In 1995, a boy called Andy got a Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday. It was from his favourite movie. This is that movie… Lightyear is the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear — the hero who inspired the toy — and follows the legendary Space Ranger on an intergalactic adventure alongside Sox, a robotic cat and Buzz’s personal companion.

Now, Disney’s latest adventure is available to take home and to celebrate, we have a goodie bundle to give away which includes a Blu-ray and poster!

“Buzz’s world was always something I was excited about,” said director Angus MacLane. “In Toy Story, there seemed to be this incredible backstory to him being a Space Ranger that’s only touched upon, and I always wanted to explore that world further. So my Lighytear pitch was: ‘What was the movie that Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear toy?’ I wanted to see that movie. And now I’m lucky enough to get to make it.”

Chris Evans (Captain America) lends his voice to Buzz, and he is joined by Keke Palmer (Alice), Dale Soules (Orange Is The New Black) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) as a group of ambitious recruits. Peter Sohn (Luca) voices Buzz’s robot companion, Sox, and the cast also includes the voices of Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black), James Brolin (Sweet Tooth), Mary McDonald-Lewis (Archer), Efren Ramirez (Mad Families) and Isiah Whitlock Jr (I Care A Lot).

Now, Pixar fans can add to their Toy Story movie collection as Lightyear falls with style to 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD, and access bonus content including exclusive deleted scenes, featurettes and an audio commentary by Angus MacLane.

Want to win a copy of Lightyear on Blu-ray plus a poster? Simply answer the question below to be in with a chance…

This competition closes on 6 September. Good luck!

Go To Infinity and Beyond When Lightyear Launches onto Digital 17 August and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 29  August 2022. Stream on Disney+ now.

The post Lightyear Competition: Win a goodie bundle for Disney space adventure appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

Lightyear is the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear — the hero who inspired the toy — and follows the legendary Space Ranger on an intergalactic adventure alongside Sox, a robotic cat and Buzz’s personal companion.

The filmmakers behind the movie took paint-staking efforts to make sure the movie felt authentic – from visiting NASA and looking into the science of space flight… to actually having a real-life astronaut lend his voice to the movie! We spoke to none other than British astronaut Tim Peake about Lightyear and how youngsters with a dream to be among the stars can actually achieve their goals…

What can audiences expect from Lightyear?

Well you can expect everything you would expect from Pixar and Disney! It’s really fun and entertaining. It’s laugh-out-loud in places and the attention to detail is brilliant. The cinematography is wonderfull that immersive experience of feeling like you’re going on this mission with Buzz and the team is wonderful.

You’re going on an emotional journey as well. There are some really interesting themes that are tackled, both from a scientific point of view but also the whole point about determination, of perseverance and resilience. Buzz goes on a journey to really become a team player as opposed to the bit of a solo character that he is at the beginning of the movie. So there’s some really powerful messages that are very good. You come away with a really warm feeling about the whole movie. It’s brilliant.

What role do you play in the movie?

A very small role! But I do get to give Buzz the countdown. So when he goes on his first test pilot mission, I get to launch him off into space…

Well, that’s an important role! What was that like? Have you ever had a movie cameo before?

No, this was the first time which is brilliant and what an experience to be involved in! It was wonderful.

I did do the audio recording for my autobiography so I had a little bit of experience of that, but this is completely different because it’s a movie. We got to go to Shepperton Studios. We watched a bit of [the movie] so you could see the characters evolve, you got a feel for the pace of the movie and the setting for where my bit would come in. Then I got behind the microphone and Angus MacLane the director called in from LA and we started doing the recording process. So it was a lot of fun!

What is it like for you to watch space or sci-fi films? Do you end up noticing things that are wrong?

Well, I don’t try to be too critical because I do think the movies are the movies. You go for escapism, you go for entertainment, and if I was going to criticise every movie, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much!

I mean I can’t help noticing when things are right and things are wrong but it doesn’t bother me. I take every movie for what it’s got to offer in terms of the story and the entertainment value.

Some movies have done really well in the scientific concepts and some haven’t but where they might not have done so well in the science they’ve done really well in the cinematography.

Is there anything in Lightyear that you noticed was accurate with its scientific concepts?

Oh, yeah, very much so. One is actually described in the movie where Lightyear is trying to get to hyperspeed, the speed of light, and actually, every time he comes back, the people he’s left behind have aged. So it’s really important that the movie addresses that and explains it. There’s [also] a great scene in there where, very quickly, in the space of about 15 seconds, Einstein’s theory of special relativity is explained to schoolchildren. Now that’s pretty impressive. I’m not sure many people can pull that off, but it works.

Then there’s the whole feeling of being in space. When Izzy [Keke Palmer] steps out of the space station and needs to float across the void of space, you’re there with her. You really feel the danger. You feel the exposure and the isolation. It’s brilliant.

I watched that last night in the IMAX and it’s spectacular. The entire screen goes to space. You feel like you’re falling forward out of your seat and pitching into the darkness!

After watching Lightyear, some young people may be inspired to become an astronaut – what is your advice to them?

Well, firstly it’s brilliant if they are thinking that. I think it’s great to have aspirations and it’s great to aim high and to really go for what you want to do in life. But it’s also important to think about what you want to do before you become an astronaut. Because I’m quite honest and say, ‘Look, nobody has ever been selected from school or college or university to be an astronaut’. You’re always selected from your career. We take people who might be school teachers or doctors, or scientists or engineers or test pilots and then you come and join the astronaut corps.

So work out what it is you want to do first, and be as good as you can be. Because if you’re at the top of your field, then you’ve got the most chance of becoming an astronaut.

Lightyear is out now on Disney+

The post Lightyear: Tim Peake on starring in Lightyear and becoming an astronaut appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

Lightyear is the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear — the hero who inspired the toy — and follows the legendary Space Ranger on an intergalactic adventure alongside Sox, a robotic cat and Buzz’s personal companion.

We speak to actor Peter Sohn who plays Sox about playing one of the cutest (and helpful!) characters we’ve seen so far this year…

What can audiences expect from Lightyear?

I’m hoping that they can expect, on top of the amazing sci-fi adventure, really great characters that they can fall in love with. Then hopefully, once they empathise with that, [they can] feel that emotional journey that Buzz is going through.

In what way does Lightyear differ from a Toy Story movie?

They’re not toys. Maybe you could consider Sox a toy, but he’s a companion robot, he’s got a useful function. There are layers of depth to this Buzz of Lightyear that were not in the original Toy Story movies. And these layers of depth deal with regrets and mistakes that he’s made in his life that really haunt him throughout the movie. I feel like just that alone changes the tone of the type of character that Buzz is between this and Toy Story. I love the Toy Story Buzz but it’s just different in that way – more human.

What genre would you fit Lightyear in?

I would say that it’s a proper sci-fi film with a good layer of humour on top of it. The first act of what Angus [MacLane – director] and the team did, really bring you into this immersive world. Building a world is not easy to do and trying to make a world that has that immaculate reality of a place, with all the backstory to it and feels real, is so hard. They did an incredible job. The first half of the movie really brings me to go ‘this is a sci-fi movie’ for sure.

What can you tell us about Sox?

I was surprised with how far they went with Sox. When Angus first pitched this, we were all excited about the film. But we had no idea of the characters that he was going to build around it.

So reading those first pages, it was like, ‘okay, so Buzz needs a robot to help him psychologically’. That concept alone was really fascinating. Like what happened to Buzz that he needed something like that? So that start really brought me to the sci-fi shows and movies that I loved and the types of characters that I love from there – that he was tapping into the logic systems of Spock or the practicality of a Data or the gadgets of an R2D2. All of those things that he started mixing into… I don’t know if he was mixing those personally but that’s what I was bringing into his mixing of it.

But ultimately, seeing the film a few months ago – the animators brought so much stuff to Sox that I had no idea but it was so fun to see.

What can Sox do to help Buzz on his mission?

There are all these little secret compartments in him, especially his mouth, which was really funny. What I love about the compartments is that they’re all tools for very specific uses. But then they start flipping some of the uses for them. For example, there is a moment where Sox realises that he might be shut down, and he uses this dart that comes out of his mouth in a way that wasn’t meant to be! I loved how Angus and the team kept flipping what gadgets he would have.

How do you even prepare to play a robotic cat?

Well, what’s funny is that it wasn’t the robot side, it was that clean slate – like an android. They would be pleasant [like] androids in sci-fi movies, where they’re almost like a butler, where they’re pleasant and they’re helpful.

So I remember starting off with that and trying to be very professional. “Yes, captain, how can I help you?” And it was that start, but then you could feel like the lines going into the more friendly side of “I could make you breakfast if you want?” So those two pieces of it started to merge as we were doing the voice for the reels and from there it started growing.

What’s your method to get into the character when you’re in the recording booth?

You get [the scripts] on the day and so there’s not a lot of prep for it at all. Once you see it, you try to go through it and try to find where it’s funny, and then listen to Angus and what he needs out of it and try to balance those two.

He’s very meticulous about what the lines are and he allows for some improv in terms of trying to make fun of it and then he’ll jump in.

With the process… [the phrase] “Yes Captain” was my key to the practical side and “Hey Buzz”, was the key to the friendly side. So it would just be a mix of trying to find those two pieces of him.

Did you work with any of the other cast when recording?

It was all on our own through the COVID Zoom world of just being in a booth and being separated. I only recently got to meet part of the cast. But it was mostly just in a room looking at Zoom and trying to connect through the digital.

What do you want audiences to take away from the film?

I really do hope that they get the vibe of ‘that was the Buzz movie that inspired Andy’. That not only inspired Andy but that they would be just as excited about a big new movie like that.

Angus always talks about it the idea that this is a film that was made in 1995 but obviously it looks like it’s brand new. That idea that it’s that inspiration of a sci-fi movie that would have got you cheering in the way that those movies did. I know that that’s what they were hunting for and I feel like they were so successful doing it.

Lightyear will be released in cinemas on 17 June 2022.

The post Lightyear: Actor Peter Sohn on playing Sox and why Lightyear is a Disney sci-fi movie appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.

Every hero’s journey has to have a beginning and now one of Disney and Pixar’s most beloved characters is getting an origin story of their own in Lightyear.

Check out the trailer here…

Lightyear is the definitive origin story of Buzz Lightyear — the hero who inspired the toy — and follows the legendary Space Ranger on an intergalactic adventure.

“Buzz’s world was always something I was excited about,” said director Angus MacLane. “In Toy Story, there seemed to be this incredible backstory to him being a Space Ranger that’s only touched upon, and I always wanted to explore that world further. So my Lighytear pitch was: ‘What was the movie that Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear toy?’ I wanted to see that movie. And now I’m lucky enough to get to make it.”

Chris Evans (Captain America) lends his voice to Buzz, and he is joined by Keke Palmer (Alice), Dale Soules (Orange Is The New Black) and Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) as a group of ambitious recruits. Peter Sohn (Luca) voices Buzz’s robot companion, Sox, and the cast also includes the voices of Uzo Aduba (Orange Is The New Black), James Brolin (Sweet Tooth), Mary McDonald-Lewis (Archer), Efren Ramirez (Mad Families) and Isiah Whitlock Jr (I Care A Lot).

“The cast for Lightyear is truly a dream team,” MacLane continued. “Each of the performers immediately inhabited their character, which gave us the opportunity to play a bit during recording sessions. This resulted in a level of specificity that elevated the material and brought additional depth to the characters’ relationships.

“It has been a privilege to work with such a talented and generous cast.”

Lightyear will be released on 17 June 2022.

The post Lightyear: Disney and Pixar’s latest goes to infinity and beyond in new trailer appeared first on Sci-Fi Tips.