“I’ve always wondered, ‘What movie was Buzz from? Why couldn’t we just make that movie?’,” MacLane continued. “So that’s what we did.
Lightyear [is] the movie that Andy saw that changed his life. Andy’s
Star Wars. A sci-fi epic designed to inspire a new generation.”
...
“I imagined this was a movie that then later, there was
a spinoff cartoon,” MacLane explained. “And then the
Toy Story toy was made off of that cartoon design. That very much was the way it would be in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. There would be a big-budget movie, like a serious movie, and then it would get ported to a TV show...."