Toy Wishes magazine Holiday 2004 - Toys R Us special edition
So my understanding is Pixar’s “Lightyear” is supposed to be the movie within the world of Andy, and watching it made him want the Buzz Lightyear toy.
But then they also tried to make it a serious movie?? With comedy, sure. But it doesn’t feel like a kids movie from the mid-90s, which is when Toy Story is set. What’s with the muted color palette? Where’s the neon, huh? The random geometric shapes?
Buzz Lightyear, the toy, does not look like he came from a serious Star Wars type movie. He looks like a toy company SAW Star Wars and made a knock-off Saturday morning cartoon to sell toys. And I think they could’ve done something interesting and funny and meta with that.
Also, Buzz Lightyear’s media in the Toy Story universe is clearly 2D. All the posters of him in Andy’s room are in 2D, he’s 2D on the bedsheet, etc. I don’t mind retconning if it improves things, but Realistic 3D Human Man Buzz is unsettling; I don’t like looking at him.
However, if they REALLY wanted to make him 3D they should’ve shown Andy watching the movie (on VHS of course), which should have intentionally janky CGI. Imagine Andy reverently saying “He looks sooo real!” as Buzz clips through scenery and does that awkward early-CGI picking-things-up animation where items magnetically stick to his hands.