Lightyear Is a Time-Travel Sci-Fi Where Buzz Is ‘A Hero Out of His Own Time’

Since Lightyear was announced there’s been a lot of discussion about what exactly the movie is. Pixar has since clarified that it’s the in-universe science fiction movie that Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear action figure is based upon. But, at a recent press event attended by IGN, we also learned that it’s not just a sci-fi, but a time-travel sci-fi movie.

“It’s a story where Buzz is traveling rapidly through time because of his job, and because of that, it would separate him from society and his loved ones,” director/screenwriter Angus MacLean told us. “It’s like Rip Van Winkle, trapped in a future he doesn’t recognize, desperately trying to get back to the past to correct a mistake of his youth; a hero out of his own time.”

Perhaps the best-known hero out of his own time of the last decade is, of course, the MCU’s Captain America. And so it’s no surprise really that Chris Evans is voicing Buzz Lightyear instead of Tim Allen, who voiced the action figure version in the Toy Story movies.

MacLean’s mention of Buzz’s desperation to get back to the past suggests that there may be more than a hint of sadness to Lightyear. Afterall, Pixar is no stranger to makeing us all sob. And while we can expect there to be some of that, the director assures us that it’s not super sad. “There were heavier versions,” MacLean notes, but the final version of the film has struck the correct balance.

For more from Lightyear, check out how it fits into the Toy Story canon.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor. Tara Bennett also contributed to this report.