8 details you should know about Pixar's 'Toy Story' prequel movie 'Lightyear'

When "Lightyear" was first announced, there was a lot of confusion about what the "Toy Story" spinoff was actually about. 

It's made clear from the film's opening, which Insider previewed, that "Lightyear" is supposed to be the favorite movie of Andy, the boy from "Toy Story" who owned Buzz and Woody. "Lightyear" is the movie that made Andy want a Buzz Lightyear action figure.

"In 'Toy Story,' Andy had a birthday party. His favorite gift was a character that he loved, Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger," director Angus MacLane told press, including Insider. "It was a toy that would redefine playtime for Andy."

"I've always wondered what movie was Buzz from? Why couldn't we just make that movie? So that's what we did," MacLane added. "Presenting, 'Lightyear,' the movie that Andy saw that changed his life. Andy's 'Star Wars.'"

MacLane clarified that "Lightyear" isn't a movie that "Toy Story's" Andy saw in a movie theater in 1995, the year "Toy Story" was released. It was just a favorite movie he grew up watching, similar to how we may have grown up watching older movies like "Jurassic Park" or "E.T."

"I actually feel like this movie might be early '80s, late '70s," MacLane said of when "Lightyear" is supposed to exist in the "Toy Story" universe. "It's more like his favorite movie that he saw on VHS probably."

"[Lightyear'] is meant to be a movie that he saw a bunch of times growing up," MacLane added.

While heading home from a mission, a sensor picks up an uncharted planet, T'Kani Prime, filled with vines and swarming bugs.

When Buzz and his best friend and commander Alisha Hawthorne (Uzo Aduba) try and make an escape, Buzz crashes their ship, destroying their hyperspeed crystal to get home. As a result, Buzz, Alisha, and about 1,200 other scientists and technicians become stranded on this mystery planet.

This is supposed to be Buzz's first real failure and so the space ranger becomes obsessed with trying to fix the situation and get everyone home. Unfortunately, that comes at a cost.

Every time Buzz does a test flight, he learns that at least four years go by. For Buzz, only mere minutes pass. The more tests he runs, his crew ages on without him.

Why is someone other than the original voice of Buzz Lightyear, Tim Allen, voicing the space ranger?

"We didn't want the film to be a rehash of 'Toy Story' at all because then you're always comparing it to that film," MacLane said. "I wanted Buzz to be the spirit of that character, but not the exact same performance."

"When we actually were working with Chris, it was really important that we not try to emulate the original vocal performance," MacLane continued, adding that Evans was the team's first and only choice for the role.

He added: "We needed a leading man to be someone that was cartoonishly heroic, but could bring some subtlety to that and also find some humor in that without undercutting the drama and without being too goofy or too arrogant. That's a really difficult line to straddle." 

Producer Galyn Susman said Evans was brought onto the film well over a year before any other cast members so the team could work out who Buzz was, what his arc needed to be, and how he would grow.

"Chris was very influential in all of that, for sure," Susman said.

The cat is gifted to Buzz by Alisha in order to help him transition as time moves forward for everyone but him. 

MacLane told press he wanted to have a character in "Lightyear" that provided the charm and comedy of Wall-E and Ken in "Toy Story 3," two characters with limited movement that he animated.

"For Sox, I wanted a robot character that had the limitations in terms of simple animatronic puppets," MacLane said. 

"Although he has limited movements, Sox is by no means helpless," MacLane added. "He has been designed with loads of features."

Some of the tools he'll have at his disposal in the film are a welding laser, long and short-range scanners, projectors, and magnet feet. He's voiced by Peter Sohn who directed Pixar's "The Good Dinosaur" and voiced Emile in "Ratatouille."

The kiss takes place in the film's first 30 minutes between Lightyear's best friend and colleague Commander Hawthorne and her partner during a montage sequence.

The kiss was originally removed from the film and then restored after backlash in March.

"We've always had the lesbian couple. They've always been a part of the film," Susman told press of the kiss' reinsertion in the final film. "Being able to put back the kiss was important to us. It's a touching moment."

"It was really important for us that we had a relationship — that we showed a life, a full life, well-lived," Susman added. "And so, the kiss is a poignant moment within a whole montage of showing all that Buzz didn't have by being so singularly focused. We think it's really beautiful and hope that everybody enjoys it."

James Brolin will voice the villain who lands on T'Kani Prime while Buzz is away on one of his test flights.

In press notes for the film, MacLane, who worked on Zurg's design in "Toy Story 2," said the film will explore why the two are at odds.

"We've known for a long time that he's Buzz's nemesis. But we never really knew why," MacLane said. 

MacLane said that while the film "is a celebration of movies and sci-fi epics," it's also "inspired by the dark side of nostalgia, and the dangers of living in the past." 

After screening about the first 30 minutes of "Lightyear," it's clear that one of the film's messages is to not let life pass you by.

That's echoed in the film's press notes, where it's mentioned that "Lightyear" serves as a partial metaphor of some filmmakers' experience at Pixar.

"Every time you make a film, at least four years go by. Then you come up for air and you realize the world has gone on without you," MacLane said.