5 interesting facts about Buzz that you might not have known

“Lightyear”, a Pixar film, was released on June 16, 2022, in order to introduce audiences to the original story behind the world’s most famous toy astronaut.

The official synopsis reads: “As Buzz tries to find a way back home through space and time, a group of ambitious recruits and their charming robot cat companion, Sox, join the hero. To complicate the situation, Zurg, an imposing presence, and his army of merciless robots, arrive on the planet with a mysterious appointment.”

In addition to checking out the newest spin-off in the ‘Toy Story’ franchise, discover below five fun facts about Buzz Lightyear that you might not have known about.

1. Red suit?

Nowadays it’s practically impossible to imagine Buzz without immediately thinking about his classic white, green and purple costume. But, did you know that your astronaut uniform should be a different color?

Still in the animation creation phase, the producers had the idea of ​​putting Buzz in a red costume as a way to make the character more prominent. However, after some testing, they realized that the color palette didn’t match the atmosphere of the film and changed it to what we know today.

2. Buzz would be sent back to the factory in Toy Story 3

According to the website Screen Rant, in 2005, Disney and Pixar were about to separate and, for this reason, the Mickey Mouse studio decided to create a new animation team to work on Toy Story 3, which ended up creating plans very different to the animation plot.

In one of them, Buzz would suffer what we call a “recall”, when a product is sent back to the factory due to a problem. Therefore, the astronaut would be taken back to Taiwan, where he was manufactured, and the film would follow the adventure of the other toys trying to save the patrolman. In the end, both studios resolved their issues, and this story was discarded.

3. His original name wouldn’t have been Buzz

During the process of creating an animation, it is extremely common for characters to undergo dozens of changes, ranging from their appearance to their own names — and with Buzz it was no different.

Initially, one of the names that Pixar would have considered was calling the astronaut Lunar Larry, a name that the production did not like so much. Therefore, the professionals who were involved in the first Toy Story chose to seek inspiration from stories about space travel, and decided to pay homage to the real astronaut. Buzz Aldrinthe second man to set foot on the Moon.

4. Jim Carrey would be the original voice actor

In the English version, the actor and comedian Tim Allen is responsible for lending his voice to Buzz throughout the Toy Story franchise. However, in the mid-90s, Pixar would have considered another big name to voice Buzz.

This is because, at that time, Jim Carrey was among Hollywood’s biggest stars thanks to his enormous success in films such as “Ace Ventura” and “Debi e Loide”. The studio then considered including him in the cast of voice actors, however, negotiations did not move forward and Allen ended up taking on the role.

5. Friend or hater?

Before becoming the magical story we know today, Toy Story already had many plots discarded. Second Tom HanksWoody’s original voice actor, his character was written by Jeffery Katzenbergthe film’s producer, as a “very bitter, nervous, unpleasant kind of guy.”

In a discarded version revealed by Pixar, Woody even pushed Buzz out of the window, and didn’t apologize for it. Disney ended up not liking the plot at all, and forced Pixar to change the story to what we know today.