The first full trailer and an accompanying batch of images for Lightyear introduced its cast beyond the titular space ranger. That includes Buzz’s mortal enemy Zurg, whom he’s shown fighting in one of the stills. However, Buzz isn’t alone in his fight. He has allies in the form of the Star Command crew.
While he’ll have multiple human allies, none of them stand out as much as his non-human sidekick. Robotic, ginger cat Sox gets considerable screen time in Lightyear‘s first trailer, setting him up as the movie’s breakout character. While a cute animal/robot sidekick hybrid sounds like a winning tweak to a tried and true Pixar formula, Sox quickly goes from cute to creepy when viewers realize something about his eyes.
Sox has the kind of big, cute eyes that should make him a big merchandise seller. He’s even expressive, showing the same kind of awe a real cat might in a still where he accompanies Buzz in the cockpit of his ship. What seriously diminishes Sox’s charm is the fact that he never blinks.
Once you realize that Sox is always wide-eyed, it’s hard to unsee. It turns what should be a look of innocence from a friendly robo-kitty into a thousand-yard stare. It’s especially unnerving in the trailer’s closing scene, where Sox stares a hole through Buzz as he tries to go to sleep. While Sox’s attempts to help Buzz sleep are comically inept, the idea of Sox staring at him in the darkness while he sleeps is less endearing.
Sox’s uncanny valley qualities are unnerving on their own. They take on a more sinister quality for anyone who’s seen the 2019 reboot of Child’s Play. Instead of being possessed by a serial killer, that incarnation of the Chucky mythos made the killer doll a rogue Artificial Intelligence. A tell-tale sign of Chucky’s corruption was his large, unblinking eyes, although they also glowed red to really drive the point home.
One wrinkle in Child’s Play 2019 differentiates it from the original beyond Chucky’s origin. The AI Chucky doll commits its acts of violence in a misguided attempt to protect his owner, Andy. While it wouldn’t turn into a murder spree in an animated Pixar movie, Sox might be similarly protective of Buzz. If he is, it will be played for laughs and maybe a tug of the heartstring or two, but it might unnerve anyone who makes the connection between Sox and Chucky.
Sox’s unintentional creepiness highlights that no matter how advanced computer-generated animation gets, it will likely always suffer from some uncanny valley pitfalls that hand-drawn animation doesn’t. While none of this is likely to keep Sox from capturing the hearts (and dollars) of moviegoers when Lightyear hits theaters this summer, it may make his otherwise heartwarming adventure unnerving for anyone who remembers Chucky’s most recent and gruesome cinematic rampage.
To see Sox in action, Lightyear blasts into theaters on June 17.
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