49 Fun Facts About Buzz Lightyear

Who voices Buzz in the Toy Story films?

Tim Allen has voiced Buzz in all the Toy Story films, and even turned up as a Buzz Lightyear car in Pixar's Cars. He was the star of the sitcom Home Improvement when he was cast.

Buzz is named after which real astronaut?

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon: Pixar's producers thought he had the coolest astronaut name. He took it well, once pulling a Buzz Lightyear toy out in the middle of a speech at NASA.

At Hannah's tea party in Toy Story, a crushed Buzz answers to what name?

Mrs. Nesbitt is the name Sid's little sister Hannah gives him after she finds him broken at the foot of the stairs. Buzz has just lost an arm and his illusions, and is too low to object.

Where are Woody and Buzz left behind after their fight spills out of the family car?

A gas station: Buzz had clung to the outside of the car and dropped in through the sunroof to confront Woody. The two hitch a ride onward in a Pizza Planet delivery truck.

Buzz's earliest ancestor was the one-man-band star of which 1988 Pixar short?

Tin Toy won Pixar its first Oscar, and its hero Tinny was to star in the feature. Lasseter decided a one-man band was too old-fashioned, so Tinny became an action figure and then a spaceman.

Which of these was an early name for the character before he became Buzz?

Lunar Larry was his first name as a space hero, long before Buzz. Going to outer space reshaped his rival too: Woody, until then a ventriloquist's dummy, was made a cowboy to sharpen the contrast between the pair.

Which action figure, Lasseter's favorite as a boy, was an early model for Buzz?

G.I. Joe was the toy the young Lasseter loved best, so the film's new hero began as a soldier. He turned spaceman when the team looked to a 1960s astronaut toy, Major Matt Mason.

Why did John Lasseter make Buzz's space suit lime green and purple?

His and his wife's favorite colors: lime green is Lasseter's and purple is Nancy's. The story goes that the color scheme was his apology for staying too late at the office the night he first sketched the suit.

At Pizza Planet, Buzz climbs into a claw machine because he mistakes it for what?

A spaceship: still sure he is a real space ranger, he thinks it will carry him on with his mission. Instead Sid works the claw and wins both him and Woody as prizes.

Which actor turned down Buzz and later called it the biggest regret of his career?

Billy Crystal calls himself the schmuck who turned down Toy Story. When Pixar called again six years later he said yes at once, and became the one-eyed Mike Wazowski in Monsters, Inc.

Toy Story 2 opens with Zurg destroying Buzz in what turns out to be what?

A video game: the film opens like a space epic, until Zurg blasts Buzz apart. Then the camera finds one of Andy's toys at the controller, crushed to have lost.

Who took over as Buzz's voice for his 2000 TV cartoon series?

Patrick Warburton, the voice of Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove, played Buzz for all 62 episodes. The films' own Buzz voiced only the direct-to-video film that launched the series.

Who voiced Buzz in the 2022 film Lightyear?

Chris Evans admits that on his first try at the famous catchphrase he just did a shameless impression of the original voice. It was not his first cartoon hero: he voiced Casey Jones in 2007's TMNT.

Who voices the villain Zurg in the 2022 film Lightyear?

James Brolin voices Zurg, who turns out to be an older Buzz from another timeline. It flips the Toy Story 2 joke in which Zurg claims to be Buzz's father.

In Lightyear, why do Buzz's friends grow old while he barely ages?

Time slows on his test flights: every short hop toward light speed costs four years on the ground. He keeps flying anyway, and comes home to find his friends grown old and gone.

What does Sid tape to Buzz's back, planning to blow him sky-high?

A firework rocket: Sid has to put the launch off until morning, which gives the toys time to scare him straight. In the end Woody lights it himself, and it carries the pair back to Andy.

What is Buzz's signature catchphrase?

To infinity and beyond starts out as Buzz's cry alone. By the end of the first film Woody, who had scoffed at the idea that Buzz could fly, whoops it himself as the pair soar after the moving truck.

Buzz insists he must rendezvous with which organisation to report Zurg's secret weapon?

Star Command is waiting, he tells Woody, for the one weakness of a weapon that can destroy a planet. Woody's answer is to scream that he is a toy, a child's plaything.

Buzz readies for danger by switching his laser from stun to what?

Kill, he announces, facing Sid's mutant toys. Woody is unimpressed and says that if anyone attacks they can blink them to death, since the laser is only a little light bulb.

Gliding toward the moving van, Buzz says he is not flying but doing what?

Falling with style was Woody's sneer when Buzz first seemed to fly round Andy's bedroom. At the end Buzz borrows the line himself as the two glide down through the sunroof of Andy's car.

What does Buzz see at Sid's house that reveals he is a toy?

A TV commercial for Buzz Lightyear toys proves what Woody has told him all along. He tries to fly out of a window anyway, drops down the stairwell and loses an arm.

What is the name of Sid's dog, which Buzz fights off to rescue Woody?

Scud is Sid's vicious bull terrier. Buzz leaps onto him so that Woody can reach the moving van, and Woody returns the favor by sending RC, the remote-control car, back for Buzz.

Which Toy Story villain steals Woody from the family's yard sale?

Al McWhiggin, the owner of Al's Toy Barn, steals Woody after Andy's mother refuses to sell him. Woody completes a Woody's Roundup set that Al plans to sell to a toy museum in Japan.

The rival Buzz figure who 'arrests' Andy's Buzz in the toy store sports what accessory?

A utility belt, which the store display trumpets as new. Andy's Buzz reaches for it, gets overpowered and tied up in a box, and his friends drive off with the wrong Buzz.

Which toy accidentally knocks Zurg down the elevator shaft in Toy Story 2?

Rex cannot bear to watch the duel and turns away, and his big tail sweeps Zurg off the elevator by accident. The nervous dinosaur is thrilled to have beaten Zurg at last.

Zurg telling a Buzz figure that he is his father mimics a scene from which film series?

Star Wars: the line copies Darth Vader's reveal to Luke in The Empire Strikes Back almost word for word. Zurg survives his fall and is last seen playing catch with his new son.

On which toy does Buzz develop a crush in Toy Story 2?

Jessie leaves him tongue-tied: he praises her beautiful yarn full of hair, corrects it to a hair full of yarn, and backs away. She calls him the sweetest space toy she has ever met.

Lotso's henchmen switch Buzz to which mode at Sunnyside?

Demo mode blocks his memories and brings back the deluded space ranger of the first film. Taking Lotso for his commander, he locks up his own friends and stands guard over them at night.

Trying to restore Buzz's memory, the toys accidentally reset him to which mode?

Spanish: the botched reset leaves him a romantic, charismatic space ranger with no memories and no English. Once Woody tells him the toys are his amigos, he switches sides at once.

From the Caterpillar Room, Buzz asks Lotso for a transfer to which room?

The Butterfly Room is where the older children play gently, while the Caterpillar Room's toddlers batter their toys. Lotso offers the move to Buzz alone, and he refuses to go without his friends.

What crushes Buzz in the garbage truck in Toy Story 3?

A broken TV lands on him just as he throws a trapped friend clear of the falling trash. The knock does what his friends could not: he comes round as his old self, with no memory of what was done to him.

Who rescues Woody, Buzz and their friends from the landfill incinerator?

The toy aliens had wandered off at the dump toward a giant crane, chanting about the claw. As their friends join hands to face the furnace, they lower it and scoop everyone out.

How does Andy describe Buzz when handing him to Bonnie?

The coolest toy ever, Andy tells her, adding that Buzz has sworn to protect the galaxy from the evil Emperor Zurg. He gives every toy an introduction like it before he leaves for college.

Which conjoined carnival plushies does Buzz meet in Toy Story 4?

Bunny and Ducky, voiced by Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, are sewn together at the hand. When Buzz is strung up beside them as a prize, they attack him for spoiling their chances of being won.

What guides Buzz's decisions throughout Toy Story 4?

His inner voice is Woody's phrase for a conscience, but Buzz takes it to mean his voice box. He presses the buttons on his chest and does whatever the recorded phrases seem to tell him.

At the end of Toy Story 4, Buzz suggests Woody stay behind with whom?

Bo Peep: seeing Woody torn, Buzz tells him that she will be okay, then makes clear he means Bonnie. The two old friends hug goodbye, and Woody stays behind with the lost toys.

In the 2000 TV series, which of Buzz's teammates is a princess?

Booster is a janitor and XR is a robot.

Who directed Lightyear?

Angus MacLane also co-wrote it, and opens with a caption: in 1995 a boy named Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy from his favorite movie, and this is that movie.

What is the name of the talking robot cat in Lightyear?

Sox is the robot cat Buzz is given for company after his first lost years. It is Sox, voiced by Peter Sohn, who finally works out the fuel formula for hyperspeed.

Which Buzz-themed shooting ride opened in Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland in 1998?

Space Ranger Spin earns its name: a joystick in each car lets riders spin it a full circle to line up their shots at the targets.

In which Pixar film does a Buzz figure lie on the floor of a waiting room?

Finding Nemo: as Nemo lands in the dentist's fish tank, a shot of the waiting room shows a Buzz figure on the floor by the toy box. In Cars, every racer runs on Lightyear tires, a play on Goodyear.

Woody only means to trap Buzz behind Andy's desk, but where does Buzz end up instead?

Out of the bedroom window: Woody sends RC, the remote-control car, at Buzz, and the plan goes badly wrong. The other toys decide it was attempted murder, and turn on him.

Which Toy Story 2 character remarks that short-sighted stores ordered too few Buzz dolls in 1995?

Tour Guide Barbie says it while showing the toys down the toy store's Buzz aisle. The shortage was real: by Christmas 1996 desperate parents were paying four times the retail price for a Buzz.

A real Buzz figure went into orbit in 2008 and spent 15 months aboard what?

The International Space Station: the 12-inch toy rode up on a shuttle in May 2008 and came home in September 2009. Walt Disney World welcomed him back with a confetti parade through the Magic Kingdom.

In Toy Story 2, how do Buzz and his friends get across a busy road?

Hidden under traffic cones: Buzz has each toy shuffle across beneath one and drop still whenever a car comes near. They all make it over, and leave a huge pile-up behind them.

Where was the space-flown Buzz figure donated in 2012?

The Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum took the toy in March 2012. A month later it also took in Discovery, the shuttle that had flown the toy both to orbit and home again.

Which 2012 Justin Bieber single mentions Buzz Lightyear by name?

Boyfriend, the first single from his album Believe, has Bieber offering to be a girl's own Buzz Lightyear. Beyoncé's Single Ladies had borrowed the space ranger's catchphrase four years earlier.

Which Disney executive told Pixar in 1991 to rewrite Toy Story as a buddy picture?

Jeffrey Katzenberg wanted an odd-couple story in the vein of Midnight Run: two characters who dislike each other, thrown together by luck and forced to work as a team.

In the 2022 film Lightyear, who is Buzz's commanding officer and best friend?

Alisha Hawthorne, voiced by Uzo Aduba, marries, raises a son and dies of old age while Buzz is still trying to get the crew home. Her granddaughter Izzy later joins his team.