He is the character in the short film, Geri's Game in which he enjoys a game of chess while playing with himself as if he were two different people; he puts on a pair of glasses on one side and takes them off on another. The prize for beating himself is his own dentures, which he would have inevitably acquired no matter how he won. Late in the game, one of his personalities (glasses) is losing badly, so he fakes a heart attack and switches the board around when the other personality (non-glasses) isn't looking.
|thumb|left|250px|The Cleaner in Toy Story 2]]
During the events of the film, as Al McWhiggin (the owner of Al's Toy Barn and Woody's kidnapper) takes Woody out of the glass case for a snapshot with the Roundup Gang, Woody's arm falls off, prompting a panicking Al to call the cleaner over the phone. The cleaner is too busy, but promises to come over the first thing the next day, to which Al reluctantly accepts.
The next morning, the cleaner, who is revealed to be Geri, rings the doorbell to Al's Penthouse and begins the process of restoring Woody to prime condition for Al before he is about to be shipped to a museum in Japan. During the process, he cleans and repaints Woody's head, repairs minor damages, and is able to sew his severed arm back on; this may clearly be the hardest part of the restoration, reflecting his great skill. His final act of work was painting over Andy's name under Woody's boot.
Once Woody has been finished, Geri gives Al strict instructions that Woody is for display only, and that he won't last if played with. The directors of the film have stated that the restoration of Woody was done at no fee – he felt it was rewarding enough to work on such a rare toy.
Geri is Pixar’s second titular character of the short film, the first one being Luxo Jr.
There are some differences in Geri's design between his two appearances. In Geri's Game, Geri has brown eyes; in Toy Story 2, the cleaner has blue eyes. In addition, Jonathan Harris voices the cleaner while Bob Peterson voices Geri (albeit without actual dialogue).
When the cleaner is preparing to fix Woody in Toy Story 2, one of the drawers in his case contains chess pieces, a reference to the short.
Also, the cleaner has a drawer of loose eyeballs, a reference to Ted Pauley, a character from Pixar's next film Monsters, Inc. where Ted attaches loose eyeballs on Pauley's face.
Despite Geri's claim that Woody would not last much longer if he were actually played with, Woody managed to avoid further damage in the years to come, despite frequent play and physical hazards while on rescue missions.
The cleaner is the second and final character to be voiced by the late Jonathan Harris, the first being Manny.
On Pixar's website, it says that the cleaner's line, "You can't rush art", is also true at Pixar.[1]
The color separations, print design, and film for Geri's Game posters were provided by Alpha DigiGraphics in Novato, California, with the printing done by Uno Printing of Novato.[citation needed]
Deleted:The Fool • Plastic Spaceman Miscellaneous:Midway Mania • Hot Potato • My Unexpected Friend
See Also
A113 • Black Friday reel • Toy Story (Original Treatment) • Toy Story 3 (Circle 7 Screenplay) • The Science Behind Pixar • Pixar in a Box • Astro Blasters Robots • Star Command
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