Taika Waititi on His Favorite Star Wars Toys and Lessons Learned From Pixar
216The folks at Pixar figured out a mighty clever way to make a Buzz Lightyear prequel. Rather than have Lightyear tell the story of the early days of Andy’s toy, this film actually features the movie character that would have inspired Toy Story’s Andy to want a Buzz toy to begin with. Essentially, Lightyear is to Andy what a film like Star Wars is to all of us.
In Lightyear, Chris Evans’ Buzz is a Space Ranger sent to explore a potentially resource-reach planet. When the time comes to head back to Earth, Buzz makes a bad call, a call that leaves his team of more than 1,000 individuals totally stranded on an unwelcoming planet. While most learn to accept their situation and find ways to build fulfilling lives on T’Kani Prime, Buzz becomes fully consumed by his desperation to right his wrong, even if it means letting life pass him by.
With Lightyear now playing in theaters nationwide, I got the chance to chat with Taika Waititi about his experience working on Pixar’s latest. Waititi steps in to voice Mo. He’s a member of the Junior Zap Patrol, a team of cadets who volunteer to do what they can to protect the people of T’Kani Prime, which isn’t much — until they meet Buzz.
Given that Waititi has some animated projects of his own on the horizon, two Netflix series based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Oompa-Loompas, I asked him for some lessons learned from working with the greats over at Pixar.
Check out what he said about that and the movie toys he absolutely had to have as a kid in this interview!
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