Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1474486
10 cgw j u ly • a u g u s t • s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 2 David DeVan. "We had to accept the limitations. You cheat when you have to cheat it. Part of it is accepting that he is in this big barrel thing and that's part of how he moves. We wanted to incorporate that into the motion and feeling of things. He dives and rolls in a fight scene. Those shots are exciting because they incorporate the limitations and physicality of what's there." Heightening the danger factor of antagonist Zurg (voiced by James Brolin) and his robot army did not require them to be in constant motion. "We always talk about how Yoda doesn't have to do anything," reveals DeVan. "The harder you show them working the less powerful he must be. You're trying to make characters that have the highest status or danger do as little as possible; it will still be menacing. The camera and cutting help you." Sox, a feline companion robot belonging to Buzz Lightyear, has received much love from fans and critics. "It took a little bit of time to figure out what was successful," explains MacLane. "I've gravitated towards robotic characters as an animator. If it was a realistic cat, it wouldn't be as interesting. There is something charming about that limita- tion. It felt like something that would be funny to see in the movie." Animalistic traits were taken into consideration for the character. "We went through the gambit of 'how cat-like is he and does he do cat stuff?'" states DeVan. "It gets boiled down to what's funny. Only move a part of the toy that moves. The challenge with Sox early on was it had to have rotational joints on a complex shape, and it took some time to figure out how it was going to work." Much has been made of Tim Allen being replaced by Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. "We knew that we needed to go with somebody different because there would be confusion as it is," explains Susman. "This is the voice of the character in the movie. We still needed to have a strong rich voice because you can't go in a totally different vocal direction altogether. We needed to look for somebody who could pull off that superhero thing but also have a level of sensitivity to be able to carry off the emotional moments. As soon as we defined what was needed, Chris Evans was the clear winner." Sustaining the emotion over a wide variety of action set pieces was the biggest challenge. "We have a lot of action keeping you not just entertained but also caring about the characters," notes MacLane. "That's always a challenge because there's so much going on. Trying to get a cohesive non-episodic emotional journey has been difficult. Making a movie in COVID-19 was hard but we were fortunate to have a creative team that knew each oth- er quite well, trusted each other, and worked to support the movie." MacLane adds, "There are a lot of design aesthetics and retro tech that are going to be the film's trademark. We have a robot cat oper- ating a computer, which is ridiculous but charming!" ¢ Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for com- posing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer. A visit to NASA helped the design team add realism to Buzz's suit.