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Toy Story: Mister Spaceman
Chapter 1: Finding Andy
Three years ago, he'd blasted off in a car, to the sound of Mister Spaceman. Now, he was still on Earth, but even so, he couldn't escape people talking about the stars.
"If you ask me, it's a travesty. I mean, the movie's only fifteen years old, and they're already remaking it."
"Are you surprised? Buzz Lightyear was the shit back in the day."
"Key word being was. They bring him back, either it's going to ruin millions of kids' childhoods, or it's going to cheapen the brand. Heck, probably both." Dwyer laughed, and punched Andy's shoulder. "What do you think?"
What I think is that I'd like to get back to work, thanks. He shrugged. "Beggars can't be choosers."
It wasn't the best answer in the world, but it did its job. All of them alone in the computer lab, Dwyer and Nick went back to arguing over the latest trailer for Lightyear, coming to a cinema near you (in three months, specifically – pre-purchase your tickets now!), and whether it was a remake of a much beloved classic, or a rape of their childhoods. Dwyer was going on about Disney, and how if they were converting 2D animation to a 3D version, it was only a matter of time before they started making live-action remakes of their classics, and who the hell wanted that?
No-one, Andy reflected, still hunched over the computer.
Nick, on the other hand, pointed out that when the original Lightyear film had come out, it had been as close to hard sci-fi as an animation studio was going to get. Forward looking, up to date, optimistic…yeah, it ended with Buzz fighting an evil space emperor, after being sucked hallway across the galaxy into the Gamma Quadrant of Sector 4, and yes, it did involve the formation of the multi-species Galactic Alliance, but it still had at least one foot in the realm of reality.
So with that being the case Nick argued, why not remake the film now, spruce it up through 3D, and factor in the advances in space technology since then? After all, Lightyear had originally come out in 1995, but now, in the twilight of the noughties, who wouldn't want an update? Star Trek had managed it with TNG after all.
No-one says noughties though, Andy reflected. And TOS was better.
Dwyer, disagreeing on both Lightyear and Star Trek (going on about Deep Space 9), continued the argument. Leaving Andy to continue working on his animation project, and wishing his friends would just shut up.
Three years, he reflected. Three years since he'd started his animation degree at Luxo University. Three years of being in the company of nerds and geeks, and trying not to be too much of a nerd or geek himself. Despite, or perhaps because of, having engaged in plenty of that behaviour himself in his youth. Cowboys, space rangers, evil pigs wanting to take over the world…his mother had always said he'd had an active imagination. So active that when he'd applied for his animation degree, gingerly admitting that there was no guarantee of a steady job at the end of it, she'd smiled, and murmured, "I always knew."
"Come on Nick, remember Boats?"
"Course I remember Boats."
"Well this is worse than Boats, okay? Completely worse. This is the worst thing in the history of anything."
Nick muttered something about first world problems. Dwyer refused to back down, and started going on about evil corporatists. Nick claimed that in actual fact, Boats wasn't that bad, and that its reputation only really came from its sequel, at which point Dwyer told him he was crazy. After that, Andy sighed, put on some headphones, went to YouTube, and selected the Lightyear trailer.
His animation of a rat in an Italian restaurant wasn't going so well, and he needed some inspiration. Or nostalgia. One of the two. And with Lightyear having over 12 million views already, well, where could you go wrong there?
He folded his arms, and let the trailer play. Starman played in the background. Three years of studying animation had honed his mind to pick up on the video's tells and techniques – mood over plot, aesthetic over realism, nostalgia, but not too much nostalgia. He figured that if he'd made the trailer himself as a project, he could have gotten a solid A. B-plus at the least.
Hello Buzz, he thought, watching the space ranger on screen. No space cowboy for you this time.
The trailer played out. Far as he could tell, it was following the basic plot beats of the original. The one he'd seen back in 1995 as a rambunctious six year old. Him, and millions of other kids, who like quite a few of those kids, had got a Buzz Lightyear action figure for his sixth birthday. In hindsight, the toyline of Buzz, and its subsequent cartoon, had overshadowed the original film and any attempts at realism it had made, but at the time, it didn't matter. Buzz was cool. He was cool because he flew, and shot lasers, and had karate chop action. So cool, in fact, that he'd held onto his action figure while many of his other toys had joined the garbage heap in the sky.
He smirked, as he saw the space ranger's uniform appear on screen. There'd been a time when he'd have been loathe to admit playing with a Buzz Lightyear action figure at all, let alone all his other toys. Not to mention the comics, videogames, and VHS tapes he'd consumed back in his early to mid-teens. Kids weren't meant to play with toys, kids were meant to be rough, and tough, and win sports trophies. Not a sentiment that had come from his mum, but, well, that was middle school for you. What was fashionable in your childhood wouldn't cut it in your later years.
Here, though…
He took off his headphones and looked back at Nick and Dwyer. Here, on campus, the geeks ruled the Earth, and weren't afraid to be themselves. A steady diet of 90s comedy movies had fed him a barrage of lies – the idea that at university, it was jocks who were at the top of the pecking order. In actual fact, campus life accepted all matter of quirks. Some people ran the ball, other people ran DnD campaigns.
But he'd bought the lies before coming here. As a result, while Nick and Dwyer were spending every penny they had on memorabilia, filling up their shared dorm with the stuff, he'd left all his own "memorabilia" with Bonnie, not wanting to turn up with a cowboy doll. A mistake, perhaps, as on the grounds of Luxo University, having cowboy and spaceman toys didn't make you a weirdo. They made you a certified geek. Future ruler of the Earth.
Or at least the geeks could be, if they could stop arguing about the merits of 2D animation versus CGI.
"Come on Andy, settle this for us," Dwyer said. "Which is better?"
Andy shrugged, barely listening. He might not have been laughed at for bringing toys with him to university, but seeing the look on Bonnie's face…that had a magic all of its own. One that had stayed with him for the last three years.
"It isn't a question of what's better," Nick said, "it's a question of whether it serves the story."
And, he supposed, there had to be a happy medium between kid's playing with toys, and adults bickering about toys. Nick and Dwyer could be okay, but damn it if they didn't get sucked into pop culture.
"I don't care about story, I care about animation," Dwyer said. "And two-dee's dying, and I don't need some soulless remake hurrying that along. Not to mention that…"
Dwyer trailed off, and his eyes lingered on the door of the computer lab. Nick did as well. Andy's eyes followed likewise, but unlike his two classmates, didn't let his mouth drop at the sight of the opposite sex.
"Excuse me," she asked. "Are you guys here for the analytics class?"
He didn't know why Nick and Dwyer's mouths were hanging open as if they were beached fish. There was no shortage of girls on the grounds of Luxo University, and there was nothing about the girl before them now that made her stand out. Plain face, plain hair, plain clothes, plain backpack…
"Guys?"
On the other hand, this was Nick and Dwyer. They probably saw more girls on their laptop screens than in real life.
"I was told that Professor Kelly had his history class in Computer Lab A," the girl said. "But…" She trailed off, already realizing her mistake.
"But maybe you're on a journey to a different destination?" Dwyer sniggered.
"Or maybe the real journey is the friends you make along the way," Nick added.
"But even if the destination's wrong, it's the journey that matters in the-"
"This is Computer Lab B," Andy said. He got to his feet, knowing that his fellow geeks weren't going to be any help. "Computer Lab A is on the other side of the campus."
Something churned in his stomach as he saw the girl's face fall. He knew the feeling. He'd been a greenie when he'd first arrived three years ago, and he'd turned up late to more than one lecture as a result.
"A and B are on opposite ends?" she asked.
"Yeah. A's paired with C, and B's with D." He tried to smile. "Don't ask me why."
"But they said that A was…"
"They?" Andy asked.
He didn't know who they were. But there was no shortage of people who gave greenies a hazing.
The girl shook her head. "Doesn't matter." She looked at Andy, giving a small smile. "Thanks, anyway…"
Dwyer began to speak. "Hey, if you want to thank Andy, maybe you can-"
He held up a hand, telling the twat to shut it, before he looked at the girl. It was crazy, but he could swear that he'd seen her before.
But she went out of his sight, heading out of the room. The sound of her footsteps echoing down the hall, as she sprinted from Computer Lab B to Computer Lab A. A run of over a kilometre by his reckoning.
And thus, silence returned the computer lab. One that no amount of computer humming could break.
"Ah, another hottie, out of our sight."
Stupid comments from Dwyer, however, were another matter.
"Hottie?" Nick asked. "Please, that was a two. Three, if I'm being generous."
"Yeah?" Dwyer looked at Andy. "What do you think?"
But I couldn't have seen her before. I mean, she's clearly new, and I've been here three years, so-
"Hey, Andy. I asked what you think?"
Andy glared at Dwyer, who was clicking his fingers in front of his face.
"Scale of one to ten," his friend asked. "How would you rate her?"
He looked at Dwyer. Then Nick. Then the door. Then the recommended links on the trailer page. Then finally, back to Dwyer, before murmuring, "you know what I think?" He sat back at the computer, resuming work on his animation. "I think you guys are dicks."
The pair sniggered, as if he'd meant it as a joke.
He hadn't.
A/N
So, yeah. This was how the story actually started originally, as a oneshot - basically having Andy and some college friends look at the trailer for Lightyear. However, it ended up becoming a multi-chapter - sort of combining ideas I've had floating around in my head for ages into a single story. So that includes the Lightyear stuff, and how the Buzz Lightyear IP actually operates in the Toy Story universe, but other ideas as well, some of which you can probably already guess at.