Tom Marshburn may not be Buzz Lightner in real life, but the Space Ranger – at least as it appears in the new movie “Lightyear” – would not be the same without the NASA astronaut.
What began a few years ago as an unrelated interaction with Pixar, the Disney-owned animation studio behind the Toy Story franchise and now Lightyear, has led the 61-year-old doctor to become …SpaceX pilot becomes a guide to animators in the world of NASA and space exploration (opens in a new section).
“I was advised to talk to a team that is assembling a space movie. That was all I knew, “Marshburn said in an interview with collectSPACE.com.
So about five years ago, Marshburn made a trip to Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California, where he met with director Angus McLain and the core team behind what will become Lightyear.
“I told them about life in space and space travel and they just answered all their questions about what it’s like to be an astronaut and live and work in space, “Marshburn said.
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As it happens, this is exactly what the Pixar team needed to start changing its own instantly recognizable toy astronaut (opens in a new section) in the hero who inspired him. Lightyear, now in theaters, is a high-budget fiction film that led to the action figure that was then central to earlier Toy Story films.
In “Lightyear” Buzz is not a toy (opens in a new section)but a vulnerable man, a space explorer (voiced by Chris Evans).
“We had to incorporate some of the toy’s ingredients into the design,” said production designer Tim Ewat in a statement released by Disney. “But it’s almost like we took it to NASA and worked with experts who actually make space travel and add that authenticity of space to the costume.”
In fact, that’s more or less what they did. While training for his last flight to International Space Station (ISS), Marshburn arranged for the Pixar team to tour NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
“I was able to show them how astronauts train,” Marshburn said. “They met other astronauts, met people who work here and saw the facilities: the neutral buoyancy lab, where we practice space travel, the hangar, where we have our T-38 jets with which we train many of the simulators. “
“In the end, it was a really crowded day and a half tour, but a lot of fun,” Marshburn said.
The visit helped shape Buzz Lightyear’s appearance in Lightyear. Along with a virtual meeting with a spacesuit a consultant in design and reference material from the Smithsonian, the tour provided tailor and simulation supervisor Fran Calal with the information and inspiration needed to create not one but several generations of Buzz Lightyear spacesuits.
Buzz’s first costume in the film, for example, is reminiscent of hardware from the early days of human space exploration, embracing function over form.
“The chest is bulky and fastened with a strap,” Calal said. “The oxygen hose is loose and cumbersome. The wrist communicator is tied to the suit. The suit has padded knees, elbows and shoulders to prevent Buzz from crashing into the ship and allow mobility.”
“The utility belt is bulky with large metal buckles. And boots, gloves and neck rings allow rotation, but they are heavy and a little cumbersome, “she said.
With each mission, Buzz costumes become more elegant, with better mobility and integrated technology.
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“We tend to be a little obsessed with Pixar research,” said producer Galin Sussman, who was also on the Marshburn tour. “The goal is to take your key creators and expose them to the people, the environment and the experiences that will influence the design and language of the film.”
“We saw the original control center for Apollo missions, as well as the one used today to track the ISS. We saw buttons, keys, buttons, dials and badges. We were guided through a copy of the ISS headquarters in the United States and the laboratories. “We saw vehicles, training planes and capsules,” Susman said.
Marshburn consulted once again with Sussman and McLain from a place that was even more relevant to the subject: Earth orbit. He spoke to the two directors after launching to the International Space Station for the 176-day period of SpaceX Crew-3 missionwhich ended early last month (opens in a new section).
“Time delay is real. “Because the speed of light is the same, no matter who watches or observes it, time progresses more slowly for people and objects that move fast than objects that do not move fast,” Marshburn told Susman and MacLane, referring to the plot point of the film.
A clip from the space-to-earth conversation is included in the documentary film “Beyond Infinity: Elderberry and the Journey to the Light”, which is now airing on Disney +.
About a month after returning to Earth, Marshburn became one of the first people to see the completed film of the world premiere of “Lightyear” in Hollywood. Although he was unable to pinpoint a specific detail or scene he directly influenced, he said the film succeeded. conveying a sense of true space exploration (opens in a new section).
“There’s a lot of reality in the look and feel of the hardware that the characters use,” Marshburn told collectSPACE. “I also think that the characters’ personalities are closer to reality than other images of astronauts I’ve seen.
“The respect that the film gives to science and technology, even if it is a science fiction film – it is fiction – I think it can attract a whole generation of young people and others who, through their fascination with wanting to see this fun film, start to ask what is real, what I can learn about it, and then learn about science, technology, engineering and math, ”Marshburn said. “So this is a wonderful way to open the door to this as an exciting field, and this is the real excitement for me to be a part of it.”
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