Slinky: "It's him." Hamm: "The chicken man." New Buzz: "Funny, he doesn't look like poultry." Slinky: "That's the kidnapper, all right." New Buzz: "A kidnapper! An agent of Zurg if I ever saw one."
Al is the owner of Al's Toy Barn in the Tri-County Area and appears as its mascot, a giant chicken, in the TV commercials. He is also a greedy toy collector who made a deal with Mr. Konishi, the owner of the Konishi Toy Museum in Tokyo, Japan to collect the entire Woody's Roundup collection in the exchange for 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 happened to come across Woody, who had just saved Wheezy the penguin from being sold. Al tried to buy him, but Andy's Mom refused to sell Woody as he belongs to Andy, who was away at Cowboy Camp. Despite this, Al steals Woody when Ms. Davis had her back turned (by causing a distraction involving kicking a skateboard into a series of boxes) and made off with his prize. Buzz initially tried to rescue Woody from the trunk of Al's car, but failed due to losing his grip before he could open the trunk. Despite this, he ultimately gained a few clues: a feather and a glimpse of the license plate "LZTYBRN". After deciphering the license plate letters (using Mr. Spell) 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, Buzz Lightyear and the gang then traveled to the city to save Woody.
Al, meanwhile, took various photos of Woody and the rest of his collection. And, after faxing them to Mr. Konishi, made arrangements to finally fly to Japan with the whole collection. He placed the Round Up gang dolls in a big green box to keep them safe during the flight, even though he made it very clear to the baggage handler that what was inside was very important to him, stating he had a box of cookies on a plane once and they finished off as crumbs.
However, when he finally arrived to Japan, he realized they were all gone (due to Buzz and the other toys' interference of rescuing them and dealing with Stinky Pete), Because of this, the deal Al made with Mr. Konishi was called off because he did not have the entire collection he had promised. Afterwards, Al and his business likely began to suffer financial problems.
Shortly after this, he was seen in another one of his commercials, sobbing over his loss of fortune while barely stating that the store has the lowest prices in town. Hamm happily responded to it by saying, "Well, I guess crime doesn't pay."
Toy Story OF TERROR![]
Al in a deleted scene of Toy Story OF TERROR!
More than ten years later, after Andy has given Woody and his best friends to Bonnie in Toy Story 3, Al is still concerned with completing his Roundup Gang collection, and in the 2013 TV special Toy Story OF TERROR!. He wins the bidding war on Ron Tompkins' auction for a cowboy doll snatched from one of his motel patrons by his pet iguana, Mr. Jones (ironically the same one he had stolen). As his address signifies, he remains the owner of Al's Toy Barn. After Woody was rescued by Jessie and Ron got exposed by Bonnie and her mom as being a crook, Ron was unable to send any of his stolen toys out.
Originally, Al was planned to 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.
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 glasses. He is usually seen wearing short-sleeved dress shirts, white inside shirt, dark pants, black shoes and a wristwatch. In his Chicken Man form for his commercials, he wears a white chicken costume consisting of a red comb, giant white eyes with small black pupils and a yellow beak.
Personality[]
Al is considered to be very greedy and very funny at the same time. However, unlike Sid, who breaks toys and uses them for scary experiments, or Stinky Pete, who is just mean, Al is very smart and collects toys in his own kind of way. He never breaks them or throws them around to the point that they lay on the ground broken. Instead, Al sells off the toys after kidnapping them to do his evil plan.
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.
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.
The Collector achievement
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.
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.
It bears some resemblance to Flo from the Cars franchise.
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.
Other Quotes[]
"Hey, kids! This is Al from Al's Toy Barn, and I'm sitting on good deals. Ow! I think I'm feeling a deal hatching right now. Whoa! Let's see what we got. We got boats for a buck. Beanies for a buck . . . For a buck-buck-buck! And that's cheap-cheap-cheap! So hurry on down..."
—Al on TV, advertising Al's Toy Barn, but the TV is turned off by Hamm
"I despise that chicken."
—Hamm, after turning off the TV in which a commercial for Al's Toy Barn is playing
""Original hand-painted face. Natural-dyed, blanket-stitched vest! Hmm, a little rip. Fixable. Oh, if only you had your hand-stitched, polyvinyl... (gasps as seeing Woody's hat) A hat! I found him! I found him, I found him!"
—Al, as he finds Woody
"I can't believe I have to drive all the way to work on a Saturday. All the way to work!"
—Al, as he drives to work
"It's like printing my own money."
—Al, about the snapshots
"Don't touch my mustache!"
—Al, as he finishes talking with Mr. Konishi over his phone
Al: "Listen, fly boy, the contents of that case are worth more than you make in a year! You got that, sport? You be careful!" Airport clerk: "I understand, sir." Al: "Do you have a 'fragile' sticker or something you can put on that? 'Cause I know what goes on back there." Airport clerk: "Don't worry, sir." Al: "I had a box of cookies once that came back as crumbs!"
Al (on TV): (sobbing) "Welcome to Al's Toy Barn. We've got the lowest prices in town. Everything for a buck-buck-buck. Boohoohooooooo" (cries out hysterically) Hamm: "Well, I guess crime doesn't pay."
—Hamm, as he witnesses Al sobbing in the commercial
