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So, the material listed is as follows:

  • Lightyear (Upcoming film) - Meant to be the story of the real Buzz Lightyear that inspired the toy of the same name.

  • Toy Story

  • Toy Story 2

  • Toy Story 3

  • Toy Story 4

  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins

  • Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Animated Series

  • The Toy Story That Time Forgot

  • Forky Asks A Question

  • Lamp Life

  • Toy Story Treats

  • Toy Story Toons

  • Toy Story of Terror!

What is the best viewing order for all of this?

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  • 4
    Release order (which is also chronological order I believe) makes the most sense in my opinion.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 9:38
  • My personal prejudice: Toy Story 1, 2 & 3. Ignore everything else.
    – Andres F.
    Commented Oct 1 at 19:22

1 Answer 1

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The key elements of the canon are the four Toy Story movies. The additional tie-in materials fit between the various films but without altering or adding to the canon.

As such, the tie-ins can be watched (or not) as you see fit, without missing anything in the subsequent films, but must be watched after their respective films in order to avoid introducing spoilers. For example, Zurg's big reveal (in Toy Story 2) to Buzz is mocked in Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.

*Note that Lightyear is (according to the director) the in-universe film that inspired the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon and the Buzz toy that we see in Toy Story. As such, it's not immediately apparent where it falls within into the canon timeline, but many of the jokes are dependent on having seen the first two films in the series.

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    Actually, from what I understand, the movie Lightyear is meant to be about an actual person named Lightyear that the Tim Allen Buzz is named after, hence why Chris Evans is voicing the character; they're technically 2 different people: the original man and the toy based off of the man.
    – Gothamite24
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 10:58
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    @Gothamite - Buzz Lightyear (the toy) is supposedly based on Buzz Lightyear the cartoon.
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 11:08
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    What I think is there's the actual guy, then the cartoon that brought in the more exaggerated elements, and then the toy
    – Gothamite24
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 11:10
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    @Gothamite - Having Buzz be a real person in-universe (on whom the cartoons and toys are based) would be a total inversion of the earlier films, moving them hundreds of years into the future and opening up lots of additional questions such as "Why doesn't Andy's mom have a hovercar?"
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 11:13
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    @Gothamite - And then the world of Toy Story regressed technologically from the 2500s (say), back to the 1990s, leaving the only sign of this vast technical progress (laser weaponry, anti-grav, interstellar spaceflight, shield technology) being a crappy cartoon and plastic toy?
    – Valorum
    Commented Dec 23, 2020 at 11:24

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