Buzz Lightyear

"To infinity and beyond!"

Buzz Lightyear is the deuteragonist of the Toy Story movies, and the titluar protagonist of his own TV series. He is a spaceman toy originally belonging to Andy Davis. Buzz was based on a fictional character of the same name, and created during a time where astronauts were especially popular towards children. His arrival in the original Toy Story created conflict with Andy’s favorite toy, Sheriff Woody, though this rivalry eventually turned into a lifelong friendship.

Why He Rocks

1. While he does share some traits with his friend Woody, he could be considered a character who does keep his emotions
2. Tim Allen does an amazing job voicing Buzz. His voice double Pat Fraley for other media is pretty good, too.
3. Buzz values justice greatly, going so far as 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 is very charismatic, and most of Andy's toys adored him just moment 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 to make him feel more confident of being a toy.
6. His crush on Jessie is pretty awkward, but also relatable and hilarious. He even becomes confident about expressing his love towards Jessie and started to become a legit couple.
7. He spawned tons of memes, with the most famous examples being "Years of academy training wasted", "I AM MRS. NESBITT", "There seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere..." and "X, X everywhere" (alongside Woody).
8. 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.
9. 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.
10. 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. Same could be said about his relationship to other toys that he makes as friends such as Rex, Bo, and Slinky.
11. He has his own cartoon show in the early 2000s and a feature-length pilot with Tim Allen returning to voice Buzz in the pilot.
12. He has two video games based on him. One based on Toy Story 2 and one based on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

Bad Qualities

1. In the beginning of Toy Story, Buzz did think that he can fly despite being a toy that can't fly (though he did glided before) or his rivalry with Woody.
2. Buzz went to a complete jackass in the middle of Toy Story 3 due to the fact that Lotso and his gang switched Buzz to "demo mode" thus making the other toys believe that Buzz is turning into a dictator when it was Lotso who was responsible for this.
3. Is slightly clueless to human natures such as thinking that Scud is Sid in the first film.
4. He started to get super depressed after he learned about the truth of him being a toy, though it later goes away
5. Sometimes he's irrational such as attempting to save a toy from Sid's yard.
6. Can be rather unemotional which is a big flaw for him.
7. He misprononces words sometimes such as "S'mores" is "Schmoes" or "Hawaii" is "Hay-way-i" (though it's still rather funny).
8. Has weak leadership, making actions without giving orders whatsoever, hence the reason why Woody let Jessie lead his gang.
9. 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.

Trivia

• Buzz Lightyear's name was inspired by Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the Moon after Neil Armstrong.
• 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.
• 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 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.