By W.E. Linde

Colorado Springs, CO — Step aside, Maverick! Buzz Lightyear is hitting movie theaters, and as it sweeps across the land, the U.S. Space Force will be there with him. The latest animated film by Disney and Pixar is expected to be a blockbuster, and there are arguably none more excited about it than America’s youngest military service.

“We’re so friggin’ stoked!” said Tech. Sgt. Franklin Maxwell, a Space Force recruiter currently staffing a table inside the lobby of Roadhouse Cinemas in Colorado Springs. “Buzz Lightyear is an absolute maniac who puts those Top Gun sissies to shame. This is gonna generate a lot of interest in Space Force, even more than Top Gun did for the Navy.”

Sources in the Pentagon have mostly been tight-lipped about any involvement in the production of Lightyear, which tells the story of a brash young astronaut who travels through time and fights an evil robot empire.

“Yeah, you might get to fight robots,” said Maxwell to an excited young man who had just exited the movie and nearly ran to his recruiting table. “There’s robots everywhere, my man. Some of ‘em gotta be evil.”

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According to Col. Zachary “Shay” Warakomski, commander of Space Base Delta at Peterson Space Force Base, who acted as an official military advisor for the movie, Space Force is woven seamlessly into the story background.

“For instance, when Buzz Lightyear takes off in a blaze of glory and does all the cool stuff, you’ll notice there are highly skilled technicians in the background on computers,” he said. “Some are also walking around, making sure the computers are working, while others are outside, walking to their computers located somewhere else.”

“It’s sexy as hell,” he added.

The excitement runs all the way up the chain, as was noted when Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. Raymond made a surprise appearance at the United Kingdon movie premiere earlier this week.

“There was a lot of collaboration with the film team to make sure they portray space missions in an exciting but realistic fashion,” said Raymond, dressed in his Space Force service uniform. “I’m not ashamed to admit that we spent a quarter of a billion dollars to help make this movie. It was definitely worth it.”

Gen. Raymond then spent the next several minutes trying to convince reporters he was a real general and not a paid Disney meet-and-greet character.

Despite the close cooperation, some instances of friction during production have come to light.

“We really wanted a space volleyball scene, where muscular Space Force troops led by a burly chested Buzz played against hot, seriously cut robots,” said Warakomski. “But [director] Angus Maclane argued that science fiction needs to have some basis in reality, and while he was ready to entertain the idea of muscular robots, the rest was just too out there.”