Chris Evans explains why it makes sense that Buzz's voice is different in Lightyear. First introduced in Toy Story in 1995, Buzz Lightyear, the toy, gets his very own origin story movie with Lightyear. The film chronicles the real-life astronaut who inspired the toy in the Toy Story universe, telling the story of Buzz getting marooned on an alien planet and trying to escape a ruthless army of robots commanded by Zurg (James Brolin). The film has proved somewhat divisive amongst critics, at least by Pixar standards, and underperformed at the box office this past weekend.
Even before the release of the film, many fans of the original Toy Story movies questioned why Tim Allen wouldn't be returning to voice Buzz. Director Angus MacLane previously spoke about the voice re-casting, explaining that Allen's version of the character didn't work with his vision for the film, which was envisioned as a more emotional journey for Buzz in a classic science-fiction movie setting. In addition to Evans, Lightyear features an all-new voice cast for the franchise, including Keke Palmer, Peter Sohn, Taika Waititi, Dale Soules, and Uzo Aduba, among others.
In a new interview with MTV News, Evans explains why Buzz's voice is different in Lightyear and how the decision was initially pitched to him. Evans states that, while he was initially skeptical about a version of the character that wasn't voiced by Allen, MacLane pitched the idea of making the movie that got Andy and the other kids in Toy Story so excited about the Buzz Lightyear toy. Check out Evans' full comment below:
"The only thing [Pixar] said was 'Buzz Lightyear.' I thought, 'Okay, you know, Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear. How does that work?' But I obviously took the meeting and Angus MacLane gave such a good pitch. He went up and they did a little PowerPoint thing.
"When [Angus] saw the first Toy Story movie and Andy got Buzz Lightyear and all of his friends knew who Buzz was and all of his friends were so excited to get that toy, he wanted to know what was the movie that Andy and his friends saw that made them so obsessed with the toy. […] You know, that to me at least made sense as to why the voice may be different."
Although the decision doesn't sit well with some fans, Evans' explanation does reinforce the reasoning within the Toy Story universe in terms of why the real-life Buzz has a different voice than the toy version. Evans clearly had some reservations about what a version of the character would look like without Allen, but MacLane's pitch clarified that, in a sense, Evans' version of Buzz is essentially a different and more human character than the macho Space Ranger toy introduced in Toy Story. At the very least, Evans' explanation clarifies that Lightyear isn't introducing any continuity errors or story logic issues into the Toy Story universe with the recasting.
MacLane's reasoning, as explained by Evans, has real-life parallels as well, with video games perhaps being the best example. While some video games based on movies are lucky enough to feature the same voice actors across both properties, the movie characters in video games are often voiced by entirely different actors, a similar case to what happened to Buzz in the Toy Story universe. While Evans' explanation is not likely to alleviate all fan concerns regarding the change to Buzz's voice in Lightyear, it's clear that, even at the pitching stage, a lot of consideration went into the reasoning behind changing a beloved aspect of the iconic character.
Source: MTV News
Chris Evans explains why Buzz's voice is different in Lightyear, saying that even he was skeptical about a version of the character without Tim Allen.Ryan Northrup