Snoop Dogg isn’t the only problem Lightyear has had

The Pixar movie's same-sex couple prompted backlash that continues to this day – but years on, it's clear the furore obscured the real reasons the film failed

- Louis Chilton

It's been three years and two days since Lightyear was released in cinemas – and you'd be forgiven for forgetting it ever existed. Pixar's strange, ill-conceived Toy Story offshoot – focusing on a human version of Tim Allen's plastic toy astronaut – was an unprecedented flop for the famed animation studio. The previous two Toy Story films made more than $1bn apiece; Lightyear made just $224m, failing to turn a profit. Critics mustered a collective shrug. But while no one could reasonably argue that Lightyear made an impact artistically, it has, in an odd and symbolic way, endured - drifting around the orbit of our culture like a derelict satellite. Just ask Snoop Dogg.

During an appearance on the It's Giving podcast last week, the 53-year-old rapper and food delivery app jingle-maker claimed that Lightyear had left him “scared to go to the movies” with his grandchildren, thanks to a scene that depicts two female characters in a same-sex relationship. Back when Lightyear was first released, the scene in question drew a kneejerk backlash from the political right, and caused