Theory Thursday- The Mysteries behind Buzz Lightyear revealed!

Why does Buzz think he is a space ranger?

There is a school of thought that asks the big and important questions that the majority of us fail to ask. One of these is “how come Buzz from Toy Story thinks he is a real space ranger, yet still freezes when andy is around?”

Welcome to theory Thursday

This is a two part question, so I will answer it in two parts.

Part one: Andy has an interesting setup of toys that is rather strange for a kid in 95 to have. All of his toys are generic except for woody and buzz.

Consider his toys: rex- a toy dinosaur, Hamm the piggy bank, Slinky the Slinky Dog, etch a sketch, a remote controlled car name “RC”, bo-peep (who was supposed to be a Barbie doll, but I think we are all better for her not being one) she is not based on anything, Mr. Potato Head, etc.. all of these toys that are home in andy’s room were created specifically to be toys. You only want a toy dinosaur so you can play with a toy dinosaur. You only get a Mr. Potato Head to play with a Mr. Potato Head.

In an Alternate Opening to TS1, Andy is seen watching the
"Buzz Lightyear of Star Command" TV show. In the Pilot for
the actual show, we know that the movie and show exist in the
Toy Story universe as well, and finally the graphic novel "The
Return of Buzz Lightyear" confirmed that the Buzz action Figure
line is based off the TV series.

Woody and Buzz are quite different in their set up. Both of them are based on T.V. franchises. Woody was based on Woody’s Round Up in the 50’s and Buzz is based off the T.V. show “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command”. Neither of them were created specifically to be toys, they were created as merchandise for the T.V. show. You get a Buzz Lightyear action Figure because you like the show. In the Comic Book “The Return of Buzz Lightyear”, we meet other Buzz Lightyear toys in dozens of Variants solely for the marketing of the show and the pleasure of toy collectors.

Toys are rather suseptable to their enviroments. They take on the qualities that their owners see in them. in Toy Story 2, Woody slowly begins to desire being a collectors item as that is how Al, who was his owner at the time, sees him to be. The limited free will that toy’s have are what preserve their character integrity and personality. Woody, Being such an old toy, doesn’t sway easily as it took Pete a long time to sway Woody and Buzz not as long to sway him back. Andy see’s Buzz as the space ranger because that’s what Buzz is to him, so that's how Buzz is.

Part 2

So why does buzz freeze with the other toys. It seems that toys freeze faster based on who they are around with. In the short “Toy Story that Time Forgot”, the Battlesaurs (also a marketing item for a T.V. show) froze almost instantly once bonnie entered the room. Buzz has the same problem in the first Toy Story. In those instances, the toys were very new and so they haven’t learned the proper interacton with their owners. They are just empty shells and playtime/ love and joy are what power toys.

Notice that human emotion is a theme in all Pixar Movies. Wall-E
was able to keep his head in the apocalypse because of human
emotion, Monsters Inc. was powered by Human emotion,
Toy Story works the same way.

Human emotion is what powers the events in every Pixar movie to date. The Toys are seeming programed to make Andy happy. in TS3, Woody mentions that the Job was never about being played with but being there for Andy. Jessie sings that her biggest role with Emily was comforting her and drying her tears.

The longer a toy is around a human, the more their own power and energy to move around works. Toys can come alive infront of kids, they did for Sid, but it takes an amazing amount of Collective Effort to fully come alive (notice Woody was only speaking through his voicebox through the majority of his conversation with Sid). New Toys simply don’t have the strength to accomplish such a feat, especially those who don’t even believe that they are toys. They just go about their business as if nothing has happened during playtime.

So that is my answer as to why Buzz thinks he is a Space Ranger and why he still freezes when Andy shows up into the room.

agree? disagree? let me know about it in the comments below! Make sure you share this article with that one friend that would randomly check their room to see if their toys came alive.

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