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.