Andrew Stanton feared Tim Allen would go “mad” making Toy Story 5.
Tim Allen voices 51 Buzz Lightyears
The 60-year-old filmmaker wanted the first sequence in the upcoming sequel to feature 50 Buzz Lightyear action figures waking on a deserted island after their shipping crate falls off a boat, meaning the actor would be voicing a total of 51 characters, including his original Buzz and the director was worried about how the recording session would go.
He told Entertainment Weekly: “I thought, Is this gonna drive him mad?… He just, like a Robin Williams, was doing one guy talking to another, talking to another. He started having conversations with himself and just kept going.”
However, Tim relished the challenge.
He joked: “I thought, Finally, I get more screen time than Woody.”
Tim ad-libbed all his Buzz characters and has been “fighting for” a few voice variations he provided for dolls “that don’t like being part of this group.”
He added: “These are very structured creatures. All they wanna do is find Star Command.”
With over 30 years having passed since the release of the first film, Tom Hanks noted even his cowboy character Woody is showing signs of age, with a bald spot and a gut.
He said:”He has been played with to excess. You put a rubber hat on top of a rubber head again and again and again and again, something’s gonna chafe. So, yeah, he does have… let’s say a worn area on the back of his head.
“He is not shaped plastic. He is made of stuffing and cloth, and that stuff settles over time.”
Tom enjoys working on the films, but he still feels “anxiety” and “pressure”.
He said: “Over the course of five movies, we’ve gone back to the same confines, and it’s the same geometry.
“The mic is here, the stand is there, the team is there. They might have some props or what have you, but if you could have taken me at any point in all of the recording of all of these, I experienced the same anxiety, pressure, physical demands of it. So there actually is a familiar sameness.”
The movie ultimately explores the impact of technology on a child’s development and Joan Cusack, who voices Jessie, was proud to be involved.
She said: “I know every parent in the United States worries about their kids. When do you get them involved in tech? What does that do to their brains?
“And that’s what this movie’s about. It’s about humanity and playing and loyalty — and it makes me cry.”
Greta Lee has joined the cast as the voice of digital device Lilypad and she found it “cathartic”.
She said: “Playing her was extremely cathartic. She’s this thing that has held so much power within my house and has been a very complicated source of consideration.”