Lightyear producer Galyn Susman has revealed that the filmmakers drew inspiration from NASA for the movie's spaceship design. Lightyear is the upcoming Disney-Pixar film that will focus on the iconic character of Buzz Lightyear. The film will follow the titular space-ranger (as voiced by Captain America actor Chris Evans) as he explores the stars as part of Star Command. Lightyear is helmed by Angus MacLane, and along with Evans, features an all-star cast including Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, and James Brolin. Currently, Lightyear is set to be released on June 17, 2022.
Buzz Lightyear, of course, first appeared in 1995's Toy Story. In the film, Buzz is a toy (voiced by Tim Allen) based upon a hit in-world TV series. While Buzz adjusts to realizing he is only a toy over the course of the film, many hints about the world and lore of Star-Command are dropped throughout the movie and its following three sequels. There were many lingering questions regarding what the world Buzz Lightyear hails from looks and feels like, and as such, the filmmakers of Lightyear had to work in great detail while creating the universe.
One such area that the film's designers took very seriously was the design of Lightyear's spaceships. In a recent interview during the Lightyear press junket, producer Susman revealed that it was decided early on that a research trip to NASA was absolutely necessary. According to Susman, it just so happened that Turning Red producer Lindsey Collins knew an astronaut stationed on the International Space Station and was able to get the Lightyear crew a "multi-day exploration of the Johnson Space Center in Houston." Susman has gone on to detail how the crew was able to see nearly every piece of equipment the organization had to offer, and they learned so many things that they were able to bring back to the production of Lightyear. See his full quote below:
"When we started working on this film, I was absolutely certain we had to get a research trip to NASA. We tend to be a bit obsessive about research at Pixar, the goal is to take your key creatives and expose them to the people, environments, experiences, all the stuff that will impact the design and the language of the film. We completely lucked out, Lindsey Collins, who's the producer of Turning Red, introduced us to Tom Marshburn, an astronaut currently stationed on the ISS, and he in turn grabbed his fellow astronaut friend, Kjell Lindren, and between the two of them, we were treated to a comprehensive multi-day exploration of the Johnson Space Center in Houston. We saw the original control center for the Apollo missions, as well as the one being used today to track the ISS, we learned about spacesuit construction, we saw buttons, and switches, and knobs, and dials, and badges. We were guided through a replica of the ISS U.S. quarters, and the labs. We saw vehicles, and training aircraft, and capsules, and we even got to sit in a few. We saw the training pool for the spacewalks and we posed with the poor sot wearing 350 pounds of gear. I'm sure he was so thrilled, especially when they couldn't get his buoyancy balanced and he spent 20 minutes bobbing like a cork. We experienced trying to use our hands in a vacuum and learned that the old suits weren't made for small women. We tried on helmets and learned why there are no beards or glasses in space."
Of course, Lightyear will be featuring all-new, imaginary spacecraft rather than existing ones, but it was clearly very important to the filmmakers that the world of Buzz Lightyear had a basis in reality. While this may seem like an extreme bit of research for an animated film, Susman has admitted that the animators at Pixar tend to be a bit obsessive about their research. This would certainly explain their ability to consistently produce such high-quality animated features.
Audiences have had nearly twenty-seven years to imagine what a Buzz Lightyear film may look like, so the filmmakers behind Lightyear certainly have high expectations to surpass. With that said, the level of dedication that the film's designers have shown to simply get the look of the spaceships right has certainly proven that they are passionate about the project. If the other aspects of the film show half as much attention to detail as the ships' designs have seen, it is likely that Lightyear is not a film that any fan of Buzz Lightyear and Toy Story will want to miss.