Just like every Toy Story sequel that was announced since the release of the brilliant 1995 original, when news broke that Pixar was making Lightyear, I caught myself wondering why and how? How are you possibly going to make another movie in the Toy Story series that’s as good as what came before? But, it turns out, the creators over at Pixar had a very clever way of approaching their Buzz Lightyear prequel.
Lightyear isn’t the story of the Buzz Lightyear we came to know and love in the Toy Story films. The Chris Evans version of the character featured in this new film is actually the movie character that would have inspired Andy to want a Buzz Lightyear toy to begin with. Basically, Lightyear is to Andy what films like Star Wars is to us.
It’s a very clever spin on a prequel story. One that, like Toy Story, encourages viewers to reassess their own connection with their favorite childhood toys. In this particular case, Lightyear had me thinking a whole lot about the movie toys I absolutely had to have as a kid, so I opted to pose that question to Chris Evans during our chat about the film. What's the first movie that inspired him to run out and buy all the toys? Here’s what he said:
“It was probably Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The first one. The original one. I mean, come on. It was so good and I remember needing every single toy that they possibly made … Thundercats was really big for me. He-Man was really big. And they made that movie Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lundgren. That was a great movie!”
Another quality of Lightyear that sparked some fond reminiscing is the connection between Evans’ Buzz and Uzo Adbua’s Alisha Hawthorn. It’s mentioned that Buzz wasn’t the best in Space Ranger training, but Alisha saw something in him and that proved pivotal in Buzz’s journey to becoming the hero we see now. So who is Evans’ Alisha? In his early days as an actor, who saw something in him that helped paved the way to where he is in his career today?
“I’m very lucky. My parents were always really, really supportive. I had a couple good local theater directors. When I was a kid, you know you do community theater and kid theater and things like that, so there were a couple people who certainly encouraged me and gave me the confidence to believe that I had something that was worth pursuing. But probably more than anyone else, my parents. You know what I mean? But I mean, I suppose that’s probably the case with a lot of people. But anything I did, they told me it was the best.”
Evans’ parents and local theater directors weren’t wrong! You don’t need me to tell you he’s got quite the filmography with Lightyear being a very impressive new addition. While it’s never easy to step into an iconic role, Evans is afforded a rather unique creative opportunity here because this Buzz technically isn’t the same Buzz Tim Allen voiced in the Toy Story films. However, while Evans does have more creative freedom than one might expect, he does still have to ensure his own performance clearly conveys the connection between his movie character and the toy Andy loves. How exactly did Evans go about pinpointing the pitch-perfect balance between the two? Here's what he said:
“It’s nice to have what Tim did because not only did he do it so well and we all love him for what his performance was, but the character actually is the human version of the toy so it’s not like you’re doing James Bond or something where you get to play an iconic role, but with a completely fresh take. This is an iconic role but informed very much in part by what Tim did. Whatever this character is would have to be why Tim is the way he was, so you just kind of take his performance as a blueprint and just move upstream.”
Looking for more from Evans? You can catch our full chat in the video interview at the top of this article!
Lightyear hits theaters nationwide on June 17th.