then they go down to the sperm bank together."
The Buzz Lightyear movie might have been rated PG-13 for Sci-Fi violence and gore. I am not convinced this is the movie that Andy saw. The Lovecraftian tentacles and monster insects would give a seven-year-old kid nightmares. Andy turns eight on his birthday in the first Toy Story movie. Furthermore, Buzz is not really a evil-fighting flying knight hero. He is more of a failed test pilot. I also am confused on which model plane he is supposed to be flying, and why a kid would even care? Zurg is not his father, but is instead (spoiler alert) Buzz from the future.
It takes way too long to get out of the second act.
This movie would not have filled an aisle at Toys R Us with spinoff toys. It would have been a short-lived end-cap display. I am thinking a Lego set and 4 inch action figures, not a seven to twelve inch plastic toy. It seems more likely Andy would have had Teen Age Mutant Ninja Turtle toys, if he was into that size.
Let me be clear that seven-year-old me would have cared that there were two moms. Gay marriage was still a decade away in 1995, but was a legitimate theme in Sci-Fi writing. Divorce was all too real with split families around us. We all knew some "mom and aunt" or "dad and uncle" families, and the mechanics of it were not all that important.
Nevertheless Pixar and Disney botched this, and it could have been a much better movie, and be the one Andy actually saw and wanted to re-enact at playtime. {BB}
This is the ultimate point. Pixar did not want to make a movie that Andy wanted to see. They made a movie Disney wanted Andy to see. (Plus Disney hates Andy.)
All converged companies can no longer fulfill their original objectives. All activity must be bent to the current narrative.
Pixar has fallen very far from the days of the first Toy Story.
Two Mommies + Sperm bank is still a bridge too far for a kids movie. The next step for Disney Animation is two teenage boys romance / crush which is coming in Strange Worlds. {AB}
[10]