Toy Story 3 Exclusive Interview with Director Lee Unkrich

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show. [00:00:10] Speaker 2: Live in Madrid, a genius man, Lee Unkridge. Good morning. Hey, good morning. How are you? It's a privilege for us to speak to you this morning. [00:00:17] Speaker 3: Well, you know, I'm happy to be here. It's been great touring around the world and talking to people about the movie, and I'm just so beyond overwhelmed at the response to the film. So happy that people are enjoying it as much as they are. [00:00:28] Speaker 2: Tell me through then the process with this one, Lisa. What happened? Because obviously 15 years ago, Toy Story kind of changed the world when the first one came out. [00:00:34] Speaker 3: Yeah, it did, and I was lucky enough to be a part of that. I was the editor of the first Toy Story film, and, you know, I was kind of, I was in the right place at the right time with an amazingly talented group of people, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, the whole gang. And, you know, we didn't know that we were changing the world. We were just trying to make a good movie and have fun doing it. Nobody knew who we were, and we had no idea if we'd ever get to make another movie after that first one. [00:00:59] Speaker 2: But then suddenly, you know, the next one comes out. Somehow you guys make that one even better than the first one. And then it must have been a really scary decision to go back to those characters, the ones that have done so well that we all care about, and you obviously look after, and then try and do a third one. [00:01:12] Speaker 3: I know, we're crazy, right? It's like we were complete masochists. You know, John Lasseter asked me to direct this third film just over four years ago, and right after he asked me, I was flattered, and I was excited, and then I wanted to vomit, because I knew that I was just going to be under this enormous amount of pressure, not only to make the new Pixar film, because anyone directing the new Pixar film is worried about breaking the winning streak, but on top of that, yeah, making a sequel to two of the most beloved films of all time. I didn't want to go down in history as being the guy who screwed it all up. [00:01:45] Speaker 2: And when did the vomiting stop? [00:01:46] Speaker 3: Is it still there now, Lee, or...? You know, it went on for about four years, and then when the film came out and people loved it, it ceased. So I'm glad that part of my life is over. [00:01:56] Speaker 2: So what happened when you guys sat down with the first script? Did you all read it together? Do you and John and Angela, are you all there together as a team, or do you read it separately when you realize, crikey, we've really got something for the third one? [00:02:07] Speaker 3: Well, you know, we didn't know. John and a bunch of us went away for two days, to this cabin in the woods and cooked up the idea for the third film. And, you know, we came up with the bare-bones ideas. We knew we wanted to have Andy grow up, the little boy who owns the toys. And we figured a few things out as well, but it then took the next two and a half years to actually write the screenplay and storyboard the film and really work out the story. So it's not a matter of just writing a script and then saying, well, there's the movie, we're going to make it. It's a constantly evolving animal. And I think that's part of what makes our films turn out as good as they do, is that we work at them so diligently for so long to try to make them great. [00:02:49] Speaker 2: I love the idea of this cabin that you and the guys went away to. Does that involve beer and meat and barbecuing? And you guys get naked around a roaring fire? [00:02:57] Speaker 3: I'll let you just have those images in your mind. [00:03:00] Speaker 2: You must have been relieved when the script came in and that you've got a great story with loads of jokes, but also some real, genuine, heartfelt emotion. [00:03:08] Speaker 3: Well, we saw the potential for real emotion right from the beginning. I mean, just the idea of having Andy growing up and heading off to college is just, you know, rife with emotion. But as the story evolved, you know, we got into it deeper and deeper, and we really started to realize that it was more than about just, you know, a kid growing up and going to college, but more about life and how change comes at us throughout our lives, change that we can never expect or deal with. And we just have to deal with it in the moment. And it's just part of the human experience. And that was something that we ended up exploring pretty deeply in the film. [00:03:44] Speaker 2: How big is the team that makes something like this? When you talk about a four-year process and actually making it, how big a team are we talking about here? How many people worked on it in total? [00:03:51] Speaker 3: Well, in aggregate, it was about 400 people, more or less, yeah. So it's a big team, but it's not huge. I mean, back in the day of The Lion King, you know, Disney doing hand-drawn animation, those crews would be 800 to 1,000 people. So we can make our films with fewer people now, but it still takes quite a long time to make the films. It took about four years to make this. [00:04:12] Speaker 2: Are you left alone with this then? When they go, listen, Lee, you do the movie and, you know, let us know when it's ready to watch. Or are you constantly, people go, how are you getting on with it? It's Monday. Have you got it done yet? [00:04:23] Speaker 3: Well, we do check in regularly. We have this group at Pixar that's kind of been given the name The Brain Trust, and it's comprised of me and John and Brad Bird and a bunch of other directors and writers at the studio, and we get together every four months or so and take a look at all the films that are in various stages of production, and we're brutally honest about them. You know, we rip them apart sometimes, always in an effort to make them better. And that's kind of a scenario that I don't think any other studio has and is another kind of secret to our creative process. [00:04:56] Speaker 2: Are you surprised by the amount of man and the man tears? So many people are saying that they're crying at this. Did you cry when you read the first script of it, the first read? [00:05:06] Speaker 3: I may have teared up a bit, but it was as we were making the film. You know, there's a very last scene in the film, and when it first got put up on storyboards, I actually edited that scene myself, and when I first put it together, I was alone in the room, and I actually cried at that moment. And I always tried to hold on to my feelings and my reaction that first time because I knew we had something special, and I then spent the next couple of years just trying to make sure we didn't screw it up at all. [00:05:30] Speaker 2: No, it's a fantastic scene. I know you're on your own about. We don't want to give away any spoilers here, but Maggie and I were talking about this earlier. That scene you're talking about is so heartfelt, and it's generally... I was chewing my fingernails, and I started to cry because it felt like we were saying goodbye to them. [00:05:44] Speaker 4: Pools of tears, I think I had. But, Lee, I'd love to know. When I looked at it, I was so sad, but yet I was also thinking for the last few days about my toys, you know, and about what's happened to my toys, and suddenly I was, like, flooded with all these memories of my special little toys that I had, and now I'm worried where they are. Did you think about your toys at all when you were doing the movie? [00:06:06] Speaker 3: When I was a freshman in college, I went home and I actually dug some of my toys out of the attic, so I rescued them. I've had a lot of people write to me since the movie came out in the U.S. and other places around the world telling me that they felt so horribly guilty that their toys were locked away in boxes, and they've gone up and rescued them and brought them out and put them on their desks again. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for my wife's toys. My wife had these stuffed animals, her beloved stuffed animals from her childhood, and several years ago, we were moving from one apartment to another, and she had put all the stuffed animals in a garbage bag, and I thought it was trash, and I threw them in the bin behind our building, and we moved, and five weeks later, she said, where are my stuffed animals? And I realized with horror what had happened. [00:06:54] Speaker 2: That normally happens the other way. It's normally women throwing all of our stuff out, isn't it? [00:06:58] Speaker 3: I know, but I threw her stuff out. She's never forgiven me for it, but I can say that I put a scene in the movie that was very much inspired. [00:07:05] Speaker 2: When did this happen to the movie? That was you. Yeah, [00:07:07] Speaker 3: that was inspired by what I did to my wife's toys, so hopefully I've immortalized them in some small way, and I can beg some forgiveness. [00:07:15] Speaker 2: There's so much going on, so many great jokes, the attention to detail is phenomenal, but then also you've got to give credit to the actors that do such a great job as well, Tim Allen and, of course, Tom as well, and you've got some new characters coming in. When do they get involved when it's completely finalized, the script and the storyboarding? [00:07:31] Speaker 3: Normally, on our films, we kind of bring the actors in quite a few times during the making of the film, and they never really read a full script. They just have to kind of trust us in our story process, but in Toy Story 3, we were so happy with how the story was coming together early on that we gathered together as many of the original actors as we could, and we screened the storyboard version of the movie for them, so it was like watching the movie even though we hadn't actually made it yet. None of their voices were in it. None of the animation was done, but you could still watch the film, and they loved it and were very excited to climb back into the saddle and get this film made. They'd been wanting to do it for years. Tim Allen called us regularly asking us when Toy Story 3 was going to happen, so it was great to finally let them know that it was a go, and then it was, of course, a great fun to cast all the new toys in the film. You know, Michael Keaton plays Ken. Yeah, he's fantastic. He's fantastic. Timothy Dalton, of course, plays Mr. Pricklepants. [00:08:27] Speaker 2: That could only be voiced by an English lovey, that character, couldn't he? [00:08:31] Speaker 3: We wanted him to be this kind of fussy British thespian, and he's an odd toy to begin with because he's a hedgehog wearing lederhosen. [00:08:40] Speaker 2: Lee, be honest, did this idea come out of those beers in that cabin again? [00:08:44] Speaker 3: No, I can't say that one took credit for that, but I don't know. Weird ideas come from everywhere. You spend four years making a movie, you'll kind of grab it, whatever comes to you. But I had seen Timothy Dalton in Hot Fuzz. [00:08:56] Speaker 2: He was fantastic as that evil baddie in that, yeah. [00:08:58] Speaker 3: I just thought he was so fantastic. I actually didn't even know it was him when I watched the film, and after it was over, I realized it. So I've been wanting to work with him for a while, and I was just overjoyed that he was game to be a part of the film. [00:09:11] Speaker 2: So the big thing as well, everyone wants to know, you've done three. You've got this amazing track record. Surely there must be a big pressure now to see, can you do a fourth? [00:09:19] Speaker 3: Well, you know, we actually don't have any plans to do a fourth. From its inception, during those two crazy days at the cabin, we always knew that we wanted to bring the story of Andy and his toys to a close. We never wanted Toy Story 3 to be just some random new adventure for the toys. We wanted to feel like it was the conclusion of kind of one grand story that we had been telling over the course of the three films. [00:09:44] Speaker 2: It's been a real honor and a privilege to speak to you, and you do such great works of art, the Pixar movies, and especially the Toy Story ones. You know, they really do improve your life for the hour and a half to two hours you spend with them, and they're a real work of art. I can't thank you enough, and all the team as well. [00:10:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, everyone, a lot of people put their hearts and souls into this film. [00:10:03] Speaker 2: So what will you be doing next, Lee? Do you go back to the cabin? [00:10:06] Speaker 3: Well, I am going to take a long vacation. I don't think it'll be at the cabin, but somewhere I will take a long vacation, and then Darla Anderson, my producer, and I will get to work on our next film. [00:10:16] Speaker 2: Do people start pitching you ideas when you're out and about, especially you must be doing this big world tour at the moment, preaching the good word of the third movie? Do you get pitched? Do people come up to you when they find out who you are and what you do and go, I've got it. I've got a great Pixar movie for you. [00:10:28] Speaker 3: We do get some of that. We do get quite a bit of that, actually, but the cool thing about Pixar is we don't solicit any ideas from the outside. Every single film we've made, all 11 of the films and everything that we have in development now are all ideas that we've cooked up ourselves internally. [00:10:43] Speaker 2: Lee, we wish you all the best with it. Not That You Need It. It's going to be a huge hit in the UK when it comes out this weekend. Lee, thank you very much for talking to us. Thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm going to go and buy myself a log cabin this weekend. [00:10:54] Speaker 3: Good talking to you guys. [00:10:55] Speaker 1: Download the best bits of the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show at iTunes or Absoluteradio.co.uk Bye-bye.