Was ‘Lightyear’ Too Woke For It’s Own Good?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m so pleased that Disney+ has Lightyear on it. Lightyear is one of a few movies that I actually was interested in seeing in the theatres this year and so I jumped at the chance to see it when it appeared on Disney+ today.

I haven’t finished it, but here are some first impressions.

I can totally see why fascists who want a white Christian ethno state would think it was “woke.” For a movie that was supposed to have come out in 1995, the “woke” element is rather jarring. But, the movie’s relative box office failure in my opinion has nothing to do with it being woke and everything to do with it being…boring.

Lightyear is the perfect streaming movie because if you get bored, you can just stop it and do something else for a little while. Meanwhile, if it was in theatres, there’s a real risk that I would just get up and leave the theatre before the movie ended. (I’m notorious for doing this since I started working on a novel.)

If the movie wasn’t dull, I think audiences would have been able to handle it being “woke.” But while the movie is gorgeous, I began to roll my eyes and check my watch way too much.

Anyway, I’m not done yet.