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marcmarcmomarc · 3 months ago

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Buzz in the original trilogy:

Buzz in Toy Story 4:

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Toy Story 4 is already tied with Lightyear for Pixar’s worst movie due to failing to last three seconds without contracting either itself or the previous movies, or assassinating the characters (things Cars 2 had the decency to not do), but if I can pick one topic to focus on, it’s how Buzz is portrayed.

Buzz used to actually be smart in the original trilogy. I’d go as far as to say he was the smartest character in the whole saga, even when he believed he was a Space Ranger. He only comes off as dumb in the first movie because of what he does without the knowledge we have (we know he’s just a toy, we know he’s on Earth with air safe to breathe, we know his spaceship is cardboard, and we know the rocket is just a claw machine game at a pizzeria with an arcade), but “knowledge” and “intelligence” have their own sections in the English dictionary for a reason, because they’re not the same. You can be as intelligent as possible while lacking the knowledge needed to make proper choices. A better word to call Buzz is “ignorant”, not “idiotic”.

I’m gonna go over every single time in the trilogy Buzz did something smart:

Toy Story

He’s programmed with memories of Space Ranger training, and puts that training to good use:

He believes his spaceship has crashed, so he sets up a repair station and makes use of any and all resources available to him to fix it.

Him showing Rex and Slinky that he’s been “accepted into their culture”, that shows us that he believes the toys freezing when Andy comes in to play with them is the “culture” of the “planet” he “crash-landed on”, so he respects this “culture”, but only in front of Andy until he finds out the real reason why he has to freeze. With the other humans, he either is lucky to not be spotted moving (the Pizza Planet delivery guy and the customers at Pizza Planet who don’t see him running out into the open and into the rocket claw machine), or has to be told to freeze (Sid).

Freaking out over his helmet being opened is reasonable to do if you think you’re on an uncharted planet with potentially toxic air.

When sneaking into the Pizza Planet truck, Buzz doesn’t follow Woody into the trunk because it has no seatbelts to secure them, and his sense of safety precautions turns out to be right with how crazy the driver ends up being.

When they arrive at Pizza Planet, Buzz sees the robot security guards and believes they have to sneak past them. He sees the food containers and gets the idea to hide under them as they sneak in (he just gives Woody the credit, despite Woody being knocked out from the clutter in the trunk).

When arriving in Sid’s room, Buzz and Woody hide from Sid’s toys, who they think are cannibals, and Buzz’s first instinct is to call for backup because he knows he and Woody can’t fight them off by themselves. And when he doesn’t get a response, it’s then that he tries taking matters into his own hands by setting his laser from “stun” to “kill”.

The next morning, when Sid leaves his door open to eat his Pop Tarts, Woody is blinded by the chance to escape, but Buzz is reserved and cautious, trying to remind Woody that they don’t know what’s outside the door, not wanting to just run into unknown territory with no idea of what could be waiting to attack them, and turns out to be right when Woody gets the attention of Scud, which leads to…

…Buzz ordering for them to split up because he knows Scud is one predator who can’t chase two pieces of prey at the same time.

And then in the movie’s climax, Buzz opens his wings to slice off the tape holding the rocket to him just before it explodes.

That’s everything in the first movie. Smart and reasonable decisions to make, given the information he knows, situations he’s in, and resources available to him. Space Ranger delusions don’t make him an idiot.

Toy Story 2

After Woody’s kidnapping, Buzz immediately tries to start putting together the puzzle of who the kidnapper is so that he and the rescue team know where to look. He has two clues: the feathers from the kidnapper’s car trunk, and the car’s license plate, “LZTYBRN”. Just Mr. Potato Head saying, “Let’s leave Buzz to play with his toys,” gets Buzz to remember the name, “Al’s Toy Barn”, from the commercial, and the feather reminds him of the company mascot, Al himself in his chicken suit.

After they find the Al’s Toy Barn commercial, Buzz has Etch draw the map featured in the commercial for the rescue team to follow.

Then every step of the entire rescue mission from the moment they leave Andy’s room to the final battle at the airport is his idea:

When crossing the road, Buzz gets the idea to use the traffic cones to hide under as they cross, which is a genius idea, because without them, they’d either be noticed and freak out any humans that see them, or they wouldn’t be noticed and get run over (the evidence is the entire truck chase in the first movie, where the drivers can’t see Woody and Buzz and they’re almost run over multiple times as a result). But traffic cones are big, bright, obvious, and impossible to miss, giving drivers plenty of time to react, either by slamming on the brakes or swerving around them while being completely unaware that sentient toys are under them. Extra points for also being the one calling the shots on when to drop and when to keep going.

He figures out how to trigger the doors to Al’s Toy Barn both times. The first time is when he knows the toys need to jump simultaneously to replicate the effect of a heavy human foot stepping on the trigger to open the doors. The second time is when he’s trying to catch up with Al, he takes one look at his surroundings and uses as much merchandise as possible to try to catch up before the doors close. When it doesn’t work, he immediately thinks to kick over the pile of boxes next to the doors to trigger them.

When Stinky Pete keeps the Roundup Gang from leaving the apartment and Al packs all of them away, Buzz immediately orders everyone back to the elevator to chase him to the lobby.

He thinks of using Slinky to reach Al’s suitcase and try to get Woody out without dropping down to it.

Upon boarding the Pizza Planet truck to chase Al, he puts together roles for everyone to fill to drive the truck all by themselves in a matter of seconds. Because of this plan, they are able to reach the airport in time.

When they arrive in the baggage area and they notice the suitcase and one identical to it, Buzz thinks to split up to chase both of them down so they don’t lose the correct one in case they open the wrong one.

Toy Story 3

When the toys are trapped in the trash bag, Buzz hears Mr. Potato Head say, “Andy doesn’t want us, what’s the point,” and immediately thinks to use Rex’s pointy tail to puncture the bag.

When he has to escape the Caterpillar Room, he sees the open transom, devises the escape plan, and commands his friends in the same manner he did while chasing Al, using as many resources in the room available to reach the transom.

After being returned to Demo mode, he immediately thinks to use his laser to try to escape the bin trapping him during the prison escape. When it doesn’t work, the second he sees Rex and Hamm standing on the same side of the bin trapping him, he kicks up the other side and makes a break for the exit.

At the dump (this and every example afterwards is after being reset twice and having a TV fall on him, so the mind resets and TV are not excuses for Buzz’s behavior), when he sees the shredders ahead, he immediately thinks to tell all of the toys to grab onto metal pieces of trash to pull them to the ceiling magnet and get them out of danger.

Small Fry

When he realizes opening the front doors to Poultry Palace is out of the question, he thinks to use the air vents to escape.

The instant he sees Gary Grappling Hook, he thinks to use him to escape the discarded therapy toys.

Toy Story of Terror!

When Mr. Potato Head goes missing, he thinks to divide and conquer to cover as much ground as possible while keeping his own searching buddies around for a lesser chance of getting lost.

When they arrive at the bathroom, he makes a zipline out of the recourses available to him to get to the ground.

Toy Story That Time Forgot

He figures out the Cleric’s plan all by himself.

There you have it! No wiggle room! Buzz Lightyear is not an idiot! He has intelligence the size of the whole Milky Way Galaxy, and is remarkably resourceful. He has consistently devised elaborate plans, and improvised smart, split-second backup plans when the thought-out ones go wrong.

Now look at him in Toy Story 4. Airheaded, slow-witted, and timid. Lacking intelligence and bravado. Unable to do the most basic of things without spamming his voice box to tell him what to do.

Not to mention the amount of times he leaves Woody behind when he knows of the danger of the current mission throughout Toy Story 4 compared to the guy who…

…leapt onto Scud’s face to rescue Woody from being ripped apart in the first movie…

…immediately chased after Al when he was stealing Woody, then, once again, led the entire rescue mission from start to finish in the second movie…

…and left the safety of the magnet to help Woody rescue Lotso in the third movie…

…all without hesitation. Woody and Buzz would never leave each other behind if they were in danger, no matter what. If one was going to risk their life, then the other would not hesitate to do the same.

“Woody once risked his life to save me. I couldn’t call myself his friend if I weren’t willing to do the same.” - Buzz Lightyear, Toy Story 2, 1999

Instead, he has to be told by his “inner voice” to look for Woody when he hasn’t returned with Forky all night, leaves him behind when he throws himself into the open to try to open the cabinet doors (another can of worms to open), jumps in too late when Dragon is trying to eat all of them during the battle for Forky, and leaves him behind when Woody goes back into the antique store to rescue Forky on his own. His “inner voice” just tells him to abandon Woody and run back to the RV, and he does.

Who is this imposter and what did he do with Buzz Lightyear?

#toy story 4 #toy story 4 salt #toy story 4 critical #buzz lightyear #character assassination #toy story #toy story 2 #toy story 3 #toy story toons #toy story of terror #toy story that time forgot #gary grappling hook #Youtube

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jasonsutekh · 1 year ago

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Toy Story 1 (1995), 2 (1999), 3 (2010), of Terror (2013), That Time Forgot (2014), and 4 (2019)

A group of toys attempt to look after their owners and stay together.

One of the main strengths is that the scenes in which there are many toys don’t get too cluttered because there is a wide range of personalities and toy types. It’s also welcome that although there is the typical kid’s film emotional resolution each time, it’s also contrasted by horror aspects, some of which are pretty effective.

A key narrative trope is used for every film, the one of abandonment and closure, which has some small variations but is also repetitive but the characters are limited to this theme since they’re toys. The lore of sentience is also very vague in the franchise since a toy can be cannibalised and still sentient, made from random craft items, and they can divine information about the wider world for some subjects.

There are a few moments when the little oddities can be amusing, mainly in the form out unusually deductive observations or bizarre ideas. Some of the stories are effective because they partly explore a childhood perspective on life. The animation also develops as the franchise progresses, for example Bo Peep is made of china in the fourth installment which isn’t clear in earlier films.

Of the two short movies the better one is Of Terror since there is a threat and clearer goal, whereas That Time Forgot is a bit looser and a lot of the villains are similar. The fourth one is the weakest of the main films, largely because there isn’t a strong clear villain. It’s good to have that variety but it still makes it less effective.

Toy Story: 8/10 -It’s certainly worthy of very high praise!-

Toy Story 2: 8/10 -It’s certainly worthy of very high praise!-

Toy Story 3: 7/10 -Well above average, but no masterpiece-

Toy Story of Terror: 7/10 -Well above average, but no masterpiece-

Toy Story That Time Forgot: 6/10 -Just a cut above average-

Toy Story 4: 6/10 -Just a cut above average-

-Toy Story 1 was the first computer animated film to use full opening and closing credits.

-In the first film Woody goes after Buzz to save him, in the subsequent main films Buzz goes after Woody.

-Sid from the first film briefly appears in the 3rd one as a bin man.

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