Tom Hanks on ‘Lightyear’: ‘I Don’t Understand That’

There is a new movie based on Toy Story in theaters right now. Pixar’s Lightyear is supposedly the movie that inspired the Buzz Lightyear toy in the Toy Story movies. But neither Tom Hanks nor Tim Allen are in it as the voice of Woody or Buzz. But Hanks does have a new movie in theaters too; the new Elvis biopic, where he plays Colonel Tom Parker. So he’s in a strange situation where for the first time ever, he’s in direct competition with one of his biggest franchises ever.

It could have been even stranger if Hanks had been up against Lightyear and it had starred Tim Allen as the voice of Buzz, but Pixar decided to recast the part. (Chris Evans is Buzz instead.) During a junket interview for Elvis, Hanks was asked about the surreal situation, and he noted the fact that Allen isn’t playing Buzz.

His response: “I don’t understand that.”

Tim Allen himself recently gave his own reaction to Lightyear and the fact that he is not the voice of the title character, saying that the movie “has no relationship to Buzz… it’s just no connection.” He also claimed that “the brass that did the first four movies” were not involved in Lightyear, and that “a whole new team that really have nothing to do with the first movies” created this one. In fact, Lightyear director Angus MacLaine worked on Toy Story 2, 3, and 4 as an animator and a member of the Pixar Senior Creative Team. He also directed Toy Story of Terror! in 2013, which included Allen as Buzz.

Ultimately, Hanks said the most important thing to him is that “people come back to the motion picture theater.” So go see him in Elvis or see Chris Evans in Lightyear. They’re both in theaters right now.

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