Pixar's 'Lightyear' TOTALLY Missed the Marketing Plot.

Having seen Lightyear and really enjoying the story, what Pixar Animation Studios and The Walt Disney Company marketing TOTALLY missed is that this was the movie that inspired Andy to want the Buzz toy in the first place.

The marketing led us to believe that Buzz Lightyear is a real person, and this is his backstory. But Buzz is a character in a sci-fi movie. That was NEVER explained in the marketing but is literally the first thing on screen at the start of the movie. Pixar had to explain to us that what were about to watch was the same movie Andy saw. If the marketing had led with THAT, the entire movie would have made more sense to the general audience and would have most likely driven more people to the box office.

But the marketing was all about "the real Buzz Lightyear backstory" "learn the story of the man behind the toy!" It made the Buzz character sound like a real person.

It was hard for so many folks to comprehend how the Buzz character could be a real person with so much advanced technology, yet Andy had a toy of the same character in a much simpler time. Marketing never made the connection between Andy seeing a science fiction movie with an action hero named Buzz Lightyear.

If they had launched the marketing with a scene of Andy and his mom going to the movies to see "Lightyear," cut in scenes of the movie, then ended with Andy pleading with his mom to get a Lightyear toy, the storyline would have made much more sense to the general audience. That connection between Andy, the movie action hero and the toy was never made in the marketing, at least I never saw it in the trailers.

Pixar Animation Studios and The Walt Disney Company marketing pushed too hard that this is the "real Buzz Lightyear story." It is, but he exists in science fiction.

It's a shame it had such a weak opening because the movie IS very clever and when you understand (via the opening text) you're about to watch the same movie Andy watched, it all makes much more sense.

Read the CNBC article here on the disappointing opening weekend box office.