ABOUT A TOY

A PIXAR LOOKS TO THE STARS IN LIGHTYEAR, A SCI-FI ADVENTURE THAT BOLDLY GOES WHERE NO TOY STORY HAS GONE BEFORE...

- RICHARD EDWARDS

BUZZ LIGHTYEAR MAY HAVE become a superstar but he was also an action figure, a child's plaything, a T-O-Y - and not even a flying one at that. It turns out, however, that even pretend Space Rangers come from somewhere...

Lightyear, Pixar's 26th movie, imagines the film that Andy - pre-teen owner of Toy Story's famous play room - would have watched back in 1995 when he put Star Command's finest at the top of his birthday wishlist. In the fictional world where Pizza Planet is a popular fast-food destination and the number A113 crops up with the spooky regularity deserving of an X-Files case, the Lightyear film may be just as pivotal as Star Wars.

"I felt like there was a story that was unexplored, that could be a separate, divergent story from the Toy Story universe,” Lightyear writer/director Angus MacLane says of the studio's upcoming space opera. "For me it was an opportunity to take a character that I felt familiar with [MacLane was animating Buzz as far back as 1999's Toy Story 2], and then explore his universe.

Also, when you're dealing with sci-fi, there's so much to set up that you're looking for anything that's relatable, just to build around. Buzz provided that stepping-off point."

While this Buzz dresses in standard-issue Star Command spacesuits, recites some familiar catchphrases and is prone to recording mission logs in real-time, this is definitely not the deluded Mr Light Beer who became the comedic foil for an insecure toy cowboy. Instead, this Buzz is the blueprint, a movie Space Ranger whose colossal big-screen success has spawned a merchandising empire so large it occupied an entire aisle of Al's Toy Barn in Toy Story 2.