The Lightyear producer has explained why Tim Allen doesn’t voice Buzz in his new Pixar movie. At a press conference attended by The Digital Fix, Galyn Susman – the producer of the new animated movie – outlined the reasons behind the change in actor, and they boil down to this not being the Buzz Lightyear we think we know.
Ths new Buzz is a de-fictionalised version of the action figure we see in Toy Story. As such, it made sense to recast the voice, and Pixar went to MCU star Chris Evans. “When casting Buzz, it was important to differentiate our hero Buzz from the toy that’s made on his
character and represented in the Toy Story movies,” Susman explained.
“So that meant we needed a new voice for Buzz,” she continued. “He
needed to have that nice rich sound, able to be both
dramatic and comedic. And most importantly, he needed to
be heroic without coming off as arrogant or dense. And
that’s a tall order. And we immediately knew we had to ask
Chris. ”
What Susman and the Lightyear team didn’t expect was the level of passion Evans would bring to the project. He even attended animation dailies and gave the team a pep talk,” Susman laughed. “It’s really been a wonderful collaboration, and we couldn’t be happier.”
Director Angus MacLane also teased that Evan’s involvement with Marvel may have played a part in his casting. “We knew he could handle the action stuff and his-and the comedy of this, MacLane said. “He had played a character that was a lantern-jawed hero that was out of time [before].”
MacLane also said they were keen to avoid imitating Allen’s iconic performance. What I never wanted is someone that was
going to imitate that character’s voice,” he said. “I wanted
something different.”
If, like Chris Evans, you love animation check out our guide on the best animated series. Lightyear blasts into theatres on stardate June 17, 2022.