Tim Allen recently told Collider that he completed “the first five-hour (recording) session for the return of Buzz Lightyear in Disney and Pixar’s upcoming Toy Story 5.” The comedian has voiced Buzz since the original 1995 “Toy Story” film opposite Woody’s Tom Hanks. “It’s really weird,” he said, to find his buzzy voice again, five years after the release of “Toy Story 4.”
“It’s a very clever story,” Allen teased of the upcoming fifth installment. “Do you want to do five of these? I don’t really think it’s about the money. I’m sure they want it to be a success, but that’s not why they’re doing it. If they hadn’t come up with a great script, they wouldn’t have done it and they wouldn’t have called Tom (Hanks) and me.” He’s really smart.
“It was really hard, and then maybe two hours later I was doing Buzz,” Allen added of his first “Toy Story 5” recording session. “I’m very lucky to be Buzz Lightyear, to be honest. It’s going to be fun. I think it’s been a year. I’ve gotten to the third act. We’ll do the third act. And after that, we’ll come back and clean it up. And after that, I’ll do it about five more times. It’s a story.” Really good guys it’s really good.
Andrew Stanton is directing Toy Story 5, which will focus on Buzz, Woody and the rest of the toys as they compete with the electronic devices that are now capturing children’s attention. Stanton is credited with writing all of the “Toy Story” films and won Academy Awards for his acclaimed efforts at Pixar in “Finding Nemo” and “Wall-E.”
While some may worry that “Toy Story 5” is a cash grab, the franchise has always turned expectations on their head. “Toy Story 4” raised similar concerns, but ended up getting rave reviews and grossing more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The film set a record at the time for the biggest animated film launch ever with $244.5 million and won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Toy Story 3 also won an Oscar and grossed more than $1 billion.
Toy Story 5 is scheduled to be released on June 19, 2026 from Disney.