Patricia Heaton Says That Pixar Not Casting Tim Allen in “Lightyear” Was A Mistake
Every once in a while, Everybody Loves Raymond mom, Patricia Heaton crawls out of obscurity and uses Twitter to show her whole ass. First, there was that time she joined Rush Limbaugh in ridiculing a reproductive-rights activist and then ended up deleting her account after the backlash. Of course, trolls can’t stay gone for very long and she eventually apologized and clawed her way back. This time, she decided to go after Pixar for casting Chris Evans as Buzz Lightyear in their Toy Story spin-off, Lightyear, instead of her friend/stable dude (I kid) Tim Allen who originated the role in the original Toy Story movies.
According to Entertainment Weekly, the Buzz Lightyear in Lightyear is the action hero that Buzz Lightyear, the action figure in Toy Story is modeled after, so using a different voice to distinguish one from the other makes sense:
Chris Evans voices Buzz Lightyear in Pixar’s spin-off film, which technically centers on a different character than the one Allen played in the Toy Story movies: Evans’ Lightyear is the interstellar action hero on whom Allen’s character, a toy version of Buzz, is based.
As director Angus MacLane previously told EW, “In the Toy Story universe, [Lightyear] would be like a movie that maybe Andy would have seen, that would have made him want a Buzz Lightyear figure.”
As for the differences between Evans’ and Allen’s characters, MacLane recently told Vanity Fair, “Tim’s version of Buzz is a little goofier and is a little dumber, and so he is the comic relief. In this film, Buzz is the action hero. He’s serious and ambitious and funny, but not in a goofy way that would undercut the drama.” He added, “Chris Evans has the gravitas and that movie-star quality that our character needed to separate him and the movie from Tim’s version of the toy in Toy Story.”
Even though Lightyear drops this Friday, Patricia decided now was the perfect time to give her opinion on it to the “Tweatons” (who knew she was still relevant enough to give her followers a nickname) on the casting for a movie that’s been finished for a while now. She pulled out her best Pretty Woman and said that Tim not being in the movie was a BIG mistake. HUGE.
Saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear and all I can say is Disney/Pixar made a HUGE mistake in not casting my pal @ofctimallen Tim Allen in the role that he originated, the role that he owns. Tim IS Buzz! Why would they completely castrate this iconic, beloved character?
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) June 14, 2022
Castrated? Does Chris Evans not have balls? I volunteer as tribute to check. As it should go when someone pops off without having a clue what they’re talking about, she got a lot of replies rationalizing why Pixar chose a different actor for the role. Nevertheless, Patricia persisted:
Ok so the current Buzz Lightyear movie is an origin story – but the reason the character became so beloved is because of what @ofctimallen created. Why remove the one element that makes us want to see it?#stupidHollywooddecisions https://t.co/bRn1lZgkac
— Patricia Heaton (@PatriciaHeaton) June 14, 2022
I’m sure Pixar’s target demographic of toddlers just packed away their Tim Allen t-shirts and left the theater since he’s the ONE ELEMENT in the movie that they were all looking forward to. Speaking of castration, Patricia’s husband, producer David Hunt was the subject of sexual harassment claims on the set of a show he had been working on a few years ago, so maybe making armchair casting decisions is her departure from dealing with that mess. Tim (who is probably busy somewhere reporting a neighborhood children’s lemonade stand that’s raising money for a liberal cause for not having a permit) has yet to comment on not being Buzz this time.
Pics: INSTARimages.com