Lightyear: 5 Reasons It's Not The Movie Andy Watched In Toy Story (And 3 Reasons It Is)
5. Why It Is Not: It Is Too Confident The Audience Will Understand The Rules Of Time Travel
A sci-fi blockbuster in the ‘90s would have been more aligned to Star Wars, Flash Gordon, or even Lost in Space (the remake), not a hard sci-fi like Interstellar. Or, if Hollywood made a science fiction action blockbuster with similarities to Interstellar, they would have explained the premise of why Buzz Lightyear experiences time differently every time he goes to space and uses crystal fusion far more.
Hollywood does not have enormous confidence in its audience when it comes to big ideas. This is especially true in the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s when high-concept movies with big sci-fi ideas were still not the norm in mainstream media. So when a movie had a big idea back then, the entire movie was based on that big idea. Example: In Back to the Future, it took a lot of time just to explain what time travel is to Marty before the plot about going to the ‘60s gets going. Stargate needed to explain what Stargate is, what it is for, and what it can do before the movie can really start.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, the concept of a guy ageing differently from other people through space travel would have needed a long explanation before the audience could acclimate and understand it. Yet, in Lightyear, it boils the explanation down to “Okay, whatever. It happens. Let’s move on” like this is a modern movie.
The only explanation is that the producers of Lightyear already know that the audience has already seen movies like Interstellar, and now feel assured enough to make a sci-fi movie where the space-time travel is already normal in the minds of the audience.