Warning: Spoilers For The Santa Clauses Below!The Santa Clauses includes a joking reference to Buzz Lightyear, which just makes the casting situation of 2022’s Lightyear more bizarre. In The Santa Clauses, Scott Calvin (Tim Allen) decides to finally hang up his coat and hat as Santa in order to raise his family outside the North Pole, and he hands his duties off to tech genius Simon Choksi (Kal Penn). Scott and his family still have some trouble adjusting, and episode 4, titled “Chapter Four: The Shows Off the Bed Clause,” shows some of this when Scott and his wife, Carol (Elizabeth Mitchell), meet a kid in a coffee shop.
Full of his usual Christmas spirit, Scott Calvin identifies the kid as “Lucas!” and comments that he’s “got those pjs with the Buzz Lightyear on them” as a sign of his sci-fi fandom. The kid, who is holding a stuffed Grogu doll from The Mandalorian, and his mother leave unamused by Scott’s joke, but the mention of Buzz Lightyear in The Santa Clauses brings to mind Tim Allen’s portrayal of that character. The reference is even weirder due to The Santa Clauses being released mere months after Lightyear, which saw some consternation among Toy Story fans due to Chris Evans voicing the character rather than Allen.
How The Santa Clauses Played Into The Lightyear Recasting Debate
The fact that Chris Evans was voicing Buzz in Lightyear led to some speculation that there had been a falling out between Disney and Tim Allen that resulted in the recasting. Of course, The Santa Clauses being in production at the same time obviously shows that Allen and Disney had not parted ways. When it comes to the recasting of Lightyear, the decision likely boils down to its disconnected relationship with the Toy Story franchise, telling a story about the fictional Space Ranger who was the basis for Buzz Lightyear action figures.
For his part, Allen commented that that very approach may have been detrimental to the iconography of Buzz Lightyear. Allen stated in an interview with Extra “There’s really no Toy Story Buzz without Woody.” He also said, “It’s a wonderful story, it just doesn’t seem to have any connection to the toy.” However one feels about the non-Toy Story that Lightyear tells outside the franchise’s usual sandbox, the reference to Buzz Lightyear in The Santa Clauses stands out more than it might have without the controversy of Lightyear‘s Buzz recasting.
Why The Santa Clauses Buzz Lightyear Mention Felt Forced
Releasing so soon after Lightyear, The Santa Clauses inclusion of a fourth-wall break Buzz Lightyear joke almost comes off as a reminder meant to reassure viewers of Allen’s association with the role. The joke probably would not have come across that way had Lightyear performed better, but the kid’s Grogu doll also compounds the weird situation with the Lightyear joke. With Buzz Lightyear’s backstory having overt Star Wars influences, the Grogu’s doll inclusion seems like an effort to reinforce The Santa Clauses‘ reference to Buzz.
With the unexpected box office disappointment of Lightyear, the weird vibe that The Santa Clauses‘ Buzz Lightyear joke conveys is almost certainly unintentional. Meta-humor of that nature can hit in surprising ways due to circumstances out of the filmmaker’s control. Such is the case for The Santa Clauses‘ weirdly layered in-joke referencing Buzz Lightyear.
