Albert "Al" McWhiggin, also known as the Chicken Man, is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Stinky Pete) of Disney•Pixar's 1999 animated film Toy Story 2. He is a greedy[1] toy collector determined to collect rare toys in exchange for money. In the movie, he steals Woody and plans to sell him and the rest of the Woody's Roundup characters to a museum in Japan, sending Andy Davis' toys on a mission to save Woody.
Quick Answers
What is Al McWhiggin's occupation in Toy Story 2?
Why is Al McWhiggin also known as the Chicken Man?
What is Al's plan for Woody and the rest of the Woody's Roundup gang?
How does Al McWhiggin's greed influence his actions in Toy Story 2?
Background
Personality
Al is greedy and comical at the same time, but unlike Sid Phillips (who would break toys and use them for scary experiments) from the first film, Al is smart and collects toys in his own kind of way. He never breaks them or takes them apart to the point that they lie around broken. Instead, Al sells off the toys after completing the collections to do his plan. His mind is bent solely on money and materialistic pleasures and he will do anything in his power to obtain them, which in turn makes him skilled in his business and trade. That said, he seems to have no problems about committing minor crimes to get what he wants, such as when he stole Woody after he attempts and fails to exchange with Andy's mom for Woody despite the former informing him Woody wasn't for sale.
Al is very immature, not only shown by his weird behavior on television but also shown by his rudeness and lack of respect when contacting other businesses. When his phone rang, he answered by rudely shouting, "Yeah, what?", only to realize it was Mr. Konishi, and immediately cleaned up his act. When Al contacts Geri, he tells him he is unconcerned about his schedule and demands that he helps him immediately, and then hangs up before Geri can agree or disagree to come to his apartment first thing in the morning. When Al talked to the airport pickup hotline about his flight and its price for travel and shipping while packing his stuff, he was in complete disbelief about the shipping price (in dollars instead of yen) and accused them of deliberately taking advantage of people in a hurry, but eventually agreed to accept the price and aggressively told the pickup driver to be at his apartment in 15 minutes to catch his plane.
When Al is at the airport, he yells at the front desk luggage manager, telling him to be especially careful with his case as the contents inside were worth more than the manager's yearly salary (he also stated that he took a box of cookies on a flight once; when he got to his destination, they were reduced to crumbs due to poor baggage handling). All of this shows how convinced he is that the planet revolves around him. He also has an over dramatic reaction to being woken up by Stinky Pete and freaks out childishly when Woody's torn arm falls off, though in the latter case, it's understandable as he needs to sell Woody in one piece.
Al is also shown to be rather lazy, such as when he complains about "driving all the way to work on a Saturday", even though his apartment is only across the street from the store and he could have easily walked there instead. He also sleeps on his couch at night still wearing his work clothes rather than in his bed wearing pajamas. He is also not considerate of his hygiene, as he insists on skipping a shower before rushing to the airport, and Woody gets a hint of Al's breath when he burps in Woody's face while asleep.
Physical appearance
Al is a middle-aged, stubby fat man with balding brown hair turning to gray. He has a mustache and goatee and wears thick-rimmed glasses. He is usually seen wearing solid bowling shirts, a white undershirt, navy pants, black shoes, and a wristwatch. During his company commercials, he wears a white chicken costume consisting of a red comb, giant white eyes with small black pupils, and a yellow-orange beak.
Appearances
Toy Story 2
In Toy Story 2, Al is the owner of Al's Toy Barn in the Tri-County area who appears as its mascot, a giant chicken, in the toy retailer's television commercials. He is also a toy collector and even made a deal with Mr. Konishi of the Konishi Toy Museum in Tokyo, Japan to collect the entire Woody's Roundup collection in exchange for a handsome payment. He spent an undetermined amount of time tracking down Woody and his gang and eventually found Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete.
Later, while attending a yard sale at Andy's house, he notices Woody, who had just saved Wheezy from being sold. Overjoyed with finding the missing piece to his collection (even if Woody's arm was ripped due to a prior accident), Al tries to buy him, but Andy's mother, (unaware of how Woody got into the yard sale) refuses to sell Woody by taking him away. Al tries to offer her $50, but she said he's not for sale as she knows that he still belongs to Andy, who was away at cowboy camp. Despite this, Al offers his watch in exchange for Woody as a trade, but to no avail. Refusing to take no for an answer, Al steals Woody when Ms. Davis had her back turned (by causing a distraction involving kicking a skateboard into a series of boxes) and hastily escaped with his prize. Buzz initially tries to save Woody from the trunk of Al's car but fails due to losing his grip before he can open the trunk. Despite the failure, he gains a few clues, such as a feather and a glimpse of the license plate LZTYBRN. After deciphering the license plate number for his car as "Al's Toy Barn" during the Crime Scene Investigation, consequently identifying the culprit as being Al and gaining a map to Al's Toy Barn from a commercial they saw on television, Buzz, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, and Rex then travel to the city to rescue Woody.
Meanwhile, Al takes various photos of Woody and the rest of his collection and after faxing them to Mr. Konishi, he makes arrangements to finally fly to Japan with the whole collection. He places the Woody's Roundup gang dolls in a green suitcase to keep them safe during the flight, even though he made it very clear to the baggage handler that what was inside was financially important to him, stating he had a box of cookies on a plane once and they finished off as crumbs by the time he reached his destination.
However, when Al finally arrives in Tokyo, he realizes all the Woody's Roundup dolls are gone due to Buzz and the other toys' interference of rescuing them (and dealing with Stinky Pete's desperation to go there) and returning home to Andy. Because of this, the deal Al made with Mr. Konishi earlier in the film was cut off due to not having the entire collection he promised and it is likely that Al and his store began to suffer financial troubles.
Shortly after this, he is seen in one of his commercials, sobbing over his loss of fortune while barely stating that the store has the lowest prices in town. Hamm responds to this by saying, "Well, I guess crime doesn't pay."
Toy Story of Terror!
Over a decade later after the events of the second film, after Andy has given his toys to Bonnie in Toy Story 3, Al is still concerned with completing his Woody's Roundup collection, and in Toy Story of Terror!, he is the winning bidder on Ron Tompkins' auction on Woody after he is snatched from one of his motel patrons by his pet iguana Mr. Jones (ironically the same one he had once tried to steal). As his address signifies, he remains the owner of Al's Toy Barn. After Woody was saved by Jessie and Ron got exposed by Bonnie and her mother as being a crook, Ron was unable to send any of his stolen toys out.
Originally, Al was planned to physically appear in the special but was cut for timing reasons.[2] Pixar released a deleted scene in storyboard form illustrating this. In this scene, Al is shown wearing his chicken suit, rejoicing as he sees on his laptop he has won the auction for Woody. A news article on the wall indicates that Al's Toy Barn has gone bankrupt, and it is implied he lives at his mother's house. However, this may not be canon, since as indicated above, he still has the address of his store in the final film.
Gallery
Trivia
- Al's license plate reads "LZTYBRN", which is "Al's Toy Barn", minus the vowel letters and a "Z" in place of the "S". It was also the actual license plate of the film's co-director Ash Brannon at the time of the film's release, according to the Toy Story 2 commentary.
- His last name is revealed on the nameplate on his office desk. Additionally, when he is done taking pictures, he answers his cell phone and Mr. Konishi can be heard saying his full name.
- When Al finishes his conversation with Mr. Konishi over his phone, he says, "Don't touch my mustache," which is a mnemonic of how to say "You're welcome" in Japanese. Incidentally, the phrase "You're welcome" itself is considered highly impolite in Japanese culture.
- According to a Disney Adventures magazine, the reason why Al was obsessed with toys is because his parents never allowed him to play with such toys as a kid.
- In the first Toy Story, both Al and his toy store were mentioned at the end of a TV commercial that Buzz watched while he and Woody were trapped at Sid's house. It is likely that his store has an exclusive deal with the maker of Buzz Lightyear.
- Al never says the names of the Woody's Roundup toys, even though he probably knows them from being a fan of the show.
- Wayne Knight (the voice of Al), shortly after this film, got to voice another one of Toy Story 2's villains, the Evil Emperor Zurg for Buzz Lightyear of Star Command.
- Because Knight was bearded at the time of the film's production, the Pixar staff chose to give Al McWhiggin a goatee. Early concept drafts show Al as an almost identical animated version of Knight, with the final design being fairly toned down to distance them.
- Ironically, a beardless Al can be seen being drawn by Etch A Sketch under Buzz's orders.
- Because Knight was bearded at the time of the film's production, the Pixar staff chose to give Al McWhiggin a goatee. Early concept drafts show Al as an almost identical animated version of Knight, with the final design being fairly toned down to distance them.
- In Toy Story 2: The Video Game, Al is implied to have an interest in trains, as his bedroom has a model train set, and his bed is designed to resemble a train.
- In Toy Story 3: The Video Game (PS3 or Xbox 360 version), a trophy (or achievement) has the name "The Collector" with Al on the image, despite the fact that he didn't appear or was even mentioned in Toy Story 3. Although he doesn't physically appear in the game, his Toy Barn does where you can buy new toys for Toy Box mode by unlocking different cards in story mode. He also appears on the coins used to buy toys from his toy store.
- However, he appears in Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure, where he kidnaps Mr. Pricklepants, one of the toys that Woody and the rest of Andy's toys (now owned by Bonnie) met in Toy Story 3.
- In Al's apartment, he has an abstract painting of Tuck and Roll and Dot from A Bug's Life.
- In the first half of the film, Al is shown wearing a red bowling shirt. In the second half, he is shown wearing a green one.
- It can be assumed that Al's favorite snack is cheese puffs, considering that there were a few in his trunk as Woody was being stolen, some on his office desk as the toys were searching for Woody, as well as a whole bowl of them which fell on the floor as he was snoozing in his apartment. This could also explain why he is overweight.
- Al may have feared of being caught for stealing Woody (and possibly other valuable toys) because when Stinky Pete turned on the television, Al jumped up from his sleep, yelling, "No, officer! I swear!" as though he thought the police were in the room.
- During development of the film, the crew suggested that Al would fix Woody when he got damaged, as he would be a toy repairman himself. However, as they continued to develop the character, they thought Al would not have the ability to fix him, so they decided to use Geri from Geri's Game instead.
- Due to the flight length from US to Japan being at least 18 hours, it is somewhat unknown how Al was able to get back to America quickly after having found out that the toys escaped. This is because Japan's timeclock is barely ahead of America's timeclock, making it confusing.
- Al's car is mostly based on the 1956 Ford Mystere concept.
- It took over a month for Pixar to digitally paint Al's car.[3]
- The read-along version of Toy Story 2 never shows the plane rescue or Al's fate; it only mentions Woody saving Jessie and the toys returning home.
- Al, or at least a character similar to him, was conceived in the earliest draft of Toy Story. He was described as being "anal-retentive" and only handled toys when wearing gloves. The draft even describes that he has an obsession with taking out the trash and that the trash itself was clean, implying that he might have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
- In Toy Story of Terror!, the shipping place for Woody and Jessie is sent to Al McWhiggin.
- Al's short, stubby appearance was based on that of Danny DeVito, which the Pixar team looked at DeVito in the 1984 film Romancing the Stone as a reference.
- Al is based on a famous toy collector in Japan, Teruhisa Kitahara, whom John Lasseter acquainted and Konishi Toy Museum was a parody of the real life Kitahara Toy Museum.
- Al's voice actor Wayne Knight is well known for his role as Newman on the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. Another star from that show who was in Toy Story 2 was the late Estelle Harris, the voice of Mrs. Potato Head.
References
- ↑ Toy Story 2 Blu-ray bonus feature "Character Interview"
- ↑ The Science Behind Pixar Fun Facts
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