Pixar's Lee Unkrich is a jerk

I think Lee Unkrich is a jerk.


There, I said it.

Lee Unkrich has to be my least favorite director in the world.

You do not know him? How’s that?

Lee Unkrich is the director of Toy Story 3 – a movie that gave Pixar Animation Studios its highest earning opening weekend ever at $110 million. Before it is over, there is no doubt in my mind that Toy Story 3 will be the company’s highest earning movie of all-time.

But, I still think Lee Unkrich is a jerk.

Why?

I’ll tell you.

Last weekend, I, and eight other people, went to see the movie. It was everything I expected and more. In fact, it gave me, and the other people with me and the other people in the theater, more than we could have ever expected.

So, isn’t that a good thing? Don’t we always want more than we expected?

Well, yes and no would be appropriate answers to those questions.

And, we got all this “extra” thanks to that jerk – Lee Unkrich.

Let’s go back a bit – back to 1995 to start. That was the year the world was introduced to Woody, Buzz and the other toys in the first movie – Toy Story. Lee Unkrich was the editor for the first movie and, while no doubt having a very significant role in the first movie’s production, did not make a lasting impression like he made in the production of Toy Story 3.

Toy Story had, for the most part, a simple storyline. Woody and Buzz share an adventure and become friends when they have to find their way to the new house where Andy – the person to whom all the toys belong – and his family are moving. Did I really just refer to Andy as a person? Can you refer to an animated character as a person? That is a big problem with the Toy Story series – all the characters become real in the moviegoers’ eyes.

Anyway, Andy and Buzz rejoin Andy and the family in the end. All is happy. All is good. It was a great plot for the first movie, a very successful movie. That year at Christmas, as a 38-year-old father of two, I got both Woody and Buzz characters from my children. They are in my room in their original boxes – mint condition. I like Woody, but Buzz has always been a pain. If he ever starts to talk, it takes an act of congress to get him to stop. So, I keep Buzz hidden away so that no one can accidentally start him talking.

In 1999, Lee Unkrich became the co-director for Toy Story 2. Again, he had a significant role, but nothing near the lasting impression he would have on Toy Story 3. In Toy Story 2, Woody’s attempt to save Wheezy – a toy penguin – from being sold at a yard sale begins the new adventure. Wheezy is saved, but Woody is stolen by the evil and enthusiastic toy collector Al McWhiggin. Al McWhiggin needs Woody to complete his set of Woody’s Roundup characters – Woody, Jessie, Bullseye and Stinky Pete the Prospector. He plans to sell the characters to a museum in Japan. The other toys rally to save Woody. All is well in the end. Everyone leaves the theater feeling good.

I will not reveal the events of Toy Story 3 here, but I will repeat that Lee Unkrich is a jerk for what he did in this movie to get to the hearts of the people in the audience – what he did without fair warning. What he did was the result of a great storyline – the best of the Toy Story series. Lee Unkrich touched the hearts of both young and old. He made those in attendance – especially the adults – shed tears for a bunch of toys. Yes, Lee Unkrich took us all on an emotionally draining rollercoaster ride and he knew he was doing just that.

When the movie was played for test audiences, the tears flowed. When the house lights came up, Lee Unkrich noticed the majority of the people in the audience had not had enough time to compose themselves. So, he lengthened the movie’s credits to provide some extra time for those in the audience who needed it to compose themselves. For that, we can all be thankful.

But, Lee Unkrich is still a jerk in my book. He could have warned us that tears were possible – no, probable. At least then we could have brought along the Kleenex.

Hurtsboro history includes BMWs

Once each week, I make a trip to the Town of Hurtsboro in southern Russell County. The reason for the trip is irrelevant to this column, but if you are curious and must know – I am the Operator of Record for the Hurtsboro Water and Sewer Board. I check their wells each week and send in the necessary paperwork to keep the system in compliance with the rules and regulations of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management.


But, like I stated, that has nothing to do with this column.

While on that trip each week, I stop by Perry’s Hardware and visit a few minutes with Rick Perry, the store’s owner. The store has been the Perry Family business for nearly 100 years. Rick has not been working there quite that long.

The past week when I stopped by the store, Rick - a bit of a Hurtsboro historian – told me a tale that left me flabbergasted. It seems that back in the 1920s, Hurtsboro was a hot stop for BMW sales. Rick said BMW sold more of its vehicles in Hurtsboro than in any city in the state.

My reaction to that – Wow! That was unbelievable.

The information got me to thinking. How was this even possible? My feeble mind wanted to know.

I do not know a lot about BMW, but I knew some things that just did not fit this picture that Rick was painting. BMWs, at that time, were produced only in Germany. The company began in the early 1900s – about 1916 – and made engines for airplanes. The company began making automobiles in 1929 which would mean Hurtsboro’s owners were at the head of the line in purchasing the new vehicles. The first BMWs had engines that were originally engineered for motorcycles. But, Henry Ford’s first engines were not much different.

Transporting vehicles from Germany to the United States in the 1920s had to be a more difficult task than it is today. There were no real super cargo ships to transport large numbers of automobiles. So how could – according to Rick – more than 20 BMWs get across the Atlantic Ocean to Hurtsboro? How long would this take? And, did all these BMWs get delivered to Hurtsboro at the same time?

Maybe a more important question to ask is why would anyone in Hurtsboro want a BMW in the 1920s?

World War I had not long ended. If my history is correct, we were at war with Germany. I know after World War II no citizen of the United States would buy a Volkswagen so soon after that major conflict. Why would anyone in the United States feel differently after World War I? Were the citizens of Hurtsboro sympathizers of Germany? Was there a larger German population in Hurtsboro in the 1920s? I knew I would need to do more investigation into our county’s history to be able to answer these questions.

Hurtsboro was quite a hub of industry early on in its history. There were at least two soft drink bottling companies in the town around the turn of the 20th century. Hurtsboro was a prosperous community. So, there was plenty of money available to be used to purchase vehicles – even BMWs.

I had run all these questions and points of logic through my mind in a matter of seconds as Rick relayed the information he had discovered during his research of his home town. I could see he was aware I was having trouble rationalizing the information he was sharing.

It was then that Rick explained the rest of the story. BMW did not stand for Bavarian Motor Works. It stood for Brown Mule and Wagon. I had fallen for Rick’s trick – hook, line and sinker. I am so gullible. Maybe next time Rick tells me something that does not compute I will ask him for the punch line before I put a strain on my brain.