Why Tim Allen Was Replaced As The Voice Of Buzz In Lightyear

If Tom Hanks is America's Dad, then his "Toy Story" co-star Tim Allen is the conservative uncle you try and avoid at family gatherings. Like it or not, though, Allen's been a big part of many a person's childhood thanks to his roles as Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor on "Home Improvement," Scott Calvin in "The Santa Clause," Jason Nesmith in "Galaxy Quest," and especially Buzz Lightyear in "Toy Story." So, naturally, when Chris Evans replaced Allen as Buzz in "Lightyear," people had mixed reactions to the news.

Admittedly, "replaced" might not be the right word here. Evans notoriously went viral on Twitter while explaining the premise for "Lightyear" after it was announced, describing it as "the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on." In truth, the film is much less confusing than Evans made it sound. "Lightyear," as its opening title card explains, is a film that exists within the "Toy Story" universe. Therefore, the toy version of Buzz Lightyear (whom Allen voices) is actually a piece of tie-in merchandise based on the character voiced by Evans in "Lightyear."

To that same point, "Lightyear" isn't even the first time someone other than Allen has voiced a non-plastic version of Buzz in a film or TV show. That honor belongs to Patrick Warburton of "The Tick" and "Family Guy" fame, who voiced Buzz on "Buzz Lightyear of Star Command," an animated series that exists within the "Toy Story" universe and was itself inspired by "Lightyear," at least according to the film's director and co-writer, Angus MacLane. Who knew the "Toy Story" canon was so complicated?

Whichever way you cut it, it all boils down to one simple idea: the Buzz in "Lightyear" is a different character from the one Allen has voiced since 1995.

Tim Allen weighed in on Buzzgate (as I'm calling it) shortly after "Lightyear" hit theaters in June 2022. According to the actor, the Pixar brain trust had actually spoken to him about making a Buzz Lightyear film at one point, although it sounds like it would've been rather different from "Lightyear." As he told Extra TV:

"Literally, the short answer is I've stayed out of this 'cause it has nothing to do [with 'Toy Story']. As I've said, a long time ago, we talked about this many years ago. It came up in one of the sessions. I said, 'What a fun movie that would be.' [...] The brass that did the first four ['Toy Story'] movies is not this [team], this is a whole new team that really had nothing to do with the first movies."

Like the rest of us, Chris Evans' tweet did little to clear things up for Allen. "I thought it was a live-action [film]," said Allen. He added that the Buzz Lightyear film Pixar pitched to him "seemed to be a big adventure story. As I see it, ['Lightyear' isn't] a big adventure story. It's a wonderful story. [...] It has no relationship to Buzz [the toy]. It has no connection, I wish there was a better connection."

Spring-boarding off of Allen's comments, "Lightyear" is arguably one of the more thematically mature films Pixar has ever produced. At its core, it's a story about how challenging it can be for adults to reconcile their dreams about the life they imagined for themselves when they were younger versus the one they ended up with. It might not be Pixar's most innovative film but it's an otherwise perfectly decent sci-fi pastiche. In the end, though, the film's connections to the "Toy Story" franchise only did more harm than good, and not just creatively speaking.