It was a real treat to get to sit down with the cast and crew of Lightyear before the film’s release this Friday, June 17th. The first section included Chris Evans, Taika Waititi, Keke Palmer, James Brolin, Peter Sohn, and Dale Soules. The second part of the show included Angus MacLane, Galyn Susman, and Michael Giacchino. During the first section, Chris Evans was asked about what’s his favorite line from the different characters he’s portrayed “To Infinity and Beyond” or “Avengers, assemble”.

Oh, man.  That’s impossible, you know, ’cause obviously “To infinity and beyond” is something I knew well before “Avengers assemble.”  It was dear to me in much earlier chapters of my life. But, you know, as proud as I am to play this role and as honored as I am to be a part of this universe now, that line belongs to someone else.  It almost kinda felt like I was wearing someone else’s clothes or something, you know?  So you do your best to honor it and put your own spin on it.  But let’s be honest, that’s Tim Allen’s line.  So personally, at least “Avengers assemble,” I was the first one in the pool for that one.

As for the other actors, the breakaway star of Lightyear is Sox, the robot cat given to Buzz as an emotional support animal. Peter Sohn voiced him and gave this answer about Sox possibly getting an animated short or his own series.

I don’t want any of that burden, what are you talking about? Let Chris have the burden.  I don’t want…  [LAUGH]  No, I love playing Sox.  But yeah, I don’t know anything about that.

Taika Waititi had a good answer about the theme of mistakes and owning up to those mistakes, in the film.

Yeah, I’ve made mistakes in my time.  I mean, I think like yeah, that theme definitely resonates with me.  And especially the idea of, you know, taking on responsibility, wanting to, you know, obviously wanting to be the hero.  I think we’re all like wanting to be some kind of hero to someone. And but I think the theme that really resonates the most for me is this idea of seeking something that’s, you know, that’s out there, something in the future, something that’s not tangible and real like what’s around you in the here and now.  And, you know, the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side, you know?  Sometimes, you know, I mean, definitely out in outer space, there’s no grass at all.  And, you know, all the grass is here on Earth.  We should never have left Earth.  That’s the main takeaway from this movie.

As for the creatives behind Lightyear, Galyn Susman had this to say about the influences on the film.

Not one particular property but sort of a genre, like a whole scope.  ’80s sci-fi, we love it.  We grew up with it, or he grew up with it, and I was already old with it, but that’s okay.  I love it.  Just there’s such an immersive, tactile, interesting feeling about those films.  Star Wars absolutely going all the way until Aliens.  We just really, those are the films that we’ve watched dozens and dozens of times, or in his case, hundreds.  And you can’t help but reference them when you watch them that much.

Michael Giacchino gave a bit of insight into how he scores films and where he draws inspiration from.

You know, I mean, these are the movies I grew up on.  I pretty much was raised on them.  I ate them wholeheartedly as a kid growing up.  And one of the things I used to do was sneak a small tape recorder into the movie theaters when I was a kid and I would record the movie audio.  It would have the audience response, all of that on it.  And I would listen to it.  But this I hate, there was no VHS when I was growing up, there was nothing, there was no Internet, nothing, no way to, the only way for me to sort of experience that movie again when it was out of theaters was to listen to it.  So I would record them.  And then I would sit at home.  And every night, I would play them under my pillow.

As for Lightyear, it releases in theaters this Friday, so go check it out and read our review below!

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