To infinity … and beyond recognition. Tim Allen is revealing how he really feels about the new Lightyear movie three years after he last voiced the animated Buzz Lightyear character in Toy Story 4.
“I’ve stayed out of this,” the Last Man Standing actor, 69, said during a Wednesday, June 29, interview with Extra. “We talked about this many years ago […] but the brass that did the first four movies is not this. It’s a whole new team that really had nothing to do with the first movies.”
Allen added that when he heard Disney/PIXAR was making a live-action flick about Buzz Lightyear, he thought it was a movie about “real humans, not an animated thing.”
“There’s really no Toy Story Buzz without Wood,” he criticized. “I’m not sure what the idea — I’m a plot guy. It would seem to be a big adventure story, and as I see, it’s not a big adventure story. It’s a wonderful story, it just doesn’t seem to have any connection to the toy. It has no relationship to Buzz.”
The Home Improvement actor voiced the role of Buzz Lightyear in all four Toy Story films, the first of which premiered in November 1995. For the latest movie, which explores Lightyear’s origin story, Captain America star Chris Evans was chosen to play the role of the iconic space ranger.
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Allen isn’t the only one who’s been outspoken about the narrative and casting choices made by the studio. Everybody Loves Raymond actress Patricia Heaton recently expressed her consternation over the situation on social media.
“Saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear and all I can say is Disney/Pixar made a HUGE mistake in not casting my pal @ofctimallen,” Heaton, 64, wrote via Twitter on June 14. “Tim Allen in the role that he originated, the role that he owns. Tim IS Buzz! Why would they completely castrate this iconic, beloved character?”
“Ok so the current Buzz Lightyear movie is an origin story,” the Middle star continued. “But the reason the character became so beloved is because of what @ofctimallen created. Why remove the one element that makes us want to see it?#stupidHollywooddecisions.”
Amid the chatter, Lightyear producer Galyn Susman also stepped in to defend the casting decision in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month. “Tim really is the embodiment of the toy Buzz, and this isn’t the toy world, so it really doesn’t make sense,” Susman explained. “There’s not really a role. It would just cause more confusion for audiences instead of helping them understand the movie we’re trying to tell.”
Evans, 41, also weighed in to USA Today on June 14. “The reason we’re doing this movie is because Tim Allen made such an iconic impact,” he told the outlet. “Not only would you be a fool to not take his interpretation because it worked so well, but the truth is this character is in fact the human version of that toy, so there does need to be overlap in terms of their cadence and nature.”