As Pixar's first spinoff movienote , Lightyear is absolutely filled with references and call-backs to other works across the Toy Story franchise. Of course, In-Universe, it's the other way around; the original moments in the Toy Story films are actually the toys referencing this movie.
- From the Toy Story films:
- The first scene recreates the iconic shot of Buzz's POV inside his helmet from the first movie. Also, while attempting to contact Star Command, Buzz asks himself, "why don't they answer?"
- Buzz's first Mission Log is exactly word-to-word of his first in Toy Story.
- Buzz nicknames the main space vessel "the Turnip" due to its resemblance to, in his words, a "root vegetable". The brainwashed Buzz in Toy Story 3 called Mr. Potato Head a "tumorous root man".
- Later in the scene, Hawthorne mockingly plays background music while Buzz gives a melodramatic speech. When Buzz realizes this, he says to her "You're mocking me, aren't you?", which is what Buzz says to Woody in the first film.
- Part of Buzz and Alisha's mission is to check if the planet is safe for habitation before they wake everyone up. In Toy Story 2, Code 604.5 requires that all Space Rangers remain in hyper-sleep until awakened by authorized personnel.
- This same scene also has Buzz wanting to fly the command module by himself, and is asked if he's sure. His response? "I'm Buzz Lightyear; I'm always sure!" That line comes from Toy Story 2, where the other toys questioned if Utility Belt Buzz knew the way to Al's apartment inside the vents.
- In the first Toy Story film, Buzz asked Woody if they still use fossil fuels or have discovered "crystalic fusion". The engines in the film are fueled with a blue crystal, with much of the initial plot being how to make said fusion work to achieve hyperspeed travel.
- When startled by Sox when he first opens his box, Buzz jumps back into a Shotokan karate stance, similarly to the over-exaggerated martial arts-esque hand gestures the Toy Story Buzz makes when he first met Woody, likely in reference to the toy's "karate chop action".
- When Buzz successfully reaches hyperspace, he comes speeding down onto the planet. The button he presses to slow his ship down reads "Falling With Style", which brings to mind what Woody said about Buzz’s "flying" in Toy Story. Doubles as Freeze-Frame Bonus.
- As Buzz finds and puts back on his old Space Ranger suit, the film mimics his famous reveal shot from the original Toy Story, sweeping upwards from between his legs, with Sox taking the place of Woody behind Andy's bed.
- When one of Zurg's drones blasts Buzz's ship, Buzz dramatically exclaims "My ship!" in the same way toy Buzz did in the first movie when he notices his packaging is damaged.
- The second act takes place at a terillium mining facility, calling back to how toy Buzz referred to his wings in Toy Story as a "terillium-carbonic alloy".
- The sequence with Buzz and co. getting caught in bright orange "Capture Cone" devices and having to navigate their way out brings to mind the street crossing scene from Toy Story 2, where Buzz and the toys hide under traffic cones to cross the street without drawing attention (and causing major property damage in the process).
- When Izzy is on Zurg's base, she walks through the vacuum of space via an air lock to get to where Buzz is. However, when the destruction Zurg causes makes that part of the ship move upwards, Izzy fails to reach the door and starts to fall. The cinematography and animation of Izzy during the entire sequence is a one-to-one recreation of the "I Will Go Sailing No More" scene in the first film where Buzz tries to fly then falls.
- Buzz jumping over Zurg and using his laser to shoot at him is a near-recreation of the video game scene from Toy Story 2.
- When Zurg reveals his true form to Buzz, he at first thinks he is his dad. In the sequel, the Zurg action figure admits to being the "father" of the Buzz action figure. It's actually an alternate future version of Buzz himself.
- When Buzz is with Older Buzz, Sox calls Buzz's name, prompting both of them to respond "Yes?" slightly out of sync, much like the two Buzzes did in Toy Story 2
- During Buzz's Heroic BSoD after Izzy accidentally ejects the fuel crystal and one of Zurg's robots gets ahold of it, he collapses into a position like that when his toy counterpart had a similar breakdown during his "Mrs. Nesbitt" phase. The lighting and cinematography is even similar to how he was moping about during his chat with Woody that got him to snap out of it.
- After Buzz refuses to help Zurg and is held down by the red-colored Zurg Bots, he's held in the same position as Lotso's goons held him to reset him to demo mode, much like how Zurg in this movie was planning on resetting the timeline so this Buzz never existed in the first place.
- A couple regarding Buzz's Space Ranger suit: The first version does not have the built-in wings and laser we remember from the toy version. He gets separate attachments for both, with the wings being deployed to escape his ship exploding, just like he used his wings to cut himself and Woody free of Sid's rocket. In the final scene, Buzz and his team are wearing new Space Ranger suits that are more realistically proportioned but otherwise identical to the toy version.
- The shot of Buzz flying into a planet's atmosphere is shot exactly the same as the opening of Toy Story 2.
- The name on the Space Ranger suit that Darby borrows is "Tempus"; "Tempus from Morph" was a working name for Buzz during the development of Toy Story. Buzz also originally wore a red suit, as does Featheringhamstan.
- The team's new starship near the end looks suspiciously similar to the box the Buzz Lightyear toy is packaged in.
- When blasting off in their ship at the film's end, they are on a mission to investigate a disturbance in Gamma Sector 4, the very same location that Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear believed he was stationed at.
- From Buzz Lightyear of Star Command:
- Zurg's drones are colored yellow, just like the Zurg robots from the opening of Toy Story 2 and the cartoon.
- One of the voices heard over the radio in the trailer is named Booster, one of the main characters in Buzz's team in the show.
- The uniform we first see Izzy in is labeled '42'; the same number used to denote the ship flown by Buzz and his crew in the cartoon.
- At the beginning of the film, Buzz's partner Hawthorne complains about him recording a mission log when no one listens to those, exactly like Warp did in the series.
- From Walt Disney World:
- The naming scheme for the XL-01 and onward appears to be the same used for the XP-37 Space Cruiser, featured in Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.
