The Human Side of Buzz

“Buzz Lightyear has always been a determined, confident and heroic character, but with ‘Lightyear’ we get a chance to see a more vulnerable and human side of Buzz,” says Chris Evans, who lends his voice to the Space Ranger. “We witness his struggles, uncertainties and occasional failures.”

Director Angus MacLane wanted the new side of the character to shine. “Buzz is such an iconic character. I wanted this film to be separate from ‘Toy Story.’ I thought of it more as a prequel. And I wanted it to be cinematic. I thought of Buzz as a different character—in a cool, low-key, clever way.

The design of the character for “Lightyear” also needed to evolve to fit the director’s vision. “We wanted to give Buzz vulnerability,” says Matt Nolte, character art director. “We needed to take him to a place where we could empathize with him. His hairstyle, his shading, how they light him—it all came together to create Buzz Lightyear in a truly human way.”

Buzz Lightyear

Buzz Lightyear is a confident, loyal and accomplished Space Ranger whose pride in his work shines bright. “He enjoys the thrill and adventure of gallivanting around the galaxy, successfully completing missions with his friend and mentor, Commander Alisha Hawthorne,” says director Angus MacLane. “Buzz really enjoys the kind of comfort and familiarity that comes with being part of a tight-knit team.”

Izzy Hawthorne

Izzy Hawthorne is the eager leader of the Junior Zap Patrol, a volunteer team of self-motivated cadets training to become protectors of the nascent society that’s taken shape on the planet. Izzy dreams of becoming a Space Ranger like her grandmother Alisha—but that’s easier said than done: Izzy has a secret that is standing in her way. 

Sox

Sox is a dutiful robot companion cat gifted to Buzz from Star Command. Intended to ease the Space Ranger’s emotional transition after his time away, Sox basically exists to make Buzz happy. A hidden grab bag of gizmos in a cute, kitty package, Sox is the friend and sidekick Buzz needs. Sox is also adept at providing white noise and is capable of complicated computations. “He can fill Buzz in on whatever he’s missed while he’s away,” says producer Galyn Susman. “And, according to Sox himself, he’s an excellent listener.”

Maurice “Mo” Morrison

“Mo” suffers from a lack of direction—he just can’t seem to find his passion. He has long had a fear of commitment, especially when it comes to holding a full-time job. When Mo joins forces with Izzy Hawthorne and the Junior Zap Patrol, he doesn’t exactly share Izzy’s passion for the cause—it’s just something to do. “Mo joins the unit because he doesn’t have anything else going on,” says director Angus MacLane. “He doesn’t have a lot of confidence in his ability to succeed—he figures he’ll just quit before he has a chance to find out. But it’s impossible not to laugh at his antics.”

Darby Steel

Darby is a gruff, no-nonsense and not-exactly-voluntary member of the Junior Zap Patrol. Nonetheless, she completes the trio in a refreshing albeit abrupt way—Darby says it like it is and doesn’t care what anyone thinks about it. “Her mysteriousness is what I think makes her interesting,” says director Angus MacLane, “and kind of hysterical.”

Zurg

Zurg captains the alien spaceship that shows up at T’Kani Prime while Buzz is on his last test flight. The imposing presence comes complete with an army of ruthless robots and a spaceship full of high-tech gadgetry. Shrouded in shadow and mystery, Zurg’s mission is unclear, but the threat looms large. 

Alisha Hawthorne

Buzz’s long-time commander, is a fellow Space Ranger and friend. “She is skilled, competent and trusting,” says producer Galyn Susman. “She invests in people, mentoring recruits and welcoming rookies to the action while Buzz just doesn’t have the patience.” 

Zyclops

The ZYCLOPS are an army of dutiful automatons loyal to Zurg. They’re tasked with one mission: find Buzz Lightyear and bring him to their master. 

According to graphics art director Paul Conrad, the Zyclops graphics are part of the overall Zurg approach. “They all have graphics that fit in the Zurg design language and actually use the font that we created for Zurg,” says Conrad. “Everything that you see in the Zurg world is written with that font. The Zyclops are numbered, and some of those numbers are pretty easy to figure out. But they may have other messaging on them that at first glance you wouldn’t be able to decipher.” 

Commander Burnside

Commander Burnside succeeds Alisha Hawthorne as the leader of Star Command. Buzz has been working non-stop to find the fuel that will allow them to reach ‘hyperspeed’ so they can all return to Earth, but Commander Burnside has no interest in the endeavor. He grew up on the uncharted planet—T’Kani Prime is the only home he’s ever known. Burnside’s big source of pride is building a hi-tech laser shield to protect Star Command and its people from the planet’s dangers—giant bugs, aggressive vines and a mysterious alien ship overhead.

Airman DÍaz

DÍaz is a cheerful and dedicated member of the Star Command flight crew. He oversees the team that preps Buzz’s ship for each mission. Díaz also provides Buzz with an I.V.A.N. (Internal Voice-Activated Navigator) and the latest ‘hyperspeed’ fuel crystal. “He’s the guy on the tarmac who checks all of the boxes before Buzz takes flight,” says story supervisor Dean Kelly. “DÍaz also serves as a measuring stick of time passing when Buzz leaves and returns—he’s a great visual representation for us to see just how much time has passed.”

I.V.A.N.

I.V.A.N.—an acronym for Internal Voice Activated Navigator—is the portable onboard computer in Buzz Lightyear’s spaceships. Truth be told, Buzz is not a big fan of I.V.A.N.—but it’s not really the computer’s fault: Buzz likes to be in control—he doesn’t trust autopilots. Worse, I.V.A.N. alerts Buzz whenever things go wrong, pointing out each and every mission failure. Says producer Galyn Susman, “Mary McDonald-Lewis is the voice of I.V.A.N. She’s done a lot in her career, but you may recognize her voice for another reason. She’s the voice of OnStar—the onboard computer in your car. We got a kick out of that.”

“Warm CGI”

A movie set in space called for the kind of high-tech gear and blinking gadgetry that would make a sci-fi fan smile. Says producer Galyn Susman, “The look is a cool mishmash of retro and futuristic. Throughout the film—the knobs, the dials, the buttons are all very tactile. The edges are all rounded in an effort to capture that feel Angus wanted.

“We hired John Duncan, who had done a lot of work for ‘Star Wars,’ and had him build our first spaceship design as if he were building it for a live-action prop use,” continues Susman. “Then we took the same designs and built them on the computer because we wanted to see what it was about CG that lacked the warmth that you get when you use practical models like in a ‘Star Wars’ set. From that, we developed a film language that put the warmth back into the CG models—curves where you would normally do straights, making sure that there’s no such thing as a single edge—all to move away from that super sharp, super crisp CG look.”

T'kani Prime

Buzz Lightyear, Alisha Hawthorne and their large crew find themselves marooned on a hostile planet. While there was a clear starting point for the characters, given the Buzz action figure, the all-new-anything-goes-setting left the door wide open. Artists narrowed their options, deciding to include familiar features like trees and lakes—with an otherworldly twist—to ensure the audience would not be distracted. The planet itself, says production designer Tim Evatt, is smaller than Earth with a big difference. “It’s a tidally locked planet,” he says. “The sun only hits half of the planet: one half is always light—the other is always dark.” 

Turnip

The S.C.0.1 spaceship, lovingly referred to as the “Turnip” thanks to its root vegetable-like look, is among the most important sets in the film. Not only does it transport the massive crew and supplies to T’Kani Prime, it serves as a backdrop for much of the film. Says sets supervisor Nathan Fariss, “It was all about scale. We had to make it feel huge as though it could contain 1,200 people. There was a lot of exploratory artwork placing the Turnip next to Pixar or the Space Shuttle to give it a sense of scale. We had to find the right balance of very large shapes and those small enough to show that a human had a hand in it.”

Star Command

“Star Command is the main base that sprawls out from the Turnip—the big colony ship—once they’ve been marooned,” says sets art director Greg Peltz. “It’s the base of operations where they build the pyramidal-shaped silo to launch test flights. There’s a feeling of military hierarchy going on with perimeter walls and all kinds of fortification to protect the crew and staff members. It’s where science meets military with a geometric, appealing simplicity in the broad shapes to it.”

The Ships

Buzz’s primary mission in the film is to test fuel concoctions in an effort to reach ‘hyperspeed’ and get the crew back to Earth. The monumental mission involved risky test flights, which meant multiple space craft needed to be created. Says art director Craig Peltz, “I'm a model maker at heart, and I've had a deep love for big machines ever since I was a kid. This movie is literally overflowing with cool models and machines, so it was kind of a dream come true for a nerd like me. We really wanted the look of our models to be such that you’d want to reach out and touch them and start playing with all the buttons and switches. There are no touchscreens or cloud sharing in the world of ‘Lightyear’—it’s all zip disks and 20-pound CRTs. In addition to looking cool, the chunkiness of our world has a toy-like appeal that ties right into our main source material—Buzz Lightyear.