One of the best new characters introduced in Lightyear is the robotic emotional support cat named Sox, voiced to perfection by Peter Sohn. The little furry sidekick accompanies Buzz and his companions throughout the entirety of their mission, constantly offering helpful information and hilarious sound bites. However, in an exclusive recent interview with Murphy’s Multiverse, director Angus MacLane revealed that Sox wasn’t always planned to be part of the entire film.
When asked if he could share one of his favorite abandoned concepts from the movie, MacLane began to explain that Sox was at one point replaced by a speaking survival kit after the film’s first act. The kit would have a personality similar to that of IVAN, the autopilot on Lightyear’s ship in the finished product, and would have met it’s tragic end as a means of keeping Buzz alive:
It used to be Buzz didn’t bring Sox with him, and he landed in the future, and the first interaction he had was with a robotic dog. It was a Zurg Hound, and then the only weapon he had was a survival kit from his ejection seat and the survival kit had an IVAN-like personality. She would comment on whatever he selected from the survival kit. So he’d grab the flare gun, which is still in the movie, but originally the flare gun was like, “oh, flare gun, excellent choice!”. Like that kind of thing. So it was constant, but ultimately he’d have to shove the whole suitcase into the robot’s mouth and I think that’s what killed it.
Angus MacLane
While all of this sounds fun, especially the idea of a Zurg Hound, it’s likely most fans are pleased that Sox was kept around instead. The character is sure to become one of Pixar’s most popular new additions and brings a certain heartfelt factor to Lightyear that helps put it above a lot of the competition. If you haven’t seen Sox in action, check him out in action when Lightyear hits theaters on June 17th.
