Buzz Lightyear (Toy Story)

Buzz Lightyear "To infinity and beyond!" Gender: Male Type: Endearing Space Ranger Fearless Egalitarian Age: Ageless, but supposed to be an adult Species: Toy Portrayed by: Tim Allen Status: Alive Media of origin: 'Toy Story'

Buzz Lightyear is one of the two main characters in the Toy Story franchise. He is a spaceman action figure originally belonging to Andy Davis. Buzz was created during a time where astronauts were especially popular among children. His arrival in the original Toy Story created conflict with Andy's favorite toy Sheriff Woody, though this rivalry would eventually blossom into a lifelong friendship. Being a toy from a fictional franchise, his fictional backstory consists of him being a universal space ranger from the Intergalactic Alliance and the captain of the Alliance's team. Buzz is trained in several forms of martial arts and is a highly skilled warrior in hand-to-hand combat. Being in peak physical condition, Buzz makes a perfect space ranger and is an example to many.

Why He's Buzz Lightyear, He Always Sure

1. While he does share some traits with his friend Woody, he could be considered a character who does better at keeping his emotions in check than Woody.
2. He has an amazing voice, thanks to Tim Allen voicing him. His voice double Pat Fraley for other media is pretty good, too. Chris Evans also did a good job voicing him in Lightyear.
3. He's brave to the point that he believes that the way people should live their life has to be done by following the rules. He even wanted to rescue another toy from being blown up by Andy's neighbor Sid.
   • Another example of this is when he wanted to go find Woody as seen in both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 4.
4. He comes off as a hammy and over-the-top yet charming character, meaning that most of Andy's toys adore him just after he was opened from his box.
5. During the first movie, Buzz learns more about honor, friendship, bravery, and selflessness thanks to Woody who gives him a motivational speech.
6. He's a protagonist with heroic intentions, yet he has provided many hilarious and memorable moments throughout the films.
7. His crush on Jessie is pretty awkward, but also relatable, endearing, and hilarious. He even becomes confident about expressing his love towards Jessie and started to become a legit couple, which is just cute.
8. He's pretty fluent in Spanish as seen in Toy Story 3. Not only is it funny, but it's also surprising to see Buzz speak Spanish albeit it was caused by an incident during the toys' escape from Sunnyside Daycare. Making him a little unpredictable.
9. In the first movie, Buzz actually regrets self-praising himself and accepts himself as a toy and not a real space ranger.
   • Similar enough, Buzz apologized to Sora, Donald, and Goofy for his attitude thanks to how he got possessed by a Heartless as seen in Kingdom Hearts III.
10. He does have a lot of good plans that he can create such as being able to escape a support group from Fun Meal Toys due to the fact that he's not that kind of toy as seen in Small Fry or being able to escape from a prize shelf at a carnival game as seen in Toy Story 4.
11. His relationship with Woody as a friend is relatable since both were rivals at one point, but later tolerated each other meaning that they get along fine. Even Buzz and co. missed Woody when he decides to stay with Bo in Toy Story 4. The same could be said about his relationship with other toys that he makes as friends such as Rex, Bo, and Slinky.
12. He is designed to be the coolest toy ever and he is!
    • Many 90s kids loved his design and wanted an actual toy of him.
    • Toy Story 2 even introduced the new Utility Belt Buzz Lightyear with extra features.
13. He has many iconic and unforgettable quotes:
    • "There is no sign of intelligent life anywhere."
    • "You're mocking me, aren't you?"
    • "You are a sad strange little man, and you have my pity, farewell."
    • "To infinity, and beyond!"

Bad Qualities

1. In the beginning of Toy Story, while still likable, Buzz did act selfish just as much as Woody did; two examples of this are thinking that he can fly despite being a toy that can't fly (though he did glide before) and his rivalry with Woody.
   • Also, Buzz became a complete jackass in the middle act of Toy Story 3 due to the fact that Lotso and his gang switched Buzz to "demo mode" after being captured, thus making the other toys believe that Buzz is turning into a dictator when it was Lotso who was responsible for this and putting the toys (except Woody) in prison. However, he switched to Spanish mode, until he thankfully returns back to normal.
   • Speaking of which, he is poorly flanderized in his own spin-off, full-feature movie Lightyear. Where he is depicted as a practical and resilient yet unlikable hero who also acts like an egotistical, insufferable, rude, petulant, single-minded, and incompetent jerk we're supposed to root for, yet he's so broody that he immediately gave up his after making a foolish mistake and was motivated to continue his mission.
2. The running joke about Buzz listening to his "inner voice" was pretty stupid since Buzz knows he's a toy and that's his voice box talking, not his inner thoughts. It even breaks the character's development from the first film and feels very underused in Toy Story 4.
3. He has weak leadership, making actions without giving orders whatsoever, hence the reason why Woody let Jessie lead his gang.
4. Patrick Warburton, who voiced Buzz in the original version of the cartoon pilot and the cartoon series itself didn't sound as close to Tim Allen, though he still did a spot on job.

Trivia

• Buzz Lightyear's name was inspired by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon after Neil Armstrong.
• He alongside Woody spawned the X, X everywhere meme. You know, this.
  • He also spawned, the "Years of academy training wasted" meme as well. This may also apply to "I AM MRS. NESBITT" and "There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere...".
• It is interesting to note that in every Toy Story film (except for the fourth film) there is one delusional Buzz Lightyear toy who believes he is a real space ranger.
  • In the first film, it was the current Buzz Lightyear who believed he was a real space ranger until he learned he was actually just a toy just like Woody had said.
  • In the second film, when the toys went to Al's Toy Barn, Buzz was attacked by another newer Buzz Lightyear after he tried to take newer Buzz's belt, and was placed in a display box while the other delusional Buzz went with the Woody search group after hearing Rex say he found the secret to beating Zurg (in a video game). It should be noted that this is technically the only instance in the film series thus far that Andy's Buzz himself does not become delusional about being a genuine space ranger.
  • In the third film, Lotso kidnapped Buzz and reset him to Demo mode where he lost his memories and reverted to his delusional Buzz state. When his friends attempted to reset him, they found they couldn't reset him by putting him back to normal mode and instead accidentally reset him to delusional Buzz in Spanish mode. He later regained his memories and his current persona when he was hit by a TV set while saving Jessie.
• The role of Buzz Lightyear was originally offered to Billy Crystal who turned it down, a move he later admitted regretting. Crystal eventually voiced Mike Wazowski, a character in Monsters, Inc. and Monsters University. Also, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, and Jim Carrey were also considered for the role.
• The original script for Toy Story 3 had Buzz and his entire toy line recalled back to Taiwan (where the Buzz Lightyear toys are made) due to a defect. Apparently, that defect could have explained why Buzz and his toy line believed themselves to be real space rangers. While this plot idea was ultimately scrapped, the final script did still include an explanation as to why the entire toyline had at the very least initial delusional beliefs to being the real Buzz Lightyear (as apparently they are pre-set to Demo Mode when first made).
  • In the original Circle 7 script, Buzz did met some new characters in the unused film including Jade (was also referred to as Cindy), Rosey, Daxx Blastar, and Comet.
• In only the North American release of Toy Story 2, Buzz gives out his speech with the US flag in the backdrop and the US national anthem, the "Star-Spangled Banner," playing in the background, similar to the way General Patton did in the film Patton (1970).
• Buzz's facial features are loosely based on John Lasseter himself.
• Buzz was based on the G.I. Joe toys from the 1960s. However, he more closely resembles the classic Hasbro toy Rom the Space Knight. Like Buzz, Rom is a Space Ranger in a suit of powered armor who fights a race of hostile alien beings with a special laser.
• Buzz, along with Woody, were at one point planned to appear as new summons in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, but this idea was scrapped.
• Buzz was nominated for AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains. One of three animated heroes appears on the list, along with Belle and Peter Pan. Unfortunately, none of them made the list.
• Buzz and Jessie's dance moves during the end credits of Toy Story 3 were choreographed by Tony Dovolani and Cheryl Burke of Dancing with the Stars.
• The quality of Buzz's voice box deteriorated within the ten years between Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, and is now on par with Woody's sound quality (ironic since Woody is from the 1950s).
• Buzz has labels on his rear end. In Toy Story, he had a label that said "Disney," which was shown when he attempted to fly out of the window at Sid's house, and in Toy Story 3, he had a Disney/Pixar label that was shown just before he was picked up by a child at Sunnyside. The latter reappears in Kingdom Hearts III.
• When Toy Story was being made, Buzz wasn't going to be in the main plot. Tinny was going to be in his place. But John Lasseter decided a tin toy wouldn't be a good toy for a boy, so Tinny was scrapped and Lasseter decided to put in a military/space character that a boy would want so badly. When names came around, the original two were Lunar Larry and Tempis from Morph.
• Based on him still functioning after being hit by both water from a water hose in Toy Story 3 and a tidal wave of water when the bathroom door burst out in Partysaurus Rex, Buzz Lightyear is likely waterproof.
• Due to advances in graphical technology by the time of Toy Story 4's production, Buzz's body is shown to be covered in minuscule scratches and dents in the present day, likely the result of many years of being played with in addition to frequent adventures. The "LIGHTYEAR" name tag on his chest, revealed to be a sticker, has also begun to peel off.
• Buzz Lightyear will be getting a movie in 2022 called Lightyear which will talk about Buzz's legit origin story with Chris Evans voicing Buzz Lightyear. It would be a spin-off to Toy Story and Buzz won't be a toy in the film, but rather an actual fictional human character.
• Despite his strength and size, Buzz can be easily be picked up by Rex, Jessie, and Bo throughout the series.

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