‘Buzz Lightyear’ set to hit theaters on June 15

The film “Lightyear,” an animation starring space ranger Buzz Lightyear of the “Toy Story” series, arrives in theaters on June 15. The Disney-Pixar’s newest movie is the first Toy Story spin-off, featuring an adventure of Buzz and his fellow space rangers who save humans marooned on an unknown planet.

“It has been such a joy for me to be a part of this movie of the greatest storyteller Pixar. In live-action films, I’m allowed to use various tools while acting but in animations, my voice is all I’ve got which put me under great pressure,” said Chris Evans, who voiced Buzz Lightyear in the movie, in a virtual press event with Korean media outlets on Tuesday. Well-known through his role as “Captain America” in the “Avengers” series, he added, “Buzz and Captain America are very much alike. They are both obsessed with the responsibility of making people around always happy, which is just like me in real life.”

“This film describes a journey of the characters excluded from society sharing their hearts and becoming a family, which is very beautiful. All pieces of their unique personalities are put together like a puzzle creating a complete picture. And I think the same goes for us,” said Taika Waititi, an actor and director of “Torr” and “Jojo Rabbit.” He lent his voice to space ranger Mo Morrison, who makes people laugh by being goofy in the upcoming release.

The new feature-length animation of the in-universe story has been in the works for five years and six months. The Lightyear team had put a lot of work into it, visiting NASA on a field trip to make the scenes of vast space and each equipment look more real. “Th details of astronaut costumes we captured came back into play in the movie. Many aspects of this work were new to us, which brought fresh atmosphere into the site,” movie producer Galyn Susman explained. “We preferred to use film sets and props than computer graphics to make the whole scene feel more heartwarming and tactile.”

The team said that the motive of this new movie was a desire to explore an unknown world, the keyword for the movie “Star Wars.” “This film commemorates and pays tribute to sci-fi movies, such as ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Star Trek,’ but rather than paying homage to a specific film, we tried to continue the mentality of those: begin in familiarity and move toward novelty,” said director Angus MacLane. “We wanted to present the Lightyear style novelty to our audience.”


Ji-Hoon Lee easyhoon@donga.com