Posted in: Disney, Movies, Pixar | Tagged: disney, lightyear, movies, pixar

Pixar's Lightyear and Tackling a New Angle of Science Fiction

Ever since the pandemic started, Pixar and Disney have begun hosting virtual press days, and we got to attend one for Lightyear that was really interesting. We got to see the behind-the-scenes process for the movie, learn a ton about the ideas and concepts for the film, and get some sweet details about another one of those infamous Pixar research trips only thing one meant was that they got to go to NASA since this time the team was really digging into the idea of high concept science fiction. During the Q&A after the press day, we got the chance to ask director Angus Maclane and producer Galyn Susman jokingly if they only made this movie so they could take a research trip to NASA [valid] but also asked why now was the time that Pixar decided to dive into this type of high concept science fiction.

"Yeah. Well, I will admit that the research trip was definitely a highlight of this whole thing for sure," Susman replied with a laugh, but that isn't why they decided to make Lightyear [but it helped]. "That aside, we did do WALL-E, which is sci-fi too, but of this nature, I think we often have asked ourselves the question, why animation? And I think that for a long time, something so human-centric and rooted in what has been traditionally been live-action with heavy amounts of effects hasn't really been the first go-tos for us. And I think that the whole industry's matured to the point that now where you can do a film in whatever medium you want and successfully do it, right? There aren't as many technical limitations. And so I think it's just really now more of a choice of what's the best medium for me to tell my story? And in our case, we believe that animation was perfect for the story. …  You know, [a] zero-gravity fight is a lot easier to stage in computer graphics than in live-action. There are a lot of ways we took advantage of the medium. Those same limitations don't really exist anymore."

This is very true that there is a lot you can do in animation that you can't do in live-action, and the Pixar team could push the medium even harder on the design and special effects. It's also true that Lightyear isn't the first time Pixar has done science fiction, that was WALL-E, but WALL-E is a different sort of movie. MacLane actually attributes that to the differences between him and the executive producer for this film and writer on WALL-E, Andrew Stanton. However, MacLane also mentioned something else that we heard from Dune director Denis Villeneuve which was when thinking about who he is making this film for, the answer is 'himself.'

"I think it's interesting that when we were making WALL-E, WALL-E is a reaction to the sci-fi films of Andrew's years," MacLane explained. "And Andrew's a little bit older than I am, and he is an executive producer on the film too. So it really was, we had our well of what sci-fi movies we were most excited about, and there's a Venn diagram that definitely [where] they intersect. …  And so I think that this is really when it comes down to, what kind of movie do you want to tell as a director? There have been a lot of wonderful, really poignant movies, but for me, if you're going to be on a movie for a long period of time, it really kind of occurred to me as I was trying to figure out what to do next, I'm like, 'why don't I just do, like, the kinda movie I want to see and just do that one thing really, really well? And we'll find the rooting emotional truth to it in the process? But know that we are shooting for something that we're just going to try to make this awesome movie and then go from there.'

"And it's a weird way to make a movie-going; we know what the character will roughly look like," MacLane continued about the more unique challenges that the Lightyear team would be presented. "We know it's going to be in space. [But] how do we fill that in and make you care about the character? More than just like, "Aha, this is entertaining. It's Buzz Lightyear, okay. Uh, five minutes go by, and now I'm ready to go." But how do you make that compelling? How do you root for that character? So that really was our charge."

The definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear, the hero who inspired the toy, Lightyear, follows the legendary Space Ranger after he's marooned on a hostile planet 4.2 million light-years from Earth alongside his commander and their crew. As Buzz tries to find a way back home through space and time, he's joined by a group of ambitious recruits and his charming robot companion cat, Sox. Complicating matters and threatening the mission is the arrival of Zurg, an imposing presence with an army of ruthless robots and a mysterious agenda.

The film features the voices of Chris Evans as accomplished Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear, Uzo Aduba as his commander and best friend Alisha Hawthorne, and Peter Sohn as Sox. Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi and Dale Soules lend their voices to the Junior Zap Patrol's Izzy Hawthorne, Mo Morrison and Darby Steel, respectively, and James Brolin can be heard as the enigmatic Zurg. The voice cast also includes Mary McDonald-Lewis as onboard computer I.V.A.N., Isiah Whitlock Jr. as Commander Burnside, Efren Ramirez as Airman Diaz, and Keira Hairston as Young Izzy. Directed by Angus MacLane (co-director Finding Dory), produced by Galyn Susman (Toy Story That Time Forgot), and featuring a score by award-winning composer Michael Giacchino (The Batman, Up), Lightyear opens only in theaters on June 17, 2022.

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