Tim Allen had to retrain his voice before returning as Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story 5. The actor, who first voiced the Space Ranger in 1995’s Toy Story, said he worked with a voice coach after engineers suggested that his Buzz sounded older during early recording work for the new film.
Allen, now 73, was 42 when the original movie opened. He told Entertainment Weekly that the note caught him off guard.
“Early on, when we did this first radio plug for this one, T5, in a nice way, some of the engineers were going, ‘Buzz sounds a little old,’ and I didn’t know how to take that,” Allen shared
The production connected him with a voice coach from New York City Opera, who helped him understand that the issue was not age so much as preparation. “She said, ‘You’re not old. Don’t get that in your head. You do have to warm up at your age. You can’t just get right into it,” Allen recalled.
Allen said playing Buzz requires a specific vocal approach, even if it sounds close to his natural speaking voice. “It doesn’t seem very different than the one I’m speaking in,” he said, adding that he began using vocal exercises similar to those used by opera singers and Broadway performers.
“I had to learn the process of warming up,” Allen said.
His longtime co-star Tom Hanks also has his own method for returning to Woody’s signature voice. “I have to get out of my neck and come from the diaphragm ’cause that’s all Woody does,” Hanks said.
Hanks recently told People that he has seen Toy Story 5 and praised the film as a worthy continuation of the Pixar franchise. “I don’t know how they do it, but it is a vibrant and proper chapter in the Toy Story canon. None of us can believe that we’re still a part of it.”
The official synopsis for Toy Story 5 finds Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the toys facing a new challenge when a smart tablet named Lilypad (voiced by Greta Lee) enters Bonnie’s life with disruptive ideas about playtime.
The film continues one of Pixar’s most beloved franchises more than 30 years after the original Toy Story changed the future of animation. For Allen and Hanks, returning to Buzz and Woody is no longer just about reprising familiar characters. It is about finding the voices again, with the same spirit that made them endure.
Toy Story 5 is in theaters today.
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