Lightyear director Angus MacLane explained the meta premise behind Pixar's upcoming Toy Story spinoff film.

Announced at Disney's Investor Day presentation in December 2020, the animated Lightyear is officially described as being the "definitive origin story" of Buzz Lightyear (voiced by Chris Evans), the human space ranger who inspired the toy famously voiced by Tim Allen in the Toy Story feature films. "Buzz, as a character, I’ve always been pretty close to as a fan -- mostly because of his overlap into the sci-fi genre. I’ve always wanted to know about Buzz," MacLane told D23.com. "I said, ‘Maybe there was a movie starring Buzz Lightyear, and that’s what Andy saw that made him want a Buzz Lightyear action figure. Why don’t we just make that movie --and make it awesome?’”

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Visually, Lightyear is very different from the earlier Toy Story movies and shorts, all of which utilize a fairly bright color palette to bring the secret world of toys to life. “There’s a very specific cinematography aesthetic I was chasing, which is a lot of chiaroscuro -- a lot of light and dark,” said MacLane. “I also wanted to make the world feel really tactile and chunky. There’s a lot of different sci-fi design aesthetics, but especially in that era that, the ships and the materials were very chunky and the industrial design for them was really robust.”

As far as its story goes, however, MacLane refrained from revealing anything beyond what Lightyear's trailer and synopsis imply. That said, he did note the movie was inspired by classic sci-fi films of the late 1970s and early '80s -- a period that saw the release of movies like Star Wars: A New Hope and The Last Starfighter, among other cosmic adventures. "There might be something that feels like an echo of something, but we never want things to be too overt,” he added. “The movie is meant to be a love letter to film.”

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MacLane previously co-helmed Finding Dory and solo directed the theatrical short Toy Story Toons: Small Fry, as well as the TV special Toy Story of Terror. His involvement with the greater Toy Story franchise extends well beyond that, back to when he served as an animator on 1999's Toy Story 2.

Lightyear opens exclusively in theaters on June 17, 2022. it's one of two Pixar movies scheduled to arrive next year, along with Turning Red.

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Source: D23.com