Lightyear: Chris Evans

Pixar’s new movie, Lightyear, hits theaters on Friday.

Director Angus MacLane explained that Lightyear was sort of a sci-fi 1980s action movie that Andy from (Toy Story) watched and bought the toy Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Tim Allen). His main interest was in the story’s time dilation.

Lightyear has been banned in Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Kuwait, among other West Asian territories, due to the inclusion of an image of same-sex kiss.

Star Chris Evans notes: “The first time you have to do that iconic line, ‘To Infinity and Beyond…,’ you kind of just do a shameless Tim Allen impression. It’s very intimidating.”

Evans credits Lightyear director MacLane and the Pixar team for helping him craft his own take on the voice.

“Eventually you feel comfortable enough to make your own tracks in the snow and find your own interpretation, while still using Tim Allen as the blueprint.”

Space nerd

Chris Evans: I am a space nerd. We had to do some press the other day at JPL, the Jet Propulsion Lab, and it was just amazing. I could’ve stayed there all day. It was so fascinating.

Nerdiest question that you wanted to ask?

There were certain questions you want to ask, but you’re like, “Am I going to sound so stupid?” You want to ask a bunch of things, but you have to kind of refrain, because you can only embarrass yourself so much in front of these guys.

Buzz Lightyear’s origin story

To be honest, what interested me the most was working with Pixar. The premise was not inconsequential, obviously, and you want to make sure that they’re going to make a good movie. But Pixar has my trust, they have so much goodwill. I’ve never seen a Pixar miss, so I didn’t really worry too much about the story itself. I was just thrilled that Pixar was calling.

Dealing with being a man out of time, and the contrast with playing Captain America?

There are a lot of similarities between the characters, but fundamentally, they’re very different men.

I was fascinated by how Buzz could almost be more connected to what Pixar animators deal with. It literally takes four years to make these movies, so these men and women disappear for four years and pour themselves into these projects.

Every time they make a movie, when they come out, the world has changed. And I just thought that parallel was really interesting, and I was happy for the Pixar animators that they got to inject their experience into this movie.

Pixar Vs. Marve

Well, with Marvel, it’s never so consuming that you feel like you have to re-enter society. For the most part, Marvel is more of short bursts of responsibility, spread out over a long period of time. For 10 years, you’d have a movie; and then six months later, you got press; and then six months later, a new movie; and then six months later, press. So it was very balanced and measured, and never too consuming in a way that, all of a sudden, I felt like I was needing to re-acclimate.

Vague way reports

The vague way is from rumors online. That’s the vague way. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.

Zurg [James Brolin] became Buzz’s nemesis, and the relationship between Alisha [Uzo Aduba] and Buzz

I thought it was beautiful. That’s the best thing about Pixar, being able to kind of take these great catchphrases that Tim Allen originated and made so iconic, and then create origin stories for all of them. It’s basically a movie full of easter eggs, and it’s incredibly satisfying. But it’s a little daunting, because those words are precious, not just to me, but the fans of Buzz Lightyear, the fans of Tim Allen. S0 you want to honor them as best you can.

The man behind the toy

I liked the fact that Buzz albeit a hero and someone who is this kind of taciturn, austere, stoic, seems impenetrable at times. But even he can be human, and make mistakes, and feel guilt and shame and regret.

It’s inescapable; we all make mistakes, and the way to move forward isn’t by burying then or pretending they didn’t happen. The way to move forward is by owning it, learning from it and growing.

Emotional montage

It made me tear up when you watched it.  I sobbed. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Pixar movie where I didn’t cry. They have the recipe, they really do. I don’t know what it is, but the tears start falling.

Lloyd Hansen?

He’s such a fun villain. I love playing the villain. He’s just a wildcard; he’s nuts. And Ryan Gosling is such an unbelievable actor. He’s such a wonderful anchor for any movie. He has the capacity to do very little, but still be so captivating and. Ryan’s sort of measured interpretation of the role is great counterpart for my over-acting.