The Ringer-Verse - ‘Lightyear’ Instant Reactions | Mint Edition

Episode Date: June 19, 2022

Steve and Jomi are back to dive into Pixar’s latest film ‘Lightyear.’ The guys look back at the impact of the ‘Toy Story’ franchise (02:00), and then they break down the plot of ‘Lightyear’ (21:00). Later, they attempt to do the impossible task of selecting the most overrated Pixar film (42:00). Hosts: Steve Ahlman and Jomi Adeniran Associate Producer: Jonathan Kermah Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Productional Support: Arjuna Ramgopal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joanna, do you ever wish you could definitively prove that you have the right opinions about movies? Uh, yeah, Neil, because I do have the right opinions about movies and television, right, Dave? No, because I'm more right about those things, and I demand trial by content. Oh, boy, what is trial by content? Each week, we'll take on a huge question. Each of us will bring a choice and combine with listener submissions and your votes, we will come to a decision. It's trial by content every Tuesday on Spotify, the ringer.com, wherever you're listening right now. Don't let Neil win.

Don't let Dave win. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks. If your doctor decides that you can self-inject trumphia, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely, active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis.

Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. For adults with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis symptoms, every choice matters. Tramphia offers self-injection or intravenous infusion from the start. Tramphia is administered as injections under the skin or infusions through a vein every four weeks, followed by injections under the skin every four or eight weeks.

If your doctor decides that you can self-inject Trimfaya, proper training is required. Tramphia is a prescription medicine used to treat adults with moderately to severely. active Crohn's disease and adults with moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Serious allergic reactions, increased risk of infections or lower ability to fight them, and liver problems may occur. Before treatment, get checked for infections and tuberculosis. Tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, or need a vaccine. Explore what's possible. Ask your doctor about Tramphia today. Call 1-800-526-7736 to learn more or visit Trimfairadio.com. Farthering feathering veterans and feathered.

They got the rookie, who I strongly suggested should not have joined in the version. Hello, and welcome into the ringerverse. This is, of course, the ringers nexus podcast feed for all things fandom. And welcome back to Mint Edition. It's the once-in-a-while podcast about all the latest fandom that you just can't live without. I'm Stephen Alman, senior producer at the Ringer. Joining me today, as always is Mike Oost. It's Ringer's social coordinator.

Explain her at the Midnight Boys. He is a sad, strange little man. It's Joe Me a deaderan. I just want to be very clear. I may be sad, but I am not little. Right. I mean, adults, very large man. Human man.

Not a child's play thing. No. Or a toy. No, I'm not a toy. No. How are you doing, Jomey? It's been a minute since we were back on these airwaves. It's been a long time and guess what?

We're back not only because there's so much to cover here at the Ring ofverse, but because they loved us. They really, really loved us. It really is touching. The amount of people that listened to us and rocked with us already. And we are really excited to be back and talking to you guys for, the foreseeable future. And it's, it was, it really was moving. We appreciate all of you, junior mints. And we're going to be hopefully seen a lot more of you guys in the coming,

uh, weeks, days, months, years, lifetimes. Hopefully. Now, just to echo that sentiment, we thank you guys so much for all your kind words and, you know, especially for listening. Like, we honestly were really touched by everything you guys were saying. And it really meant a lot. So thank you guys from the bottom of our hearts. All the genuements out there. Thank you so very much. All right. So before we get going today,

programming reminders, of course. Happy Sunday to you, Jomey. Sunday from the past and now future. Tomorrow, Monday, we will have another house of midnight covering the boys. Good Lord. It's wild out here.

The boys. The boys does not pull any punches, literally and figuratively. That's your on TV right now? question mark? No question mark. Period. Really? Okay.

All right. All right. All right. And then Wednesday, Midnight Boys will be returning for the season finale of Obi-Wan Canobee. I don't even know

where to begin with the lack of expectations that we have for that season finale. And then again, on Thursday, Joanna will be taking a look at the third episode of Miss Marvel.

Can't wait for it. It's been a smasherino. on the year Disney Plus. But first, Jomi, on today's show, we go to the Gamma Quadrant Sector 4 and take a look at the latest Pixar adventure, Light Year. But first, keep in mind, our friendly neighborhood ringer versus spoiler warning,

you're going to be taking a spoiler-filled look at Lightyear, Toy Story, and a handful of Pixar films along the way. But for right now, let's get it to it. Yeah! Let's take a little look back, before we go forward, and talk about the impact culturally and personally for the Toy Story franchise with you and me, Jomey. How old were you when you first saw Toy Story and what did it mean to you as a little youngling?

How old were you, Jomey? So this is actually not going to believe this, Steve. I'm going to easily believe it, whatever you're about to say. But the first story story came out in 1995. That's true. Now tell me how old you were. I was not born yet. Oh, wow.

You were a you were a glimmer in your father's eye. Yeah, I did not exist yet. That's fine. That's fine. So how old were you when you actually saw it? Probably wrong, like five or six. I remember seeing it in school.

It was one of those movies that teachers would put up at the end of the year, you know, to satiate us little things. and it was awesome. We had a blast watching it. You know, it's like that ending. It was like one of the first times I can remember being like nervous at the end of a film where like, are they going to get back on the car? Oh, right.

Yeah. Are they going to be to the movie van? Oh, my God. I was like, ah. You know, thankfully they did. And like, yeah, I just became like a lifelong memory. And a tent pole film for the Pixar universe and physics. and as a cultural staple.

I was five years old in the year of Our Lord in 1995, and I remember seeing this in the movie theater. My parents took me. I was five years old. I do remember this. And it was genuinely captivating as a kid. Because I know because for the longest time after I had seen that movie, the concept of my toys being alive when I'm not in the room was like,

it's a idea that should scare children. didn't. It excited me. I was like, oh my God, can I catch him? Could I catch him being alive? And that was probably the first introduction into a wild imagination that got me where you see me today. So I can thank Toy Story for quite a bit. I can thank you for quite a bit. All right, what was cooler? What are your buzz? Who did you have? Whose camp did you pick? Buzz is something to question is Buzz. Buzz is the way cooler toy. That's so wrong. That's so wrong. That's not, what are you talking about? How boys are so much cooler than Spaceman. That's not even true.

That's how I know you're old. That's so true. That's so true. You're old man. That's how I know you're old man. It's because I, like honestly, for some reason, I loved Tim Allen when I was a kid. Tome Improvement was my favorite show growing up when I was a little little kid, but I just love Tom Hanks so much. And I see you're looking at our juniors. He's probably giving me a face. I can't believe it. I cannot believe what I'm hearing. The dude with the wings that could fly was not cool. You wanted to. No, listen. I'm not saying that he wasn't. right. Not like, no, let's just put it as facts, right? I like

you know, the space cop with wings and with lasers pew, you wanted the actual police officer, the sheriff. That's wild. Oh, okay, if we want to get into this. That's nuts. Okay, they're both law enforcement. He's local law enforcement, Woody. If you want to, if you want

to get real, Buzz, he's for the big corporation. He's the space rangers. I don't think that's true. The big room. He's intergalactic cop. All right? This is, look, he's a, what he's a man of the people. All right, he's a leader. Mm-mm.

See, Buzz has lasers and wings. I don't know what you wanted from five, six-year-old, Jummy. All right, that's fine. You're going to send me with wings and lasers all day. Okay. That's fair. That's entirely fair.

Well, if you're joining us here on Sunday, this would be the conclusion of Pixar week at the ringer.com. What a great website. And we had a recent tier ranking for all of the Pixar characters, a bracket, if you will.

that you could see the results of now. And I personally advocated to get Lightning McQueen out in the first round at the hands of Frozone. It looks like I might get my wish. No, it didn't work. It didn't work. Lightning McQueen beat Frozen by like shit. By 50 volts. Son of a bitch.

All right. Well, well, now let's get into it. I hate cars. I don't like the movie Cars or the Cars franchise. And this is a longstanding agenda that Jomey had. It's not agenda. It's just, it's fine.

It's a fine movie. Like, I'm not saying it's great, or we should worship it as among one of the legendary films in Pixar. It's like, okay. It's like a six and a half out of ten. Like, what do we want? Like, what else do we want from a movie about anthropomorphic cars? I think, and you know what? I think in all honesty, you're probably right.

I just think that it's probably, it's a, it's a, it's a Rick and Morty thing. it's a Rick and Forty thing. Excuse me? It's where like the thing itself is good and fine and funny, but I think the people that rider die for it ruined the experience for me. Who's riding and dying for cars? Listen, some people ride or die for cars.

All right? There are a lot of people that are getting way too in their mouth about cars and I'm just like, you know what? Stop, all right? It's Larry the cable guy's a pickup truck. There's only so much there. That's so funny. Sorry. I'm a little off the handle.

for cars. All right, but bringing it back, bringing it back to Lightyear. It's a spinoff. There was a bit of confusion around the initial release of this movie, the idea of this movie, as to what this actually is. It is the in-canon spin-off film

about the origins of the hero Buzz Lightyer based on the toy in the original Toy Story film. Now, before we get into our initial thoughts of the film, what did you think about the idea of Buzz getting his own story and movie? So when the news just came out, I think I was with a lot of people.

I was just very confused as to what this meant. I originally thought, oh, they just took the character Buzz Light Year and decided to like just make like a movie out of it. It's like, this is cool. You know, there's interests in terms of like, what is Buzz? Like, you know, what is the Space Ranger? Da, da, da. only for them to be like, excuse us,

it is not just a buzz movie for fun. This is the movie in toy story that Andy saw then made him want to go get the Buzz Lightyear toy. And we're like, okay, uh-huh. That seems like a lot. Right. No, that is a whole lot. And so when this initially was announced,

and I think the trailer came out, there was a lot of online confusion as to what this actually means, because we know that Buzz Lightyer is a toy and only a toy. And then when you take that and make him a man with feelings and emotions and a story, you're like, wait a minute, where did the toy come from? Let's see a real person. A lot of confusion.

I initially thought that this was going to be like our first person in the minds eye view of what Buzz Lightier the toy sees in everyday existence. Like when he was on in Andy's room for the first time, that his bird's eye view of actually seeing a foreign planet, like the delusion that he would be broken. I was like, that's a little too, that's a little Darren Aronofsky type of stuff for what I had going on. But that's Disney Plus after dark. Yes, during dark, very dark. So before we get into this kind of cannon busting title card that we get at the beginning of the movie,

let's get into the nuts and bolts. Directed by Agnes McLean, an original animator for the first Buzz, Lightyer back in 1995, written by Jason Headley and Angles McLean, currently sitting at at 82% as of this recording on Rotten Tomatoes. Take a lot of stock in that, but the first thing that we see in this movie is a very, like, matter-of-fact title card saying in 1995, a boy named Andy got a toy for Buzz Lightyear. It was based on his favorite movie. This is that movie.

So, with the implementation of this information, before we start to get into our thoughts of the movie, again, we've got to look back a tiny bit. This already says so much about the Toy Story universe. It immediately raised so many questions for me. Did you have any questions as to what this means for the Toy Story universe to know that this, in the story of Toy Story,

Andy saw a movie based on Buzz Lightyer? I think it answered a lot of my questions. that I had going in. So I was like, we'll talk about how it, how it informs the rest of the toy story franchise as a whole later.

But in terms of, okay, he went to saw this movie. He fell in love like we all, you know, kids would do, and then begged his, you know,

mom for this toy. He fell love with the toy, yeah. He fell in love with the toy, and he begged his mom for that toy. So like, okay. I,

like, I understand a lot of the stuff down the line makes so much sense. Like I completely and totally understand Andy as a character now. Jomey, you fell in love with the toy, as I'm sure we all did when we were kids. Can you recall a time when you begged your mom for a toy that may or may not have worked out? I know exactly the toy that I begged my parents for and fell in love with.

And I'm going to get cooked on here for this. Oh, here we go. But I came here, you know, got to be honest, got to be open with the people. That toy for me was a Barney Plushy. A Barney Plushy? A Barney Plushy? Okay, all right, all right. How old were you?

What year was this? It's got to be like, you know, $90, $29,000. $2,000? Yeah. Oh, man. I still have the plush. I'm sure I could dig it out somewhere. You have the, no, you don't.

I promise you it's in the toy box somewhere in the garage. Well, now you know what you need to do on socials come Monday. You know what you need to do. I got to go find it. But for me, it was the plushy. Let me tell you some. I was in love with Barney as a child. That's fascinating.

That was my thing. We still have all the VHSs. I have Barney's Great Adventure on DVD with Kyla Pratt. Yes. Yes, man. I was tapped in. I was locked in. That's so crazy.

So when I, like, I would have. been like, I mean, I remember Barney when I was like from five years old and on, but like even then, even in kindergarten, everybody was like, Barney is whack. Barney sucks. Don't be watching Barney. That's for little kids when five year olds are saying it. No. Like that's, that's insane. But listen, I admire your bravery to put this on a podcast that dozens of people listen to. And it's going to be, it's really not going to come to bite you at all. I really, I really don't think so. So find that, that plushy. That's amazing.

Nobody's going to call me Barney Boy or anything like that. Of course not. Not at all. So in this little bit of nugget of information that sprung a lot of questions in my mind, it immediately began for me to think about the Disney angle of it all as to why there are seemingly so many more other characters in this movie that were great fodder for merch that didn't exactly come to fruition. Why didn't we ever see a socks doll? why didn't anybody else talk about how wonderfully progressive this film is

for 1995? Oh my God, so woke. Yes. Oh my gosh. The same sex relationship within like the first, what, 20 minutes? Exactly. Rush Limbaal was going to have a field day with this one. Oh, my gosh.

I'll let me tell you, 95. Come on. That's incredible. That's what you've been incredible. You honestly have to give credit to the people. They saw the future. Like, this is the future of filmmaking. You know what I'm saying? It's colorful.

You know, we got people of color all over the place. You know, it's queer, right? There's a, you know, a queer relationship informs, like, the rest of the story. You know what I mean? And it's just, like, really, really, really... They saw the future. They really saw the future. You got to give the screenwriters and the people behind Light Year in 1995.

You got to give them credit. You really do. Exactly. And it also... It could also inform that maybe this movie wasn't the bigger hit that I thought that it would be because toy stores were stocked full of Buzz Light Your Toy Store. and by the time Toy Story 2 rolled around, those shelves were looking pretty full.

Not that many kids buying new toys for Buzz Lightyear two years out. The toy cycle, you know, it's quick to flip. You understand what I'm saying? Which is also making me realize why this probably wasn't made by the in fiction version of Disney

because you know that they got to capitalize on that merch. That's true. I don't know why I had mostly merch-based questions, but the final one that I had is that Andy's mom, might be playing a little dirty. She's clearly, obviously it's great to love you, kid,

get them a toy that they want. We love to see that from mom. But to know the dad's out of the picture and long-staring theory that Woody is his dad's toy, do we know if the dad has passed away or do we know if the parents are divorced? I, myself, a fellow child of divorce,

the COD contingent is strong at the ringer. I think she might have been playing favorites. Well, I always thought that they were divorced, right? I thought... Right. They got divorced. That's why they moved out. Like,

that was the whole thing. She was moving, it's a big house. Those tax brackets are hard. Exactly, right? You're like, okay, clearly this isn't working. We're going to move to this new spot.

I'm taking the kids with me. All right. Goodbye. And so part of that is like, here's your favorite toy. You've wanted this toy forever. Here you go, boom. You know,

so we're on the same wavelength, Steve. Like, you know, we were arguing it as, you know, after the movie with, of marriage is like, you know, dead parents. Dead parents is very Disney. Right. Like that's very much how. It is the Disney.

It is the quintessential Disney. That's what they do. But I don't know. I'm on the divorce train, bro. I probably would be too. I probably would be too. Because like the heirloom toy, that's cool. The brand new shiny toy for mom, it's getting dicey. But my last theory that I have is that this says so much

about toy sentience. Okay, see, now, you're going too deep on it. You get to explain yourself. No, no, no, I immediately need to. No, this has to happen. This has to happen. Because we know when Buzz comes into Andy's room for the first time, he believes he is marooned on a foreign planet with strange life forms.

He believes he is a space ranger until Woody convinces him that the world around him, that he is a toy and he is to be loved by a child. This makes me believe. That any toy made by a, you know, IP film, anything else, they are indoctrinated with the canon and story that they are designed for until they are broken of that indoctrination until somebody else. This is the type of stuff I think about. I'm a producer.

I take notes. I take a lot of things seriously. I think what you're doing is you're taking the blue pill on this. I might be. I think you need to free your mind, Jomey. I think you need to realize that we are all child. play things. Here's the thing.

I don't think that they're indoctrinated. I don't think there's like a clockwork orange set up where they're like you're a toy. This is where you're from. Here's your manual.

Here's your book. Are they like, Alex, so they've got the eye things and they're just like, I'm a space ranger. Yeah. I don't think it's that deep.

I just think, you know, oh, put them in the box. He's like, oh, look at me. I'm a space ranger. This is what it tells me. And then after time,

it's like, man, you're just a toy, like all the other toys in, you know, Andy's toy box, probably had the same thing that he had, you know, and Woody, you know, Woody was a jerk about it. But ultimately, he's right. Buzz is a toy. Like, well, it's just a plastic play thing, right? Like, what's what he is? So I don't think you're going really deep. I like it. There's, again, a Disney Plus after dark film or they're like lining up boys, Buzz light your toys all in a row. And they're like, don't line up, boys. Don't line up, boys. Don't line up. boys. I wasn't going to let that one off. Curb. Cut that. No, that's stand, dog. That's locked in for life. That's canon, bro, bro.

Oh, my God. AEO in the chat. Two against one. It's tough. Perfect. But I would agree with you, because we learned from the very illuminating documentary Beyond Infinity on Disney Plus. in the lead up to this movie

pretty much everything on the box is the sum total of Buzz's knowledge and I kind of like the idea of him kind of being broken from the story that we get to see now in the year of our Lord when we watch Light Year. So

Jomey let's go and talk about the movie. Let's talk about the film. This episode is brought to you by Sweet Green. The day doesn't ask for permission. Lunch window? Gone before you sod coming. You deserve a break that actually satisfies. Sweet Green's new wraps have got you. Real ingredients? Zero shortcuts. Everything you love in one hand. Think green goddess chicken.

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Beth and Rip are back in a new series, Dutton Ranch. Kelly Riley and Cole has a return, and this time they're taking on Texas. As Beth and Rip build a future together, peace will have to wait as they face corruption, danger, and a ruthless rival ranch, willing to protect its secrets at all costs. Legacy is a beautiful thing,

but only if it survives. Dutton Ranch starring Colehouser, Kelly Riley, Annette Benning and Ed Harris, now streaming on Paramount Plus. All right. Overall impressions of this movie, Jomey, did you like this movie? Yes, I did.

I really enjoyed it. Like I said at the beginning, I didn't know exactly you were to expect. And again, so were no expectations. So I went in with an open mind and a clear heart, and I couldn't lose. And this movie was a winner, honestly. I really enjoyed the, like what, hour 45,

which is great, brisked film compared to a lot of the stuff we watched. I didn't know what an hour 45 minute movie felt. like for so long. For so long. But this movie was very, very fun. At a great time. We'll talk about a lot of the plot specific things that I enjoyed later. But overall, enjoyable film.

I would agree. This is an incredibly enjoyable movie. I feel like it could have, I think it could have done a little bit more. As far as its character beats and moments, I think it could have presented itself with a bit more heart and a little bit less plot. plot heavy action. But again, it's a different kind of movie. It's maybe probably the movie that it aimed to be. I'm not going to hold too much against it, but I did

enjoy it quite a bit. What did you think about the cast of characters that we got? Chris Evans in the titular role as Buzz Lightyear. Did you miss Tim Allen? Not at all. Come on. Really? Not at all. No. I kind of did.

I know. Not. Yeah, this is your thing, right? So, as we discussed earlier, that is a toy version of the real buzz. This is the real buzz. You know what I'm saying? That's a fake buzz. We don't know who that buzz is. Tim Allen is fake.

I don't know him. He's not the OG, you know what I'm saying? According to the canon. He's not the real anything. That's very true. But I didn't really miss. I thought Chris Evans did a really good job of being like stern and, you know, self-serious, but yet, you know, opening himself up to, you know, having a little bit of a laugh in terms of his character.

So I thought he did a pretty good job, but I didn't really, you know, missed him out on all, honestly. I would agree. Chris Evans does do a very good job in the role. I think he kind of like embodies what a buzz light year type character could be. And he's a very fun and determined and, I think just the right type of spice and flavor that this movie needs to kind of bounce off of everybody. around him. He's a little bit more serious. I just really loved the over the top upright citizen that Tim Allen presented in that toy, which again is probably

the point. It's the whole exaggeration cartoon version of it all. But man, I just would have loved to see him in some sort of cameo role. I would have loved to see him again, our Friendly Neighborhood Spoiler Warning for the rest of the movie, as the older buzz, because that was not voiced by Chris Evans.

I think that was kind of the golden opportunity to put him in there. and kind of offer up as the sort of villain role to be the emperor Zerg to the other side of that coin. I think that would have been nice and a little fun. But we still got a really good fun performance from everybody in the cast.

But speaking to the plot, I genuinely loved the science fiction elements that were at play here for the type of marooned space ranger on a mission to fix this colony. This was very emblematic of Star Trek the next generation, the sort of time-traveling mission

to undo the future that we wanted to fix. And I think the implementation of Buzz like traveling four years in the future at a time, we get this amazing montage in the beginning, the passage of time cryworthy Pixar montage that is now made famous by Pixar. Is this their bread and butter? Is this what they should be known for,

making us cry within the first 10 minutes because of a montage? Well, I don't know. What is it? It's up that does it first. Right. And then this will be, I mean, you know, once as an accident, twice, it's a little suspicious. Yeah. You know, twice as a coincidence. But no, I think Pixar's-M-O generally, right, is to make you feel something when you're watching the film to make you, you know, tuck at the harshings a little bit. And I just want to clear the floor for one second, Steve. Come to the church because after the film, we all sat around the table.

and we all said that montage in the beginning with Commander Hawthorne her were scarcely getting older her finding love her having a son her son growing up her son getting married her son

having his own daughter her having a granddaughter exactly and you know coming back to find her dead and and buzz I mean he didn't find her dead in the office

she's like her office is clear She didn't find the body. Her office was clear. It's a tough funeral. But her's coming back. Right. Expecting to see Hawthorne and to find out that she's gone and playing her final message. Everybody else at the table felt some type of way.

Everybody else either was outright sobbing, you know, the mouths or like me, like definitely like welled up. Like definitely felt something in the in the chest. But Steve, Allman, do you want to tell the people how you reacted to that moment? I said that I did not cry. And I wish I did. I wish I had like a bit more of sentiment in my cold, dead heart. But I just, when I saw it happening, it was very touching. It was very, very well done.

I just thought, oh, they're doing the up thing. They're doing the thing from up. They are. You're going to say that they weren't? That's wild. Are you saying that they weren't? But we talked about this earlier. The hard stream passage of time montage that's going to be setting up the stakes for the

of the movie? We talked about this earlier. All they do is kill parents, right? That's all they do.

Your parents either showed up. They killed two generations of parents in this movie. Your parents either show up dead or they die within the course

of the film, right? That happens all the time. Like that, you know, that is Disney. It's cool. You know, tropes exist.

I understand. And that's a good thing. And honestly, like, if I, like, I wish that that moved me more. I really do.

And I think, I think I just look more of it as a story. storytelling thing where I'm just like, they did the up thing and it's very good. It's very good. Like, listen, Lesser movies couldn't even do that twice. Lesser Studios

couldn't do that once. And I'm happy that we got it. I'm happy. I was in that thing. I'm not a monster. I'm not a monster. I don't know, Steve. I'm just trying to beat these allegations before they come out. I don't know, Steve. I think ultimately for, and this is something like we, again, we talked about after the film was like,

this film felt like, you know, plot-heavy narrative talked about, you know, the space and trying to go home and da-da-da-da-da-all, this and this and this, which and which, instead of like a more character-driven emotional story. But I don't think that's true. I don't think that's entirely true. I think character buzz is very, very, very, very influential. on the story in terms of his growth as a human being. The first 15 minutes of the film is like, hey, I don't want help from the rookie. I don't want help from Ivan. I don't want help for nobody. I got this. I barely want help from my commanding officer.

Exactly, right? And then over the course of the events, you know, going, you know, four years in time, da-da-da-da, getting help from socks, right, getting help from Alicia. You know what I'm saying? Like the whole thing becomes him finding out how to rely on a team. And when it's all said and done, it's him. He's got his three other space rangers and socks and they're ready to, they're staying on the planet and they're ready to go on missions to protect the galaxy. Right.

It is a character. Like there is character in there and there is emotion. Exactly. Because he has to learn how to be a team player. I think like it's not just plot. I think there are emotional. beat stares. They're not the same as usual, but I think to dismiss it as a non-emotional film, it just isn't

unfair to the, doesn't unfair to the filmmakers. No, and I agree. And I'm not trying to say that I think that this is like a movie devoid of any, like, sort of like character, emotion or growth or depth, because that's certainly not what I'm trying to say. I think it, I liken it a bit more to a mad max where the plot moments are the driving force throughout the entire movie. The movie is constantly moving and giving you something else to do. There's always an objective.

There's always a thing to fix. And along the way, you get tiny, tiny little increments of character morsels that will lead you to a conclusion for that character come to the end. Main subject of that being buzz. I kind of likened it to that, where the plot. is so rich and moving and constantly going that it barely gives you a moment to breathe. And then you realize that for the most part, you know, Buzz is quickly learning that, you know, being part of a team is good. And then we're faced with a conundrum of whether or not he wants to go back in time,

which is always a big, big, what if. So I think that despite its flaws for, you know, just being plot heavy, I think that's probably what made me not exactly glom onto it emotionally as I would have liked to. At least it is not as much as I would have liked you from a Pixar movie because when a Pixar movie to me is at its height is when it can do both of those things. I mean, like, we'll talk about where we think this movie like ranks in our all-time rankings. Oh, boy. But I think, I think it does, I think it does do a good job of doing both. Like, they take their time to talk about, you know, sandwiches and now, first of all, fucking vile. We got to be very clear. That is.

Like the worst thing I've ever seen in my entire life. Like the meat being on the outside and the bread being on inside, which like at first you're like, oh, that's not so bad. Like what's the worst going to happen? But then they put the sandwich, no plate, no tissue, just on like a desk that's been on this planet for how many years. For the bread of a sandwich. That's vile. Horrendous. Jail?

Absolutely discussed. Jail. Lifetime in jail. But yeah, even in that scene, it's an action. Like the scene before that is an action scene, but he learns like, okay, I need all these people, you know, with me in order to hit that button and to get out of the door. You know what I mean? And when he tries to do it himself, it's hard and he loses. But when he trusts and his people, they get the job done, right?

I think that's, you know, that's one of the central lessons for for Buzz to Learn, or that Buzz learns in the film. So saying that, like, you know, character-driven, emotional. most of the story. I don't think that's facts, but I mean, that's just me. That's my opinion. They wouldn't have put us together if we agreed all the time, Jomey. That's very true. That's true. It's very, very true. It doesn't make

from a good podcast. We're like the mismatch, but for the universe. I know, right? I'll see you in Boston for game five next week. I'm, I call being Chris Vernon. I'm Verno. You can be chaos. Oh, wow. Wow. Okay. I want to be Verno.

Because the thing about Verno, Verno, Verno sounds old, but he looks like he's 23. And I'll be, I'll be, I'll be Verno's obnoxiously huge headphones. That's, that's who I'll be in the podcast. I'll be, I'll be that. Vernor, I really hope. I know Verno listens to this pod, big fan. Big fan.

Big fan. Big fan. Day one. Shout out KOC as well. Y'all doing great work. Of course. So, yeah, we love y'all. Shout out to you guys.

All right. So getting on to the. one of my favorite elements of the movie and that's the time travel dilemma that buzz is faced with when Emperor Zerg soon to be revealed as an older buzz. That's kind of a weird plot hole that we don't really understand.

That the then like middle of the road buzz like splits off into two different paths. He then becomes Emperor Zerg in this other timeline or this timeline to kind of like find his way back to the original time when

he finishes the mission and completes all of and nobody is marooned on the planet and all things are seemingly well with the world. When faced with that with our original buzz, he then realizes that, you know, none of these other good things, my team wouldn't be here, none of these good things that have happened to me wouldn't exist.

And, you know, it'll all be for nothing. And that's not worth going back to save my, my ego, my pride. And that's what makes him ultimately, you know, go against Zerg and stay on planet and stay on this mission. What do you think about the implications of this? Like, if you were tasked with fixing the mission, would you do this?

Because it's honestly like Zerg, aka old Buzz, like kind of makes a good argument for it. Now I'm taking my L, bro. I'm taking my L. It just seems like me personally, for me, I can understand why old Buzz would do it because old Buzz never got to meet those group of people. So old Buzz never. Sure. Understandable. Yeah, he never got to, you know, fall for them and like understand their plight whenever.

He just, you know, kept going through time and eventually, you know, took over that ship and got all the robots to work on a side. But me personally, I don't like to work that hard at anything. So I'd have been like, So you're saying you wouldn't have gotten on the ship in the first place? Nah. You wouldn't have gone back once, let alone eight times. Here's what I would have done, right? I would have got back on a ship, did the first trip.

Like, oh, every time I travel four minutes, it's four years. I'm good off that, actually. We just kind of live here now. Somebody else can do this, bro. I got things I need to do. This is what makes, so you would be noble and self-sacrificing enough to do that flight one time. One time. And then when you realize,

oh, I lose four years coming back. I'm good, bro. I'm good. Here's the thing, though. I feel like I would kind of just cheese it. I would be like, oh, man, we're getting close every time, and then just keep going and going and going and going, so that that colony just develops

into a megacity. And then everybody's like, oh, Buzz, why, why you keep doing this? And it's like, oh, well, we're just trying to figure out the mission, get us off planet. and then by the time that happens, I'm like, I don't know, I'll play the stock market or something. Okay, so a couple things.

I didn't think it all the way through. I have notes. Okay. One, are you, how can you be sure like a Zurb won't show up? Right? And you get there and everybody's gone. Well, obviously, if that happens, I'd probably pump the bricks.

Well, you would, you wouldn't know. You would go around the sun, which, by the way, impossible, but this is a... Pretty impossible. Those shields have got to be like real good. The fact that he could see

like he can't even look at the sun from Earth. The fact that he's not blind as a bat by that point because he's like looking right at the sun. You know, gravity, how gravity works. Sure. That's a conversation for a whole other podcast. We're scientists. We know exactly how that works. We are not, we are not John and Hank Green. We cannot help you.

But going around the sun coming back, You don't know who's out there in the universe. You can come back to the planet. It might be just dust, right? So I'm not taking that risk. B, play the stock market. My brother in Christ, how are we still under capitalism?

I mean, I think that we would have at least like played my like space ranger bonds from, you know, Earth. You know, come back. That has no value here. That's the thing. By then we would have collectively figured out the fuel situation. That's what I'm banking on. If I just cheese it out for like, you know, 500 years, I don't know. Man, if I do all of that for a year, I think that I'm in a pretty good spot where I'm like, man, the things that I've seen.

When I come back from that first flight and it's like, hey, four years have passed, you know, do you want to go back? It's a blip every time. It's an MCU blip every time. I'm saying no. I'm turning in my badge. I'm turning in my space French uniform. I'm going to the cribbo and I'm living a life of peace, bro. Nice to say. That's it. I'm sorry.

Living a life with socks. You know, exactly. I can't, I can't do it. There's just, just under no circumstances. I mean,

like, I feel like living on that planet might not be so bad. So you got like a weed problem, like a glorified weed problem. That's about it. Ain't it? But now you solve that and the bugs?

Laser shield, baby. Laser shield. Fully. Fucking A right. All right. Sox. Let's talk about them. Where's all the socks merch?

Where's the socks merch now? Where is it? You delayed Grogu. I'm not letting you delay socks. We couldn't get away with that. Like if Malhart the podcast and she didn't hear us, you know, yelling for the socks merch. We couldn't pod.

Is socks an all-time cute character for Pixar? What do we got? We got Doug from Up. We got the raccoon from Pocahontas. There you go. That's pretty cute. Really? I put the hummingbird over.

over... I don't know about cute usefulness though. Utility like off the charts. There's no animal I think I would want more on my side. He coughs up a fur ball and it's a torch. That's hero stuff right there.

That's some real hero stuff. And he fixed the... Flounder not doing that. He can fucking, he can do quantum physics to fix your fuel situation. I mean, it'll take him like 50 years. But like, you'll figure it out. Yeah, I think Doug

it's definitely like number two for show. Right. Absolutely 100% number two. Also, was Buzz a little bit of stolen valor from Sox taking the fuel situation? Like, because Sox solved it. He solved it. But nobody said that like, I don't think Buzz was like, I did this. I know, but it's like if they're erecting a statue, it's got to be Buzz and Sox, right? Well, of course.

It can't just be both. It was like he was in the lab doing the math for like 50s. years. Respect socks. Respect socks. That's the guy. Absolutely respect socks. That's the king. It was a fun movie, Jomey. It was a fun movie. I greatly enjoyed it, but I want to know where it ranks for you. All right. There's a wide

cannon. Pixar films. All right. This can only be so good. I want to know where this puts on it for you. We took a look at the old tier maker and we wanted to put in a few of the timeless or great to good to okay to bad Pixar movies. Where do you put this

here light year movie? I put it in the good tier. I also put it in the good tier. Yeah, I think that's where it belongs. That is right in the middle of the road. This is a good Pixar movie. Very good. Like I said, I enjoyed it. There's a lot of, you know,

there's a lot of stuff ahead of it, to be fair. For sure. That's what Pixar does. What's in the timeless category? Just to give the people some of the, some of the good stuff. Oh, this is really tough.

Okay. So undeniable's for me. Incredibles, Coco, told a story to up Wally. Okay. And wait, I got,

I got Rattahooie in there. I'm sorry. Okay, okay. I got Rattahooie. This is a good list. I'm sorry. I got some hot takes for timeless. I got some timeless hot takes.

I got some timeless hot takes for you. Here's the thing. You're going to get mad at me. Don't even worry about getting a twisted on your reg. It's all right. My timeless. Okay.

Coco. Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3. Okay, that's fair. Toy Story 3 is fair. Yeah. That's in my great. I have choice.

I literally rewatched all three toy stories this weekend and I cried like a baby. So I feel like if I were watched three right now, like in the recently I put in my timeless. Listen, each one of those are like an hour and a half. You can just watch all three. I promise you. I just remember Toy Story 2 being like my favorite movie for a time. No, it's incredible.

I think it might be my favorite toy story. Anyway, I got Ratatoui up here as well in Timeless. Wally. Yes. And then rounding out the timeless. A Bug's Life. I love a Bugs Life. I do.

I really do. I can't hide it. I can't hide it. So, this is when Jomey quits the podcast. Here's the thing. Here's the thing, right? I like a bug's life. I got bugs life in a good category.

I think it is underrated. I think it's underrated. That's fair. If you think it's great, that's fair. That's fair. I think it is underrated. Very underrated.

Nobody talks about a bug's life enough. Nobody talks about a bugs life enough. Having it in timeless is nuts. That's bizarre. I got it. I got it. You got to be better. People say that I disrespect up by just putting it in the great category,

but I just, It wasn't there. No, I think, I think, like, my, like, one of my big Pixar takes is having Wally in timeless, like, if Wally is not up there. Oh, no. Yeah, that's a problem. That's a problem. Then, like, I don't want to hear what anything you got to say right now.

No, no. Like, if you disrespect Wally, I understand that, like, the second half of the movie is a very different movie than the first half, right? But have some respect. Have some respect. Okay. Last question before, before we get off this, most overrated Pixar movie. Ooh. I already know.

You go, you go, because I'm not, you go. I got to see where the temper's at. Finding Nemo's overrated. I got to say it. It's just, it doesn't hit with me. It doesn't hit with me like this. It's good. But it's overrated, I think.

It's overrated. That's really nuts that you said that. I know, I know. And they're really going to drag me for this one. But like, I think finding Nemo, listen, if I, if I ever get to be apparent one day, that's probably going to be. you know, elevated in a bit, in a bit,

in a few years, but I don't know. I think this is, people are nuts for thinking that this is in the best of the best for Pixar. I am H. Oh, they're going to cook me for this one. Okay,

so I want to be very clear. When I say overrated, I don't mean like in the sense that like, it's bad and we should. Same thing for finding Nemo, by the way. Same thing for finding Emo. We should sit here and be like, this movie is,

we should, you know, long story short, what I'm trying to get at is, don't be mad at my overrated pick. It's still a good, it's still a great movie, but we, we, we now know that there are levels above, right? And so, like, we should temper our expectations. Right. My pick for overrated, Toy Story, the first one. First one. Think about it. As tough as that is to hear, as tough as that is to hear, Toy Story 2 and 3 are better films. Here's the thing. That's the thing. That's the only reason I'm letting you get that get away with that is because there's two and three and both of those are better. That's the only story. If Toy Story 1 was the only Toy Story movie that ever existed, I couldn't let that happen. I have it in my great category. You know, honestly, I should have Toy Story 3 in timeless. Like, honestly, that's true. That's the oversight of my part. I take forward responsibility. But two and three are way better than one. Right. And so like when we talk about like the Toy Story trilogy, the first movie is the weakest one. you know and as much as we can't we can't just put everything like oh this is all great da-da-da-da i think i think the story just is a little lacking in terms of two and three like

like again like two is one and like honestly my favorite anime movies and three two's an incredible incredible kirm is so mad kerm is so mad about the first toy story burr hop turn up put your mic on bro what's you got we don't do any toy story slander out here one through three i'm sorry The five classics, man. I'm not hearing it. I agree. But you're asking me, you're asking me to pick,

like, which is the most overrated for, like, Pixar films. It's Ratatouille, bro. That's the one. That's the overrated one.

That's not true. That's not true. No, no, no, no. Y'all rocking with rats in your kitchen? Y'all rocking with rats in your kitchen.

Come on, if they cook like that, yes. They cook like that, yes. All right. Like, Kerm ain't like. Listen, here's the thing. Right. Ratatouille is because this thing, like you said, rats in the kitchen, I don't mess with rats.

I see around the street. I'm running the other way. Right. You understand? Like, I'm not messing with a rat. If I see a rat with a chef's hat stirring a wooden spoon over my soup, I'm at least investigating. I'm calling the police, meaning this rat going to prison, bro, like, it's just not going to go down. I don't know why you go to prison for God.

I mean, the rat will. Right. taking a rat to rat jail, you know. But here's the thing. It's a tiny jail. It's a tiny jail. It's really small. We little jail.

I loved it. Like, you walk out of Rattitude going like, wow, my life has changed. Like, I want to go, you know, live on the French country shot. Yes. Chop up some vegetables and put in a little raggoo sauce. I want to eat a dish that sends me back in time to, you know, when my mom made something. I want to make some leek soup. That's a beautiful, beautiful moment.

You kidding me? Come on now. it's incredible. And maybe one day we will look back on Lightyear being just as incredible as that fine

bit of food that made that made that one guy have a flashback. That a two weeks better than Toy Story, Ardrun, I'm sorry to tell you that.

Incredible. Put that on print. Print that. Print. All right, that is a wrap for us. We've talked enough about Pixar,

Lightyear, buzzes, and all of that stuff. We thank you so much for listening. to us. Once again, please be reminded of our programming

on Monday. We're going to have another House of Midnight talking about the boys. I wonder what's going to I can't. One other controversial video games are we going to see? I don't know. Who's going to explode? Yeah, who's going to explode?

Is somebody going to come in? Are there a peehole or maybe they come through the ear or something? That happened. I know, but just don't even, I can't even I can't even brainstorm that. Wednesday. We'll be back with the

Midnight Boys, giving our season finale instant reactions to Obi-Wan Kenobi. And Thursday, Joanna is going to be taking a look at the third episode of Miss Marvel. Stay tuned. We're doing so, so much around this feed, and we thank you for listening to all of it.

Our producers, we are produced by the wonderful Jonathan Kerma, with additional production from Arjuna, Ram Gopal. Also, thank you to my co-host, Jomi Adineron, for his wonderful work on socials,

as always. Jomi, do you got any more viral tweets planned? No, viral tweets? No. They don't have to plan those. Thank you, Junior Mintz, once again, for rocking with us. And stay tuned next time.

Jomi, do you want to tell them what we're going to be covering on the next edition of Mint Edition? I, dude, I was going to, but, like, it just got really raining here. I think I need to get an umbrella. Oh, man.

Oh, man. We really need to cover up from this metaphorical rain to, you know, drag out this announcement. Yeah. You got an umbrella, Steve? I don't know. I guess I got to go to a sort of,

you know, formal academy that sells umbrellas to, you know, really land this metaphor. Yeah, umbrella academy, guys. We're doing season three of Umbrella Academy So by the time we come back Be sure that you have seen all of season three Of the Umbrella Academy Don't you just love the binge model Jomey?

Come on Big fan Big fan Never ever ever get rid of it Netflix you won't lose any money All right Thank you all so much Any parting words for us Jomey

As always got to give a shout out to our Great, great great producer Don McKerma A.k.k.a. Richard Kerman. And as always, Junior Mints, thank you for listening.

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