Pixar boss responds to major Toy Story plot hole about Buzz Lightyear

‘We had a lot of explanations and talk about that,’ said the studio’s chief creative officer of the plot hole

Pixar’s chief creative officer has addressed a major plot hole about Buzz Lightyear in the Toy Story franchise.

The 1995 animation – starring Tim Allen and Tom Hanks – remains one of the studio’s most beloved features to date, but, over the years, viewers have spotted a number of inconsistencies in the sequels.

One such mystery concerns Buzz Lightyear (Allen) and points out that the plastic astronaut turns rigid around humans, despite the fact that he doesn’t believe himself to be a toy in the film.

Pixar’s Pete Docter recently spoke about the plot hole during an interview with The Huffington Post US.

Docter revealed that the creators of Toy Story had, in fact, carefully considered the question and had “a lot of explanations” ready to give audiences who would ask why Buzz goes rigid. 

Toy Story 2 (Rex Features)

In the end, however, the team concluded that providing an answer was unnecessary because “nobody cared enough”.

He said: “We went through a lot of discussion on Toy Story, the first one, about like, ‘If Buzz doesn’t know he’s a toy, why does he go rigid when a kid walks in the room?’

“We had a lot of explanations and talk about that, too. And in the end, nobody cared.”

Docter continued: “I think the short answer is you just have to kind of try to guess where the audience is going to find importance, or at least push their interest there.”

At last month’s Disney Investor Day meeting, it was announced that a spin-off prequel film depicting the origin story of Buzz Lightyear was in the works and has been scheduled for release in June 2022.

Marvel star Chris Evans will be lending his voice to the fictional figure who inspired the toy in the film series.