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Template:DisneyChar Evil Emperor Zurg, Sworn Enemy of the Galactic Alliance is an antagonist in the 1999 Disney-Pixar film Toy Story 2 and the main villain in the 2000 film/TV series Buzz Lightyear of Star Command. He is voiced by Andrew Stanton in the film and by Wayne Knight in the cartoon series. Zurg also appears as a villain in the attraction Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters (and the variations of this attraction) at the five Disneyland-type parks in the United States, Japan, France, and Hong Kong.

Toy Story

In the first film, Zurg is a referenced character, and does not appear at all. He is simply a character mentioned by Buzz Lightyear, his sworn enemy. Buzz claims that Zurg is building a powerful weapon that could destroy an entire planet and that he is the only one that could possibly stop him (a reference to the Death Star of Star Wars). Throughout the movie, it is Buzz's only concern to contact Star Command and stop Zurg from his evil doings before he discovers that he is a toy. In early story boarding for Toy Story, Zurg was originally going to be in the opening sequence to the film. The sequence was then removed and revised and placed in the beginning of the second film.

Toy Story 2

Zurg is first seen in the opening sequence of the second film when Buzz is trying to take his power away from him (Zurg's power is from an AA battery). In the ensuing battle, Zurg blasts the top half of Buzz's body into smithereens. The sequence then cuts showing that the opening sequence was only a video game played by Rex. As the story progresses, a Zurg toy in Al's Toy Barn bursts out from his box and follows Andy's Buzz Lightyear, who is on the way to rescue Woody from Al McWhiggin. Zurg is deluded in the way the world works similar to Andy's Buzz in the first film. In the second film, another copy of Buzz Lightyear, who also acts similar to Buzz in the first film, escapes from Al's Toy Barn, and battles with Zurg using toy components (pin balls and lights). In a reference to the relationship of Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, the principal hero and villain respectively of the original Star Wars Trilogy, Evil Emperor Zurg claims he is in fact the father of Buzz. As Zurg attempts to finish Buzz #2 (at point-blank range), Rex accidentally hits Zurg with his large tail, sending him falling down the elevator shaft. The deluded Buzz then looks over the shaft and reaches his hand out, forlornly thinking he has lost his father, while Rex is overjoyed that he has finally managed to defeat Zurg. Near the end of the film, Zurg is seen to have survied his fall and is now playing catch with the other deluded copy of Buzz. Henceforth, they made up and became friends. Deluded Buzz Lightyear then says, "Oh, you're a great dad! Yipee!" as he is playing catch.

Cartoon series

Buzz Lightyear of Star Command and its direct-to-video movie Buzz Lightyear of Star Command: The Adventure Begins, Zurg says he is Lightyear's father during a fight in order to shock Lightyear, before regaining the advantage during the fight and then denying the truth of that previous claim. Whether or not this is actually true, Buzz definitely does not know who his father is. This version of Zurg is also severely lightened up, going from the movie's Darth Vader-esque version to a far less intimidating one: in the TV series Zurg is a flamboyantly evil villain who is just as much a comic relief character as he is a formidable opponent, similar to Skeletor. This Zurg is known for videotaping Buzz's speeches, maintaining a troll doll collection, and various other comedic habits. In the cartoon series, he is voiced by Wayne Knight, who voiced Al McWhiggin in Toy Story 2. It was revealed in the first episode that there was a Nana Zurg, but she is never seen at all.

Zurg would appear to be a cyborg of some description, also much like Darth Vader. He frequently mentions various members of his family but as of yet no other members of his species have been revealed.

In the TV series he is the warlord like ruler of an evil empire the seat of which is the hellish Planet Z (standing for Xrghthung). In various media surrounding the film his planet is said to be called Xrghthung but seeing as this is unpronounceable in the TV series it is changed to simply "Z." It is unknown whether Zurg rules over any other worlds but if he does they have not been revealed. Planet Z evidently possesses vast resources and forces enabling Zurg to be a serious threat to the Galactic Alliance. Despite being frequently gullible and bungling Zurg is evidently highly intelligent, able to concoct sound military tactics and Machiavellian evil schemes. Additionally, he occasionally references stereotypes of typical evil villains and intentionally violates them, showing how aware he is of his similarity to them. For example, when designing a vast prison on Planet Z, he declines building an execution arena as it simply "gives the captives more time to get away".

Despite his camp nature, he is just as fearsome and ruthless as his movie counterpart. Zurg is frequently mentioned to be the most evil villain in the galaxy and appears to possess authority over all other villains. In fact he would appear to be a physical manifestation of pure evil. He is particularly proud of this and frequently brags of how "evil" he is. In fact, with a touch he was apparently able to turn the Little Green Men's unimind from 'Good' to 'Evil'. Zurg's face is never seen.

Notes

In the movie Toy Story 2, Zurg says "No Buzz, I am your father." -- a parody of The Empire Strikes Back in which the villain Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker that he is his father in a very similar fashion.
When he is foiled, Zurg always utters the line "Curse you, Buzz Lightyear!" This has since become his trademark on Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
Zurg possesses the ability to project beams of energy from his eyes, similar to the Omega Effect possessed by the DC Comics villain Darkseid. Whether these are mystical or scientific in origin or an ability possessed by most members of his species is never explained.
Evil appears to run in Zurg's family as the Emperor frequently references members of his family when speaking. Examples include his mother and grandmother. He frequently speaks of how equally evil they were and in his most evil moments, has a tendency to enter a dreamy reverie and speak of how proud they would be of him.
The weapon Buzz mentions in the first film may relate to the Galactic Empire's Death Star.
Whilst Evil Emperor Zurg was never actually seen in Toy Story, it is interesting to note that a villain named Anti-Buzz appeared in place of Zurg in the merchandising for the first film^[1]. Anti-Buzz is depicted as an evil robot duplicate of Buzz Lightyear with a spark-driven "laser" built into his right arm, although he too did not appear in the actual film, being a mere spin-off character. Anti-Buzz later appeared as a henchman of Zurg in merchandising for Toy Story 2, but hasn't been seen since.

References

^ Cardboard packaging for original Anti-Buzz action figure released in 1995.

External links

Template:Imdb character

[1] Cardboard packaging for original Anti-Buzz action figure released in 1995.

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 '''Evil Emperor Zurg, Sworn Enemy of the Galactic Alliance''' is an antagonist in the 1999 [[Walt Disney Pictures|Disney]]-[[Pixar]] film ''[[Toy Story 2]]'' and the main villain in the 2000 [[film]]/[[TV]] series ''[[Buzz Lightyear of Star Command]].'' He is voiced by [[Andrew Stanton]] in the film and by  [[Wayne Knight]] in the cartoon series. Zurg also appears as a villain in the attraction [[Buzz Lightyear (attractions)|Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters]] (and the variations of this attraction) at the five Disneyland-type parks in the United States, Japan, France, and Hong Kong.
-==[[Toy Story]]==
+==''[[Toy Story]]''==
 In the first film, Zurg is a referenced character, and does not appear at all. He is simply a character mentioned by [[Buzz Lightyear]], his sworn enemy. Buzz claims that Zurg is building a powerful weapon that could destroy an entire planet and that he is the only one that could possibly stop him (a reference to the [[Death Star]] of [[Star Wars]]). Throughout the movie, it is Buzz's only concern to contact Star Command and stop Zurg from his evil doings before he discovers that he is a toy. In early story boarding for Toy Story, Zurg was originally going to be in the opening sequence to the film. The sequence was then removed and revised and placed in the beginning of the second film.
-==[[Toy Story 2]]==
+==''[[Toy Story 2]]''==
-Zurg is first seen in the opening sequence of the second film when Buzz is trying to take his power away from him (Zurg's power is from an [[AA battery]]). In the ensuing battle, Zurg blasts the top half of Buzz's body into smithereens. The sequence then cuts showing that the opening sequence was only a video game played by [[Rex (Toy Story)|Rex]]. As the story progresses, a Zurg toy in Al's Toy Barn bursts out from his box and follows Andy's Buzz Lightyear, who is on the way to rescue [[Sheriff Woody|Woody]] from [[Al McWhiggin]]. Zurg is deluded in the way the world works similar to Andy's Buzz in the first film. In the second film, another copy of Buzz Lightyear, who also acts similar to Buzz in the first film, escapes from Al's Toy Barn, and battles with Zurg using toy components (pin balls and lights). In a reference to the relationship of [[Luke Skywalker]] and [[Darth Vader]], the principal hero and villain respectively of the original [[Star Wars]] Trilogy, Evil Emperor Zurg claims he is in fact the father of Buzz. As Zurg attempts to kill Buzz, [[List of Toy Story characters#Rex|Rex]] accidentally hits Zurg with his large tail, sending him falling down the elevator shaft. The deluded Buzz then looks over the shaft and reaches his hand out, forlornly thinking he has lost his father, while Rex is overjoyed that he has finally managed to defeat Zurg. Near the end of the film, Zurg is seen to have survied his fall and is now playing catch with the other deluded copy of Buzz. Henceforth, they made up and became friends. Deluded Buzz Lightyear then says, "Oh, you're a great dad! Yipee!" as he is playing catch.
+Zurg is first seen in the opening sequence of the second film when Buzz is trying to take his power away from him (Zurg's power is from an [[AA battery]]). In the ensuing battle, Zurg blasts the top half of Buzz's body into smithereens. The sequence then cuts showing that the opening sequence was only a video game played by [[Rex (Toy Story)|Rex]]. As the story progresses, a Zurg toy in Al's Toy Barn bursts out from his box and follows Andy's Buzz Lightyear, who is on the way to rescue [[Sheriff Woody|Woody]] from [[Al McWhiggin]]. Zurg is deluded in the way the world works similar to Andy's Buzz in the first film. In the second film, another copy of Buzz Lightyear, who also acts similar to Buzz in the first film, escapes from Al's Toy Barn, and battles with Zurg using toy components (pin balls and lights). In a reference to the relationship of [[Luke Skywalker]] and [[Darth Vader]], the principal hero and villain respectively of the original [[Star Wars]] Trilogy, Evil Emperor Zurg claims he is in fact the father of Buzz. As Zurg attempts to finish Buzz #2 (at point-blank range), [[List of Toy Story characters#Rex|Rex]] accidentally hits Zurg with his large tail, sending him falling down the elevator shaft. The deluded Buzz then looks over the shaft and reaches his hand out, forlornly thinking he has lost his father, while Rex is overjoyed that he has finally managed to defeat Zurg. Near the end of the film, Zurg is seen to have survied his fall and is now playing catch with the other deluded copy of Buzz. Henceforth, they made up and became friends. Deluded Buzz Lightyear then says, "Oh, you're a great dad! Yipee!" as he is playing catch.
 ==Cartoon series==