April 21st, 2022 
Jackson Murphy 
On June 17th, Pixar presents new sci-fi action/adventure film Lightyear. It’s not about the “child’s play-thing” from the Toy Story franchise. Lightyear is the movie Andy saw when he was young that made him fall in love with the space ranger Buzz Lightyear character, voiced by Chris Evans. After screening 30 minutes of footage, I spoke with director Angus MacLane (co-director of Finding Dory) and producer Galyn Susman (Toy Story 4). (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)
Angus MacLane: I wanted to figure out a way to tell an action movie or a sci-fi movie and exploring those stories seemed like a really simple pitch to get into it. “What was the movie that Andy saw, and why couldn’t we just make that movie?” Whatever world we built, we had to build everything. So why not just build a cool sci-fi world? It will be just as challenging. And then we’ll be able to make something that’s a little more aesthetically cool to adhere to the sensibilities I’d always enjoyed. Directing a movie at Pixar is sometimes getting to indulge in your weirdest fascinations, and this film is no exception.
Jackson Murphy: I love the footage so far and I can’t wait to see the rest of it. And Galyn, as someone who helped build the Toy Story franchise prior to this — including being responsible for us seeing Toy Story 2 — which is a whole separate incredible story — what does a universe expansion like this mean to you?
Galyn Susman: It’s sci-fi. It’s really cool and super tactile. It kind of touches on all the things I really enjoy. It’s a place that I want to spend time. You can feel it. You can almost taste it. It’s visceral. I love sci-fi, so spending five and a half years making a sci-fi movie is fine by me.
JM: (laughs) And time is such a key element, which we’ll get into in a little bit. Angus, since this is the movie that Andy watched and fell in love with, was there any debate or discussion you and the team had about whether you should keep-in the “Disney Presents A Pixar Animation Studios Film” cards that show-up at the eight-minute mark?
AM: No, because… Well there was some discussion about whether we should be using the old logos, like the Toy Story castle. No, I never thought about it that way. We needed to have something up front that just set the scene for what the movie is. And then once you’re into that, you’re just watching the movie. Once you get past that, there’s no more illusions to the Toy Story universe because we wanted the film to live on its own. And the cards the way they’re presented [are] meant to signify… this is a different kind of movie.
I realized that I keep using the same visual motif of having the title in the movie itself. BURN-E has the title. I keep repeating myself. Anyway, the same is true for this film. It’s all a re-hash. Look at me. But no, I think it’s really cool looking and that was always meant to be… you should always give the audience, “Oh I see. This is a different kind of movie.”
Angus MacLane, Galyn Susman – and Jackson Murphy
JM: It is a different kind of Pixar movie. And the visual effects in this… there have been some great action sequences over the years in Pixar films, including in The Incredibles movies. But Galyn, what do you think you guys have been able to do with Lightyear that raises the bar when it comes to action in a Pixar film.
GS: I think it’s a couple different things. One is: the overall cinematography: really focusing in on what’s most important and what’s most exciting and not overlighting everything. It’s very tempting… if you spend all this time building it, you want everybody to see it. You have to be able to throw things away. You have to be able to narrow that focus onto what that exciting moment is. And I think we’re also at a place where we can really make our characters and sets and worlds and props — everything feel as if it is of one thing. There’s nothing that’s pushing you out of the movie, hopefully, so that you can really be there with the character. That’s what makes action scenes so exciting. You feel like you’re pulled in and you’re getting more and more and more. There are moments with this film… blasting into space where you just feel like you’re being propelled with the character. That’s really what we’re going for.
JM: And you’re succeeding with that for sure. In the first 30 minutes, we already hear Chris Evans deliver some of those iconic Buzz lines that we heard Tim Allen say in the Toy Story movies. Angus, were they the trickiest to incorporate and for Chris to deliver, in terms of pulling it off?
AM: We always wanted to find a place where they were appropriately inserted, so it didn’t feel like it was unnatural. That took some trial and error on some things in the movie. But as far as Chris’ delivery in the movie… he was very quick to pick it up and run with it. We wanted him to make the character his own and not feel like he was impersonating Tim Allen. He had a lot of respect for Tim’s performance. We wanted him to try to embody his own interpretation of it. Chris is a very facile actor. He was able to pick stuff up really quickly.
JM: Great. You definitely make that distinction. We know this Buzz is different than the toy, in terms of the personality, the way Chris brings that with the voice performance — it’s a little bit different. It’s all making sense and it’s gonna make sense to families as they see this on June 17th. Galyn, there’s already a legitimate amount of emotion that we feel in the first 30 minutes when it comes to time jumps and loss. They feel like third act elements that come in the first act, which is great. Why did you feel it was so critical that we needed to go to the places that we do emotionally in the first act?
GS: Because you need to understand what Buzz gives up to do the job that he feels like he needs to do and what’s lacking in his life. That is fundamentally what he has to learn. He has to learn how to incorporate more into his life. He needs to embrace the present. He needs to embrace the help of others. He needs to have that growth. And you can say it but that’s not emotional. You need to show it. You need to be there as he experiences it.
JM: They are some powerful scenes. Are you ready for the toy merchandise phenomenon with [robot cat] Sox? I think kids are gonna buy as many Sox dolls and toys as they possibly can.
AS: Yeah. I’m curious to see what they’ll do. I haven’t seen many of the Sox toys. I’ve seen a few of them. They’re pretty cool. Sox is always meant to be a toy… not in a cynical way… I always find it funny the way that toys try to replicate animal movement poorly. I always find that hilarious. That’s kind of the character personality we put into it. There’s little jumping dogs that go “Yip yip yip yip!” It’s got some of that DNA. It’s got a little bit of Muppet DNA in there. It’s a combination of familiar movement structures that I wanted to use for that character.
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