Despite Buzz Lightyear’s history of scoring big on Rotten Tomatoes, Lightyear hasn’t seen the same praise from critics, falling well below the Pixar average. Lightyear received generally favorable reviews overall, but it pales in comparison to the stellar scores posted by most other Pixar movies.
Ever since the first Toy Story, Pixar movies have almost always received exceptional reviews, earning an almost perfect track record in Rotten Tomatoes. In 26 feature-length Pixar releases since 1995, every single movie but one received a Fresh score on the Tomatometer, with 18 movies scoring over 90 percent, including 100 percent scores for both Toy Story and Toy Story 2.
Unfortunately, despite the Fresh rating, Lightyear’s Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t seem nearly as impressive next to the rest of the Pixar filmography. Here’s how its Rotten Tomatoes score compares to every other Pixar movie.
Lightyear’s Rotten Tomatoes Score is Way Lower Than Pixar’s Average
Of the 26 films released by Pixar, Lightyear is tied with The Good Dinosaur for the fourth-lowest Rotten Tomatoes score overall with a score of 76 percent. The only Pixar movies with lower scores are the Cars movies with Cars at 74 percent, Cars 3 at 69 percent, and Cars 2 at 39 percent. Pixar’s strong Rotten Tomatoes track record gives the franchise an overall average Tomatometer score of 89 percent, which is 13 points higher than Lightyear. As Pixar’s oldest and best-reviewed franchise, the four Toy Story movies before Lightyear averaged 99 percent, a full 23 points higher, with Lightyear’s Rotten Tomatoes score bringing the overall Toy Story average down to 94 percent.
Even though 18 of Pixar’s 26 releases have Rotten Tomatoes scores of 90 percent or higher, the average score for all Pixar movies has lingered just below 90 percent ever since 2012 after Brave’s 78 percent score dropped the average to 89 percent right after the average had already tumbled from 95 percent to 90 percent following Cars 2‘s 39 percent.
In the decade since, Pixar has earned exclusively Fresh Rotten Tomatoes scores, but hasn’t been able to return the average score to 90 percent. Had Lightyear earned a 93 percent (which is still lower than every other Toy Story movie), Pixar’s overall average would have bumped back over 90 percent. Thanks to Lightyear’s score, it’ll be a lot harder to get back to that range, requiring a 98.5 percent average for the next two releases, 95 percent for the next three releases, or 93.5 percent for the next four releases. That may seem like a tall order, but the seven Pixar films preceding Lightyear averaged 94 percent, so it’s entirely achievable. If not, an 89 percent average is still phenomenal and comes in six points higher than the MCU’s 83 percent average.
Rotten Tomatoes Top Critics Gave Lightyear Disproportionately Bad Reviews
Normally critics with Rotten Tomatoes’ special “Top Critic” status (selected based on factors like influence, reputation, and community involvement) give scores that are relatively in line with other Rotten Tomatoes critics, straying just three points on average from regular critics on every prior Pixar release, but that changes with Lightyear.
With a 61 percent score, Rotten Tomatoes’ Top Critics are rating Lightyear 15 points below the all-critic Tomatometer score. While reviews are always subjective and the review of a Top Critic still only reflects their individual evaluation, the change in behavior after being in much more agreement with other Totten Tomatoes critics certainly stands out, especially when the next biggest split is just nine points for Onward (88 percent all critics vs 79 percent from Top Critics) and 17 Pixar movies see Top Critics diverge by two points or less.
This kind of consistency typically set Rotten Tomatoes scores for Pixar movies apart, as even in the MCU’S average Rotten Tomatoes scores, where Top Critics diverge from all critics by an average of seven points, the highest split from Top Critics is tied with Lightyear’s 15-point difference, with both Ant-Man (83 percent from all critics and 51 percent from Top Critics) and Thor: The Dark World (66 percent from all critics and 51 percent from Top Critics) setting the high-water mark for Marvel.
Negative reviews from Top Critics seem to cite poor character development, lack of originality, and an overall formulaic approach compared to the expectations set by other Pixar films, while standard Rotten Tomatoes critics seem to be a little more accepting of the more simple Saturday morning cartoon style entertainment value of Lightyear instead of comparing it to the tough competition in the Pixar filmography.
Lightyear’s Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score is One of Pixar’s Lowest
Lightyear’s 67 percent Rotten Tomatoes audience score is the third-lowest for a Pixar movie, but, despite the big split from Top Critics, there’s still a pretty strong correlation between the audience score and the all-critic Tomatometer, with Lightyear scoring just nine points lower than the 76 percent score from Rotten Tomatoes critics. With an average difference of just eight points between the critic score and the audience score, Lightyear’s nine-point difference is just one point over the Pixar average.
While Rotten Tomatoes critics and Top Critics have a history of alignment on Pixar movies, it’s not the same story for critics and audiences. Most recently, Turning Red earned Pixar’s biggest critic/audience split with 22 points of separation. Despite the disagreement, both groups rated Turning Red higher than Lightyear with a 94 percent Tomatometer score (18 points higher than Lightyear) and a 72 percent audience score (three points higher than Lightyear).
Since audience reviews are harder to verify than critic reviews, platforms like Rotten Tomatoes are sometimes susceptible to review bombing, which is often pointed to as a contributor to low audience scores for movies with progressive representation. While Lightyear did generate some headlines over its inclusion of a same-sex kiss, the fact that Lightyear’s audience scores and critical score difference is consistent with the Pixar average (and actually better than the Top Critic difference), it’s doubtful there was any kind of notable effort to review bomb Lightyear’s audience score.
The toy version of Buzz Lightyear may have enjoyed several decades at the top of Pixar’s Rotten Tomatoes rankings for 27 years, but Lightyear just doesn’t seem to pack the same punch with critics or audiences in Rotten Tomatoes. Its 76 percent Tomatometer score is certainly respectable – it even earned Rotten Tomatoes’ special additional “Certified Fresh” designation – but Pixar’s years of success in Rotten Tomatoes still outshine Lightyear by a good margin on all metrics.
