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− | <div style="text-align:justify; text-align-last:right;">Working on a tight budget meant that several animation studios worked on the show, and that the animation quality varied from episode to episode. "The Adventure Begins" was understandably the episode with the highest quality, being made after the show's completion and with the majority of the character designs and layouts already taken care of. Other episodes of high quality are "[[NOS-4-A2 (episode)|NOS-4-A2]]" and "[[Lost in Time]]", the only episodes animated by Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Inc. and the first two episodes in production order.</div> |
+ | <div style="text-align:justify; text-align-last:right;">Working on a tight budget meant that several animation studios worked on the show, and that the animation quality varied from episode to episode. "[[The Adventure Begins]]" was understandably the episode with the highest quality, being made after the show's completion and with the majority of the character designs and layouts already taken care of. Other episodes of high quality are "[[NOS-4-A2 (episode)|NOS-4-A2]]" and "[[Lost in Time]]", the only episodes animated by Walt Disney Animation (Japan), Inc. and the first two episodes in production order.</div> |
==Music== |
==Music== |
Revision as of 07:12, 21 August 2013
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command | |
---|---|
Title card. | |
General Information | |
Format | Animated Series |
Country of Origin | United States |
Languages(s) | English |
Executive Producer(s) | Tad Stones |
Writer(s) | Gary Sperling |
Director(s) | Don MacKinnon |
Composer | Adam Berry |
No. of Seasons | 2 |
No. of Episodes | 62 (65 including the pilot) |
Production Information | |
Animation Studio(s) | List of animation studios |
Production Companies | Walt Disney TV Animation |
Distributor(s) | Buena Vista Television |
Original Channel | ABC |
Running Time | 22-24 minutes |
Picture Format | 480i (4:3 SDTV) 1080i (16:9 HDTV) |
Audio Format | Stereo |
Original Run | August 8, 2000 – January 13, 2001 |
Status | Complete |
Story
The show follows the exploits of Buzz Lightyear, a famous and experienced Space Ranger who takes three aspiring rookies by the names of Mira Nova, Booster and XR under his wing. Together, they are known as Team Lightyear, and they fight against crime as they work to make the galaxy a safer place. Their base is Star Command, a military-like police force that serves as the galaxy's primary line of defense, which orbits Capital Planet, the headquarters of the Galactic Alliance.
The Galactic Alliance's main enemy is the Evil Emperor Zurg, an intergalactic menace who rules an empire of heavily-armed robots and alien races and is the galaxy's most wanted criminal. Although Team Lightyear comes across several other minor villains during the course of the series, Zurg is the most prominent, and Buzz wants nothing more than to take him in and put a stop to his plans once and for all to ensure peace throughout the galaxy.
Production
History
In a recent podcast interview with The Animation Guild, Stones doubted whether John Lasseter, the creator of Toy Story, would have liked his original idea for the show, remarking how he had recently heard that Lasseter hated the show. All this despite Stones having initially pitched the idea of the show to Lasseter, Joe Ranft and other key members of the films at the time of its creation.[4]
"I have no clue whether John would have liked my version better. I suspect not when I finally see Buzz in those little dream sequences and things like that they do in Toy Story, it was... it's plain the Big Adventure, and this—this heroic guy who could do anything... and that's not the show that could sell to our guys down at Disney. So we were trying to get the feel of Buzz Lightyear being a fish out of water that was in Toy Story, except we were doing a story where he's a fish in the water, but we had to get that humor..." |
Lee Unkrich, one of the film editors for Toy Story and later on film editor and co-director of both sequels, originally had concerns about the show because he believed that "traditional, flatter animation wouldn't do justice to Buzz", even though Pixar had always intended for the first Toy Story film to open with a Buzz Lightyear cartoon done in traditional animation that Andy would be watching.[5] But Unkrich ultimately decided that it didn't matter and was quoted saying that Buzz Lightyear of Star Command "could actually be the cartoon that Buzz originally came from."[6]
Despite the series not being a joint effort between Disney and Pixar as many seem to think, Pixar acted as Disney's consultants and contributed to the show's opening sequences that featured all of Andy's toys gathering together to watch the show.[7] Pixar was also undergoing production for
Toy Story 2 during the time Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was nearing completion, and it was ultimately deemed unwise to release the show before the Toy Story 2 sequel. Despite that leading to the series not being able to be released upon its completion, it gave Stones and the others the opportunity to begin work on "The Adventure Begins", which detailed the events that led to the formation of Team Lightyear. They had everything already at their disposal, from character designs to layouts and backgrounds, which meant there was an "incredible increase in production value", despite the pilot chronologically being made after they had completed their work on the series.[4]Crew
- Main article: List of writers and story editors
Below follow photographs of crew members who worked on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, as taken by Bob Foster, one of the storyboard artists, and shown on The Animation Guild blog.
Back row, left to right: Bob Zamboni, Craig Kemplin, Dave Schwartz, unknown, Denise Koyama, Dana Landsberg, Chuck Puntuvatana, Sean Read, Sean Bishop. Front row, left to right: Cris Collins, Troy Adomitis, unknown, Carin Ann Anderson, Vic Cook, Jung Ja Wolf, unknown, Niki Kopp, Gordon Kent. | |
Back row, left to right: J.K. Kim, Cris Collins, Mitch Rochon, Sharon Forward, Bob Foster, Bill Turner, Garret Ho, Bob Zamboni, unknown, Kenny McGill, John Miller, Debra Pugh, Ron Erhear. Front row, left to right: Niki Kopp, unknown, Zoe Seals, Donna Prince, Ginny Suess, Don MacKinnon, Katherine Victor, Plamen Christov | |
Back row, left to right: Justin Thompson, Plamen Christov, Jim Finch, Rich Chidlaw, Marsh Lamore, unknown, John Miller, Greg Guler, unknown, Nick Filippi Middle row, left to right: Steve Loter, unknown, Jessica Portillo, John Ahern, John Kimball, J.K. Kim Front row, left to right: Cris Collins, Rick Evans, Mike Karafilis, Linda DeLizza, unknown, Sharon Forward, Niki Kopp |
Voice Cast
- Main article: List of voice actors
In order to select voice actors, they had to pass by an audition, which Jamie Thomason was presumably in charge in.
Interesting to note is the amount of A-list voice actors that worked on the series.
Animation
- Main article: List of animation studios
Music
- Main article: Music
The work Adam Berry did on the show's musical cues was extensive. He wrote and recorded twenty-one minutes of music every two weeks for over a year.[9] A soundtrack was never released, but he has some of his favorite tracks up on his personal website.
Continuity Issues
With Toy Story
Broadcast Order versus Production Order
Another example of continuity error comes with the episodes "XL" and "The Planet Destroyer". In the latter episode, Mira's father teaches her how to "sift" through someone's brain for information, but "XL" aired before it with Mira already having known the ability. Production-wise "XL" follows right after "The Planet Destroyer", but broadcast-wise they are separated by a few episodes with the former airing first.
References
- ↑ What Kinds of Sci-Fi Are There?
- ↑ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (Wikipedia)
- ↑ Tad Stones Interview
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 TAG Blog: A Talk with Tad Stones, Part III
- ↑ The Making of Toy Story: Abandoned Alternate Opening
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lee Unkrich: Out of the Toy Box
- ↑ Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: Opening
- ↑ Disney TVA's Buzz Crew in the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Paraphrased quote from an e-mail conversation: "I do have lists of all the cues but not in one place. It's a lot of music. I wrote and recorded 21 minutes of music every 2 weeks for over a year. "
- ↑ Elise Harris: Tooning In