Everybody Loves Raymond actress Patricia Heaton has slammed Disney for snubbing Hollywood star Tim Allen with the new “Lightyear” movie.
Disney didn’t cast Allen to play his beloved character Buzz Lightyear for the latest movie in the Toy Story franchise, “Lightyear.”
Instead, Disney cast Chris Evans to voice the animated character.
Heaton said: “Saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear and all I can say is Disney/Pixar made a HUGE mistake in not casting my pal 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 – 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”
Saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear and all I can say is Disney/Pixar made a HUGE mistake in not casting my pal @ofctimallen 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?
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) June 14, 2022
Ok so the current Buzz Lightyear movie is an origin story – 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 https://t.co/bRn1lZgkac
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) June 14, 2022
Director Angus MacLane said:
“Tim’s version of Buzz is a little goofier and is a little dumber, and so he is the comic relief.
“In this film, Buzz is the action hero.
“He’s serious and ambitious and funny, but not in a goofy way that would undercut the drama.
“Chris Evans has the gravitas and that movie-star quality that our character needed to separate him and the movie from Tim’s version of the toy in Toy Story.
“‘Set in the world of Toy Story’ is kind of weird.
“Another way to get at it, it’s a straightforward sci-fi action film about the Buzz Lightyear character.
“In the Toy Story universe, it would be like a movie that maybe Andy would have seen, that would have made him want a Buzz Lightyear figure.
“The movie doesn’t end and then you see Andy eating popcorn.
“This is its own thing… This is standalone.
“It’s the Buzz Lightyear movie.
“It’s that character but as the space ranger, not as the toy.
“When you hear about the Buzz Lightyear of Toy Story talk about his space ranger-ness or Star Command, it’s very much a one-note amalgam of sci-fi cliches, which is the point of that movie,” MacLane expounds.
“If you were going to make that world real, you can’t have it constantly feeling like it’s this derivative thing.
“I would say at Pixar, Star Wars was the common language when I started in ’97.
“That was the thing that we couldn’t get out of our minds.
“The world was forever changed once we saw Star Wars.
“It’s pretty inextricable, that sensibility.
“I think that [parallel to Lightyear] isn’t necessarily intentional,” he said.
“I’m not really interested in repeating stuff or reminding audiences of better movies, but there are a lot of visual lessons from movies of that era.”
