People Had To Explain To Patricia Heaton What ‘Lightyear’ Is About After She Said Pixar ‘Castrated’ The Character By Not Casting Tim Allen

For a Pixar film, Lightyear has been weirdly controversial. The main sticking point, at least for retrograde conservatives and certain nations, is that it features a same-sex kiss between two moms, though its vocal star, Chris Evans, is proud Disney stuck to its guns. Speaking of Evans, his casting also set off a mild firestorm. When the film was first announced, people were angry that it didn’t bring back Tim Allen, who voiced him in the Toy Story films — at least until they learned it was about the astronaut who inspired the character. But it appears one prominent entertainer didn’t get that memo.

Patricia Heaton, best known as Debra Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, came to the defense of another ‘90s family sitcom star, charging that Disney did Tim Allen dirty. “Saw the trailer for Buzz Lightyear and all I can say is Disney/Pixar made a HUGE mistake in not casting my pal @ofctimallen Tim Allen in the role that he originated, the role that he owns. Tim IS Buzz! Why would they completely castrate this iconic, beloved character?”

It wasn’t just that Heaton didn’t seem to know that this was technically a different Buzz Lightyear. It was that she said the re-casting “castrated” the original character, whom Allen voiced starting in the original 1995 Toy Story and as recently as 2019’s Toy Story 4. Her mentions were soon filled with people explaining the (admittedly kind of laborious) difference between the Toy Story Buzz and the Lightyear Buzz. (Though unremarked-upon is that maybe Allen wouldn’t want to be in another children’s movie anyway because he “hates” kids.)

Eventually Heaton corrected herself, but still stood her ground, arguing that he reason the character became so beloved is because of what @ofctimallen created. Why remove the one element that mak”tes us want to see it?” She tagged it “#stupidHollywooddecisions”

Allen has yet to weigh in on the matter, though that’s perhaps because he’s busy making creaky (and vaguely anti-“woke”) jokes.

Lightyear hits theaters on June 17.