First Look at Meet-and-Greet Merida!

Just this past week at the CinemaCon 2012 in Las Vegas guests were suprised with the first meeting of Merida from Pixar's latest film Brave - though Disney has yet to release any official Brave-Merida photos (this may or may not be how she will look within the Disney Parks).  In these photos found on Tumblr you can clearly see the wild-haired hero posing with fellow Pixar fans. 

Pixar Post - Julie

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Finding Nemo 3D in theaters Sept. 14, 2012

If you haven't made plans already for Friday, September 14th - consider yourself busy.  Finding Nemo hits theaters again, but this time see your favorite under sea characters in 3D!

There are two scenes I'm most excited to see in 3D - one is where Bruce, Chum and Anchor have the "Fish are Friends not food" meeting and Bruce goes into a feeding frenzy. The other scene would have to be the jellyfish scene with Marlin and Dory - it seems to lend itself to a 3D scene with all of the depth in the maze of jellyfish.

Now, I'm generally not wild about 3D as when you wear the 3D glasses they mute the colors (for example: the whites are never white due to the greyed lenses).  I feel Pixar is the best when it comes to lighting and shading and those glasses just slightly take away from it (in my opinion at least).

Either way, it will be great to see another one of our favorites back on the big screen. Just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on 3D - good, bad, indifferent?

Pixar Post - Julie
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Pixar Studio Story - TS2 Sleep Deprivation Lab

Who says working 9am-5pm is hard work?  Well, don't say that to the crew from Toy Story 2 - in this Pixar Studio Story (posted via youtube from PixarSuperFan10) you'll hear from Pixarian Lindsey Collins.  She describes how Toy Story 2 had to be re-worked and how the editors endured countless sleepless nights at the studio working on the film.

Toy Story 2 will always have a special place in our hearts as it was our first "movie" date way back in 1999.  Thank goodness for everyone who worked through the nights and made this film one of our favorite memories.

Pixar Post - Julie
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Cars Land at Night

One of the most exciting things about the upcoming Cars Land opening, is the fact that you can walk down Route 66 right into Radiator Springs.  Disney Parks Blog has just posted some great night shots of the Cars Land expansion and WOW!  

Pixar Post - Julie

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Disney's Art of Animation Resort - Opening Soon!

Disney's Art of Animation Resort at Disney World in Florida will be opening it's doors beginning May 31st.  It's time to immerse yourself into two Pixar films - Cars and Finding Nemo!

Just this past week Disney invited fellow bloggers to preview this new resort - our friends at Inside the Magic were kind enough to share some of their photos and video with us from that sneak preview.

(Thanks again to Ricky with Inside the Magic for sharing their photos and video with us).

Pixar Supervising Animator Shawn Krause was also treated to an early preview by the resort's General Manager Rick Allen.  In this video by Disney Parks Blog, Shawn is shown the resort's lobby, a family suite in the Finding Nemo wing as well as the Finding Nemo pool area.  One thing that really stuck out for me in this video is when Shawn was excited about seeing and touching the characters in which he helped create - to me that was very heartwarming and I can't imagine what that must feel like for these great Pixar animators.

According to DisneyWorld.com, the resort will opening in phases:

• Finding Nemo Family Suites - Opening May 31
• Cars Family Suites - Opening June 18
• The Lion King Family Suites - Opening August 10
• The Little Mermaid Standard Rooms - Opening September 15

The family suites can sleep up to six guests with a master bedroom and three different sleeping areas, along with two full baths.

The theme of this resort is so "on point" with what we love, however, we feel that each themed building should offer standard rooms.  We would LOVE to stay in the Pixar themed buildings of this resort, but we are limited to only staying in the Little Mermaid building - as we are just a couple.  It wouldn't make much sense to stay in a family suite in the Finding Nemo or Cars buildings.  Let's just hope Disney renovates some of the suites in the Pixar buildings into standard rooms in the future.

Have you booked your room yet?

Pixar Post - Julie

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Brave Soundtrack To Be Released on June 19

The Brave soundtrack is available for pre-order on Amazon.  The beautiful music at the end of the 4th trailer is the work of Julie Fowlis who is on the first two tracks of the disc. One other song is completed by Mumford and Sons while the rest of the soundtrack is mostly handled by the score of Patrick Doyle.

Pixar Post - T.J.
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Brave Trailer with NFL Reference Shows New Scenes

The official Disney/Pixar Facebook page posted a new trailer of Brave the shows some never-before-seen clips that haven't appeared in any of the other official trailers. This trailer aired during the NFL round one draft that took place on April 26th. The trailer compares the characters in a witty fashion to many of NFL teams. I guess I should just let you watch it and say, "feast your eyes"!

Pixar Post - T.J.

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Local Movie Theater is getting Brave-a-fied

When Julie and I were out to see Chimpanzee this evening, we found out that our local movie theater is going to convert the entry area into a Brave theme. They have a great budget for an in-house project and we'll do our best to pass along their artwork so you can see, but we've been told there will be a castle as well as a wooded area for Merida and the bear. Really cool - I love local art on a larger scale like this! In the mean time though, check out the "clings" of the triplets around the theater.

Pixar Post - T.J.

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Pizza Planet Truck at Pixar Studios!

Our friends, the creators of the "Real"  Pizza Planet Truck have just arrived at Pixar Animation Studios!

A BIG congratulations to the team! (Pictured here with Lee Unkrich and Darla Anderson).

Colin Hesterly (of the Pizza Planet Truck team) also noted on his Twitter page.

Here's the latest video posted by Peter Hartlaub of The San Francisco Chronicle - We couldn't help but tear up watching this video.

Don't forget to read our interview with the Pizza Planet Truck team to learn about how it all started and more insight to their incredible journey.

"I seriously doubt he's getting this kind of mileage." - Hamm

Pixar Post - Julie
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The History and Future of Hollywood Film Music - Highlights form the event with Michael Giacchino and Randy Newman

If you've seen a Pixar movie (of course you have) then you've experienced the musical compositions of Randy Newman (Toy Story 1-3, A Bugs Life, Cars, Monsters, Inc.) or Michael Giacchino (The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Cars 2).

Of course there have been more composers for Pixar films that just Randy and Michael, but these two gentlemen, in addition to David Newman and Trevor Rabin are the panel of experts who are fielding questions about their careers and the history and future of hollywood film music (as presented by 89.3 KPCC radio).

Below is a summary of the responses of Randy and Michael's comments - I hope you find them useful to get a little more insight into the movie making process of Pixar films.

• Michael mentioned that when composers get the animated storyboards or the first cut of the movie, they have a temp track associated with them. The temp track is a temporary track of music that the director and editor have attached to the scenes - this music is music from other movies that have already been released. The director/editor do this to try and test the scene when a base level of music to see if the scene is feeling like it works like they intend. Michael noted that he works very closely with directors and they often tell him to turn off the temp track and create what he feels, but there are times where they will say, "listen to this moment - that's the feeling we're very specifically trying to get here".
• The panel all mentioned that they get involved with the film process quite early. Michael mentioned that he wants to get involved with the movie as early as possible and will sometimes go to the production set (or screening room) to get the early feel.  In true, quirky, somewhat dark fashion, Randy Newman mentioned that he would never go to a movie set even if it was in his back yard - he will wait until the first cut is done.
• They talked about the current trend of rock musicians pairing up with a composer to score a movie (after Trent Reznor scored The Social Network soundtrack). They said it's took early to get a real feel if this will stay or if it is a passing trend, but Randy noted that it's a big talking point in the industry right now. He compared it to how rock musicians always banter about what is "real rock", the classical and movie composers are also asking who are "true composers". He thinks it's a bunch of snobbery and it will take time to see how the industry moves on this.
• Michael went out of his way to praise the live musicians that he works with. He noted that he uses the same full team of musicians on all of the live recordings he does - he feels this gives him a more family feel for his compositions and allows for more emotion to come out while they're recording.
• The panel all agreed that you have to "feel" the scene in order to compose music that contains emotion behind it. Michael mentioned that he was really connected with the opening scene in Up and said that he cried when he was solely viewing the storyboards because he was thinking to himself, "oh my gosh, this is something we're all going to have to go through".

In my opinion, Michael was a complete class-act at the event and definitely seemed the most upbeat of the four panelists. He provided the most insight into composing for film and presented his information in a professional manner.

Pixar Post - T.J.

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Ed Catmull to Deliver Commencement Address at the University of Utah

It's always exciting when one is set to graduate college and set fourth on a new set of adventures - what awaits the graduates in the class of 2012 at the University of Utah is anything but ordinary.  These accomplished graduates will be in the presence of greatness as fellow alum Ed Catmull (Co-Founder and President of Pixar Animation Studios) will deliver their general commencement address on May 4th, 2012.

According the the Daily Utah Chronicle, the board of trustees from the University had invited Mr. Catmull in January as he has earned both Bachelor's and Doctoral degrees from the U.  With an estimated 15,000 people in attendance on top of the 7,660 students graduating, I can only imagine that there will be quite a captive audience when Mr. Catmull takes the stage.

We are hoping to post a video of the ceremony to share with everyone once it is available.  To all the University of Utah graduates - we congratulate you!

Pixar Post - Julie
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Brave, DunBroch Castle - Research Photo, Concept Art and Final Frame

The official Disney/Pixar Facebook page just posted this great series of photos showing the progression of the DunBorch Castle.  The original photograph is from the Pixar employee research trip to Scotland - the second photo is the concept art (not sure of the artist - will update when we find out) - the final photo is what the final frame in the movie looks like. If you find this interesting and want to see more of the progression from concept to final state, you should definitely order The Art of Brave book that will be released in May.

Pixar Post - T.J.
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Special Brave Preview on May 20th - Hero Complex Film Festival

Pixar's Wall-e will be screened at the third Hero Complex Film Festival on May 18-21 in Los Angeles, CA and if you are lucky enough to grab one of these tickets you will be treated to a special preview of Brave!

The screening of Wall-e will take place on Sunday May 20th at 2:00 PM PST with Andrew Stanton as the special guest - oh, how I wish we lived in the LA area sometimes.  Wall-e is one of my all time favorite films and I think it would be such a amazing experience to hear Andrew Stanton discuss his work as I think he is an animation sensation.  (Note: It states Andrew Stanton is a guest - I do not know for certain if he will be speaking at this film festival.)

Tickets for the Hero Complex Film Festival go on sale Thursday April 26th at 10:00 AM PST.

If you happen to be in the LA area - don't miss Wall-e at the Hero Complex Film Festival on May 18-21.

Pixar Post - Julie
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Interview with The Road to Pixar crew

If you haven't heard of the team of college students who built an actual replica of the famed Pizza Planet truck, you need to. The Pizza Planet truck drove into our "Easter egg hunting eyes" in Pixar's first movie Toy Story, and has since gone on to appear in every Pixar movie (with the exception of The Incredibles) - and yes, it was even mentioned that the truck will appear in the upcoming release, Brave (June 22, 2012).

When we first heard that the team was going to rebuild the truck, we thought, "what a great idea". When we heard they were also going rebuild the truck AND plan a road trip that would eventually take them to the doorstep of Pixar Animation Studios (April 22 - 27 2012), we thought, "well that's plain genius". At this point we knew we had to get an interview with the team and find out a little more back story on the project to pass along to our readers. Please enjoy our question and answer session with the team at The Road to Pixar.

Q1 - Origins
This is an amazing idea - how did this first come to be and how do you get the ball rolling on this with day-jobs and college tuition (we've all been there)?

Approximately two years ago some friends and I made a pair "Pop Culture Sculptures" based on My Neighbor Totoro and the Peanuts comic strips. We displayed them primarily in Seal Beach at a local art gallery. It was quite the conversation starter and it was exciting to see how people would react to something they've only seen in cartoon form in a three dimensional state. We thought that we should have a sort of finale, something big and we wracked our brains for something that everyone would recognized, and (as far as we knew) hadn't been done. Then it hit me, let's make the Pizza Planet Truck since most of us grew up with Toy Story and the rest of the Pixar film canon and it was right around the time when Toy Story 3 came out. From there it snowballed from a smaller "Let's drive around town" idea to a much bigger road trip.

The whole crew has been working extra hours at their various jobs and saving up for project expenses. We even have had a few folks kindly donate to the project online.

Q2 - Truck-Age
Old school Toyota trucks aren't just lying around - how long did it take the team to find one?

Marco: It took us about a year of searching. The funny thing with Toyota trucks, they're very hard to kill. We kept driving around and seeing great trucks roll by but they were usually being used as work horses and such. We hopped on Craigslist and searched for a few trucks with automatic transmission, and we soon realized that it would be cheaper (and more authentic to the films) to seek out a truck with manual transmission. In all we test drove three trucks. The first two having automatic transmission and were much more expensive than our final truck.

Q3 - Time, Time, Time
You mention in the About page on your website that you've put in countless number of hours in research and labor - how many hours would you estimate you've spent in total to date?

I don't even want to think about how much time we've spent studying blu ray screen caps from the film, or watching the films. It got to the point where we had to step back and think about something else since were so obsessed with getting the detail right.

Q4 - Rust-Eze
It was mentioned on the site that the team is still trying to figure out how to weather the paint of the truck - any updates?

We haven't washed the truck in about month and we plan on making a few "dirt stops" on the way so we can get that authentic worn in look.

Q5 - Clown Car
It's a relatively small truck - how is everyone going to fit in there?

We'll be driving up with two vehicles (including the truck). Our other car is a purple Scion xB which we've nicknamed, "The Purple Toaster".

Q6 - Rewarding
What has been the biggest reward to-date throughout this whole process?

The response to the truck in person and online has been amazing. With people slowing down on the freeway to snap a picture or even just giving us a thumbs up as we pass on the street, we can tell that people recognize it and love the final product.

On Monday we met up with Omar, who contacted us through twitter, and his family at a pizza place in Cupertino and had a wonderful time entertaining his kids. Both of them were obviously born and raised on Pixar films. The smiles on their faces as they played inside the cab with toys they had brought from home made our day. We can't even describe how happy it made us to experience that.

Q7 - Anticipation
Of the stops that you have planned so far, which location is the team's most anticipated and why?

Besides Pixar, San Francisco and the Bay Area as a whole since it is a tourist hub and you can't throw a rock without hitting some kind of historical or just plain neat location.

Q8 - Filming
Since you're going to have cameras filing the journey - what cameras are you going to be using and what software will you edit it with?

We'll be shooting with a variety of cameras, ranging from the Canon 7D, to a smaller Canon Vixia, and several GoPros mounted to the vehicles.

We will be splitting editing between Final Cut Pro and Avid. Depending on our internet connection on the road we may use iMovie to throw together some clips from the week.

Q9 - After The Ride
Has the team decided what they will do with the truck after the trip?

We plan on keeping the truck, and depending on budget and schedule we may take another trip eventually. Walt Disney World? (With its real life Pizza Planet?) or Pixar Canada?
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If you have any follow-up questions you'd like us to ask the team, send us an email and we'll get it answered and post the response on this page.

To check out some more of the back story on the team, check out this video and while you're at it, don't forget to follow The Road to Pixar on Twitter.

Pixar Post - T.J. & Julie

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Cars Land - New Photos

The DisneyParks Blog recently posted a new slew of photographs taken at the beautiful Cars Land. The post discusses how Cars Land is not just a set of rides and shops, it is also a photographers' dream with the beautiful rock work and the scenery overall.

Pixar Post - T.J.

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Holy CinemaCon 2012 Announcement - John Lasseter Opens The Floodgates Of News

Tuesday afternoon (April 24) was a big huge announcement day for Pixar at the CinemaCon 2012 festivities in Las Vegas, Nevada - John Lasseter unleashed a bevy of news at the event so lets get right to it (sorted in order of release date).

1) Brave screening (June 22, 2012) & Finding Nemo 3-D trailer (September 14, 2012)

The Hollywood Reported noted that Pixar screened the first 30 minutes of Brave to the audience (which was met with great feedback) as well as the 3-D trailer for the re-release of Finding Nemo. To kick of the viewing of Brave, John Lasseter didn't wear his normal hawaiian shirt, but instead donned a traditional scottish look - yes, including the kilt.

2) Monsters University Preview (June 21, 2013)

The group was also shown a brief clip of upcoming sure-to-be hit, Monsters University. Peter Sciretta of /Film posted this tweet regarding the clip.

3) The previously untitled dinosaur film will now be called The Good Dinosaur (May 30, 2014)

OK, let's just get this out of the way - yes, a lot of other sites have been buzzing about this title and how they don't favor it. Upon first glance I'm not a fan of the title either, but no one knows for sure if that will be the final title, so at this point I'm moving on. Lasseter also joked about how he was the only one at Pixar who liked the working title of "The Untitled Pixar Movie About Dinosaurs".

More importantly, this will be the feature film directing debut of Bob Peterson. As pixar's resident utility player, Bob has been an animator, story supervisor, voice actor, layout artist and more within Pixar, so I'm really excited to see his debut. Image from Pixar Wiki

4) Pete Docter's next film takes you inside the mind (June 19, 2015)

The announcement of the film isn't new, but the newly announced release date is. Docter's inventive new movie is said to take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen - inside the human mind.

UPDATED April 17, 2013 - we now have official work from Pixar that Docter's film will officially be titled Inside Out. 

5) Lee Unkrich's next film will be centered around the bustling Latin American holiday, La dia de los muertos (the day of the dead) (Fall 2015 or Summer 2016).

Lee Unkrich announced his upcoming project on Twitter by posting this tweet.

Although this may sound morbid at first, it will certainly see how Pixar puts their magical spin on it. The day of the dead according to Wikipedia is "a holiday that focuses on the gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality of a National Holiday, and all banks are closed. The celebration takes place on November 1–2, in connection with the Catholic holidays of All Saints' Day (November 1) and All Souls' Day (November 2). Traditions connected with the holiday include building private altars honoring the deceased using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed and visiting graves with these as gifts. They also leave possessions of the deceased".

In any regard, we're excited to see more of Lee's work.

What a great day for Pixar news.

Pixar Post - T.J.

info@pixarpost.com

Brave's Latest Theatrical Trailer!

Here's the latest trailer for Brave, the best one so far (at least in my opinion).  It really gives you more insight on Merida and her mother's relationship - we'll post more this evening (I'm currently on the road and had to stop to post this).

Pixar Post - Julie

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Interview with David Price - Author of The Pixar Touch

Of the multitude of Pixar related books out there - how do you know which one to pick up and spend your time reading? Or course reviews are subjective to the reader, but if I had to put my stamp on The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company by David A. Price, I would give it my stamp of approval for quality of content and depth of the details.

Although The Pixar Touch was originally published in 2008, the great part about the book is that it's not out of date because the history Pixar is already set in the past. I'd strongly suggest checking it out if you're interested in gaining more knowledge about the company that you love (at least I'm assuming so since you're reading this post)!

We recently had the pleasure of having a questions and answer session over email with David and are happy to present you with his responses below. Please note that any text in blue under each of Price's responses are my additional thoughts based on his reply.

ABOUT THE BOOK

Q1 - The Pixar Touch was originally published in 2008 (with an update published in 2009) - since some time has passed and there have been a few more Pixar movies released, are there any plans for another update covering Wall-e (more in depth details), UP,Toy Story 3 and Cars 2? Why?

A1 - I don't plan to keep bringing the history into the present. My hope in writing the book was to tell the story of how Pixar was created and became successful against overwhelming odds. Whatever happens to Pixar in the future, I feel that the story I was telling came full circle when John Lasseter had his homecoming -- in other words, when Pixar became part of the Walt Disney Co. in 2006.

I did go a little bit past point that with my coverage of Ratatouille, plus a shorter section on WALL-E in the softcover edition. But in a way, I believe I'd be subtracting from the story rather than adding to it if I kept putting in material on the latest movie.

I agree with David's comments completely here - I asked the question to see if the book would continually be updated, but with a book that focuses so completely on the back-story of Pixar there really is no need since the film review are not the main spotlight of the book.

Q2 - John Lasseter has noted that "Pixar's movies are never finished, they're released" (meaning that they would constantly tweak their movies if they didn't have a finish line associated with them) - that being said, what would you tweak if you could - what things would you have done differently or wish you could have pulled together for the release of the book?

A2 - I feel compelled to tweak, too! I smoothed out a couple of small things in the softcover edition. The only significant change I would make is in my coverage of the Monsters, Inc. lawsuits. I would make it more clear that lawsuits against studios are very common occurrences, although these particular ones were more problematic than most.

Interestingly, when David comments on the Monsters, Inc. chapter I couldn't agree more - this is the one chapter that when I was done with it I definitely had some more questions that I wanted answers to.

Q3 - How long do you think it took you to completely research the stories for the book and what piece of information did you learn about the company or a key player that surprised you the most (and why)?

A3 - It took me a year full-time to research and write the book. I think the most surprising information, for me, might have been how close Steve came to selling all or part of Pixar to Microsoft while Toy Story was in production.

Q4 - There seem to be so many irreplaceable steps that got computer animation to the level it's at today - what do you think was the most valuable component - Steve Jobs' cash flow and drive, Ed Catmull's programming genius, Lasseter's guidance and spirit - or was it something else?

A4 - Each of those people was equally indispensable, in my opinion. Ed contributed much more than programming: It was his dream of creating computer-animated feature films that kept the group together through some long and lean years. And John's short films in the 1980's were really responsible for putting computer animation on the map as a storytelling medium.

Q5 - In the book you mention that Raoul Servais reminds John Lasseter that, "You can tell a story in ten seconds" - that obviously couldn't be the case with your book since you're telling the history of a company and it's workers.  How did you ever start to "pull back" on some of the information you were culling so you didn't end up with a book the size of War and Peace?

A5 - I believe strongly in having too much research so that I can make choices about what's relevant and interesting. After all my interviews and other research work, I ended up with a 101-page single-spaced chronological outline and a 44-page background outline. It might seem paradoxical, but having this magnitude of research helped me to keep the book's length under control because it gave me the luxury of being merciless in deciding what to include. 

RELEASES AFTER THE BOOKS PUBLISH DATE

Q6 - In the book you included a letter that Steve Jobs released to the annual shareholders of Pixar - in it he says, "Parents trust Disney-branded animated films to provide satisfying and appropriate family entertainment".  Do you think this statement embodies some of the uproar from parents regarding Cars 2 stating that it had too much violence?  Did Pixar essentially break a treaty that parents had with Pixar by including more controversial scenes?

A6 - That's interesting. I wasn't aware of that controversy over Cars 2. I do think parts of Toy Story 3 were too intense for young children -- not to say Pixar should have changed the movie, but they should have put the word out to parents somehow to live up to the trust that parents put in them.

YOUR THOUGHTS AND INSIGHTS

Q7 - One could argue that the "nine old men" made history at Disney Studios the same way that John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter have with Pixar - what happens when this crop of guys retire/move on from Pixar - will it be the equivalent of Walt dying that stalled the Disney Studios, or do you think there's a proper foundation in place at Pixar to sustain their success after it's leaders become the "new, four old men"?

A7 - Compared with Disney during Walt's day and into the 1970's and 1980's, Pixar has been much smarter about creating a pipeline of future creative leaders. The shorts program is a great example of that.

The limiting factor is that even with a pace of one feature per year, there aren't very many feature-directing opportunities to spread around. So it's inevitable that some up-and-coming people over the years have taken their Pixar experience to other studios where they can direct features (cf. Doug Sweetland and others).

And bear in mind that it'll be a while before we're talking about the Four Old Men -- Andrew and Pete are both in their forties!

There is no doubt that David is right that we at least have a lot more time with our Four Old Men seeing as they are in their forties - but I do really like his insight about some up-and-coming directors that might leave because they want to direct a film.

Q8 - What's next for you - any new books or in depth projects that you can update us on?

A8 - I do have a new book project that I'm excited about. It's somewhat in the mold of The Pixar Touch and is even a sequel to it in a sense, although it isn't about Pixar per se. The contract is still being worked out, so I can't talk about it yet, unfortunately.

We'll be eager to hear what the new project is - David, please let us know when you are able.

Q9 - Finally, for people that have read your books and are interested in staying in "Touch" with you, how can they do that - what are your user names on Twitter, Facebook, Website, etc?

A9 - The web site for the book is http://www.pixartouchbook.com and I'm on Twitter at @pixartouch.
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Well, that's the interview folks - if you haven't, please support David and pick up a copy by clicking the link below...heck, you'll even learn a lot about Pixar. If you have any questions that you'd also like to ask David, let us know and we'll get them answered for you.


Available in hardcover, paperback, audio disc, or Kindle edition

Pixar Post - T.J.
info@pixarpost.com

Director's Commentary Track Review - Cars 2 Blu Ray

We all know that Pixar DVDs/Blu Rays are packed with great special features, but one of my favorites among the special features is the director commentary track.  Today’s post is a summary of what director John Lasseter and co-director Brad Lewis had to say about their work throughout the Cars 2 movie.

With any directors commentary you start to get deeper insights into the back-stories that lead them to the finished product. I can tell you with having watched all of the other bonus features on the Cars 2 Blu Ray and reading the Art of Cars 2, I was still able to pick up some great tips and facts about the film. 

So, here’s our summary of the facts from the movie presented in a bulleted style – as they described the scenes in the movie.

John Lasseter knew that the purpose of Cars 2 was to show something completely new and different, not just to rehash what had been done in the first Cars movie.

The inspiration for the film came from three areas:

1) In a scene that was cut from the first movie, Lightning McQueen takes Sally on a date to a drive-in movie theater and Pixar had to design a movie that they would be watching on the date…which was a spy film.  John also mentioned that he loves spy movies and particularly the Bourne movies – he feels that they redefined how spy movies are made.

2) During John’s travels for the press junket for Cars 1, he was constantly thinking about what Lightning McQueen would do in these countries.

3) John attended his first Formula 1 race during a press junket in Spain and he fell in love with the sounds and the pageantry of the event.

John thought it was cool that the opening shot was of a boat rather than a car.

The spy movie opening came to John on his Birthday (January 12) while he was getting a massage. He wanted a scene that would introduce Finn McMissile and all his cool gadgets.

During one of the pre-screenings of the film, John’s son, Sam, said that he wasn’t sure that everyone would know what a lemon is in todays world. John’s wife came up with the scene where Mater is towing Otis, the town lemon, to show the audience what lemons are.

Otis’ name was inspired by the town drunk in the Andy Griffith show.

The Pixar team wanted to pay tribute to Paul Newman’s passing somehow and they didn’t want to have someone else do the voice acting so they decided to rename the piston cup after Doc.

The character of Mel Dorado was originally called Caddy Caddilac – Harley Jessup came up with Mel Dorado after a play on El Dorado.

They struggled with who the bad guy would be and they originally had a failed Russian super-car.

Francesco’s role in the movie actually grew because they loved the voice work of actor John Turturro. An imitation of Turturro’s friend morphed into Francesco’s voice.

The Red Bull racing team hosted the Pixar research team in Italy and gave them full access to research the Formula 1 world.

So many of the things that Mater and Lightning McQueen do in the beginning of their journey to Tokyo are things that John was amazed at doing when he traveled the world.

Holley’s character was originally an Italian spy named Julia. 

Pixar recruited Lewis Hamilton, who was the current Formula 1 racing champion at the time, to work with Pixar on the racing details.  When Lewis was on his way to Pixar headquarters he was late because he ran out of gas!

Now to the Mater toilet scene.  John talks about his first experience with a bathroom in Japan – he said the first thing that freaked him out was that the toilet seat was warmed.  He also noted the numerous buttons as well and that he was so curious that he ended up pushing one and a surprise splash of water had him saying, “whoooooo”.  He said that every time he and his kids go to Japan they end up pressing the buttons and everything is covered in water when they leave the stall.

The number of pit crew workers in the pits for each racing team are truly representative of the number of workers that would really be in the pits for each style of race – so not every team had the same number of pittys.

Michael Giacchino was the reason there was no music at the opening of the first race – he suggested they just celebrate the sound of the engines to start the scene.

The name Siddeley came from the British aerospace industry – Hawker Siddeley Corp made a lot of key airplanes in World War II. 

When the characters arrive in Paris, the shot of the two cars kissing on the bridge where Mater, Finn and Holley are passing is John’s tribute to his wife.  The bridge is based on the Pont des Arts Bridge and they make a point to go to the center of the bridge and kiss every time they are in Paris.

Les Halles, a now-closed wholesale market in Paris is what the auto park markets are based on.

To keep additional authenticity, since Tombe is a three-wheeled car, they figured he would tumble easier (of course) when taking hard turns and wore his paint in those areas where he would tumble more. Tombe is also a play on a French verb meaning “To Fall”.

Stevenson is the high-speed train’s name that Mater, Finn and Holley travel on.

The fountain in the middle of the town in Italy shows a Maserati car holding a trident (Maserati’s logo).  The base of the fountain also has the names of the Maserati brothers who started the car company.

Casoli is the ancestry village of Michael Giacchino’s family so Pixar named the village Carsoli as a nod to him.   

Franco Nero performs the voice of Uncle Topolino and his wife Vanessa Redgrave performs the voice of Mama Topolino.  Interestingly, Vanessa also voices The Queen of England in the film.

Although Mater in his materhosen costume was only seen for a quick moment, it originally supposed to be larger part of the script. The scene was eventually cut when the number of races was cut from five to three.

Porto Corsa (meaning race track in Italian) is a town that Pixar made up based on three towns – Portofino, Positano and Monte Carlo (although Monte Carlo isn’t in Italy, it still inspired the town because of the Grand Prix and Casino).

Denise Ream, one of the films producers has a cousin who is a priest in the catholic church and they sent the “Pope car” designs to the church for approval prior to using the car in the film – the Pixar team received the official stamp of approval from the Vatican shortly thereafter.

The whole purpose of Mater hitting the gong in Tokyo early in the movie was created solely to be able to transition out of Mater’s dream sequence where he was tied up and the Big Bentley clock was clanging away.

They wanted to base the gears inside Big Bentley off of the actual gears inside Big Ben but it turned out the gears were about the size of a big table so they just made the gears bigger to add emphasis and drama into the scene.

The Prince Wheeliam is based on the Bentley Continental GT and the Queen is based on a Rolls and Bentley mix.  The crown on her car is based upon an old classic luggage rack that they saw.

Sharon Calahan talked with John about not being able to get done with the lighting in time for the release, so they decided they would make London overcast so they wouldn’t have to deal with the more complex aspect of direct sunlight and casting shadows.  It started as a time saving device, but as they talked about it more they realized that London is very often overcast so they thought it would actually fit.

Harley Jessup’s team created the logo for the world grand prix as a cartoon character names Globie – which they ended up using as the inflatable character that Professor Z lands on when he crashes out of the window from his private box when Holley surprises him.

You wouldn’t think so, but one of the biggest challenges during the film was the big water blast that happens when McMissile blows up the combat boat by releasing the explosives from his tires.

In the pub scene where Acer and Grem are thrown into the pub (Ye Left Turn Inn) there is one scene where they disrupt a perfectly poured pint of oil and the table gets knocked out from underneath it, spilling the oil.  That scene of the glass falling was the longest “per frame” render time of the entire movie - every frame took 112 hours to render!  This was due to all of the reflections and other details in the scene and it probably lasted about 1 second.

This was not stated in the comments, but there is also a car-a-fied version of Merida, Queen Elinor and King Fergus from Brave right behind where the glass falls.

The music that starts playing when Mater figures out that Miles Axelrod is the “bad guy” is the same spy theme that is used throughout the film when McMissile or Holley are working but for Mater it’s played with an electrified banjo rather than a guitar to give the same theme a lighter twist and makes the theme Mater’s own.

John states that he love, love, loves epilogues in a story and how it ties everything back together to wrap up. 

At the end of the movie, Holley wasn’t going to say that she was Mater’s girlfriend when she comes to Radiator Springs, but at an early audience test a woman said that she really wanted Mater to have a girlfriend so they made it happen. 

The end credits on the film are a visual montage of Mater and Lightning McQueen’s journey going back home through Europe.  The most hilarious of the mini vingettes is the running of the “Bulldozers” through Pamplona!

We’ll wrap up with a fun fact that you may not know – what date was Mater knighted on?  Tuesday, July 15, 2011 – I wonder if that date has any significance?

If you have additional tips, facts or just want to include your thoughts add comment below.

Pixar Post – T.J.
info@pixarpost.com