Pixar Archives - MomStart

What Is Kept Inside Pixar’s Archives? #Incredibles2Event

April 16, 2018 by Momstart 1 Comment

Disney provided hotel and transportation for us to attend the Incredibles 2 Animation Press Day. During the Incredibles 2 Animation Press Day we got to do something I’ve never done before. Pixar employees took us into the Pixar Archives so we could see what is kept inside Pixar’s Archives. And you would be surprised, Pixar doesn’t keep everything. Pixar archives keeps ALMOST everything but they couldn’t possibly house everything.

For every project there is so much artwork, clay models, pre-designs, and story boards created that they have to choose what is most important and that is what is kept. What might animators need in the future for sequels and what was key to telling the final story and entire process. They said that with Coco, it was very difficult to make those choices because with Coco there was much more amazing material than with other projects. You have to remember, Pixar puts so much research into each project.

Our tour guide began the tour by describing the building that has been around since May 2016. The building is built from materials that are flame resistant. The artwork is stored by project and is stored in movable walls, or high density shelving. Each wall has a lever that moves with great ease.

Pixar keeps artwork from each version of the script. Pixar archives keeps things that also tell the story of Pixar and that includes awards and a copy of software that they sold that made 3D text designs. Looking at it, I think that product was just ahead of it’s times and that’s why it didn’t do well.

Our tour guide in the Pixar archives took us to see the earliest version of the Toy Story sculptures. This material is a clay that can be manipulated then baked in a kiln. The lines were hand drawn and then a wand was used to digitize the lines and that’s how characters used to be created in the computer.

She showed us some of the clay sculptures from the first Incredibles movie. Did you know, they make a clay sculpture for every possible facial expression a character might need? They have only two sculptors on campus. Pretty crazy right? I mean they make drawing and clay creations. Then everything is put in a computer and it’s insane.

The final room we were taken into inside the Pixar archives was where we saw some amazing concept art for The Incredibles and The Incredibles 2. We saw art that turned into Violet.

We were also treated to see concept art of Edna Mode. It was really amazing how there were different versions of her. Could you imagine her as any other shape or size though? Look at the photo below? Could that have been Edna?

Here is a reason why they keep concept art from the original movies, the following picture is of some bad guys that didn’t make Incredibles 1, so artists were able to pull it and possibly use it to come up with the villains of the Incredibles 2.

We also saw press clippings and it took a lot of organizing because they had so so many to go through.

Photos are courtesy of Pixar. Pixar’s Incredibles 2 will be in theaters June 15th.

Inside the Walls of Pixar’s Steve Jobs Building #Incredibles2Event

April 16, 2018 by Momstart 1 Comment

Disney provided hotel and transportation for us to attend the Incredibles 2 animation press day.

During the Incredibles 2 Animation Press Day we took a few different tours of Pixar. One of those Pixar tours included the walls of Pixar from inside the Steve Jobs Building. First off, did you know, because I’m not sure I told you in all the times I’ve written about Pixar, that Pixar was first part of Lucasfilm. Quite a while back, Steve Jobs purchased this tech software company from Lucasfilm and he created Pixar out of it. They used to make graphics software but that all changed. It was in 2006 when Disney purchased Pixar.

The Steve Jobs building was built in such a way as to provide employees opportunities to be collaborative and creative. People need to be able to easily bounce ideas off of each other so there is a very large foyer as soon as you walk into the building. You will also notice that the inside comes into the building. The outside of the Steve Jobs building at Pixar is made of brick and that brick comes inside for about 20 feet before it changes. The same goes for the flooring. It’s a very well lit building and I love going there. Just stepping one foot on the Pixar campus and you can really feel just how much energy is there. It’s a contagiously amazing feeling.

Well, our first tour took us up the stairs to the right which has all the artwork from their last movie Coco. The art starts from the beginning of the movie Coco and takes you all the way through to the ending of the movie. It also walks you through the steps of animation and how some things evolve and change and don’t even make it into the movie. Animation is a long process and it seems that the average time animation is involved in a movie at Pixar is at least 4 years.

Then we took a tour of the other side of Pixar which currently is housing all the artwork for The Incredibles 2. The Incredibles 2 will be in theaters in just under 2 months, June 15th.

We saw quite a few different images from inside these walls and I tried so hard to piece together the rest of the story, because while we were there we only saw the first 20 minutes of the story. So all we know is the basics of how Mrs. Incredible is working with this brother and sister duo to bring back super heroes. Being a super is still illegal.

But there is a villain and I have my suspicions on who this villain is, but I wonder if there are two villains or what his story is. So here are all the images I can share from Pixar’s Incredibles 2 Animation Press Day, inside the walls of the Steve Jobs building.

Doesn’t this just get you all excited for the release of The Incredibles 2?

Photos courtesy of Pixar!

Celebrate Alebrijes: Pepita and Dante A Closer Look

October 17, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Disney invited me out to Pixar a few months ago to learn all about COCO a new movie about family, tradition and Day of the Dead. After doing extensive research on the traditions of the people of Mexico, Pixar learned a lot about Alebrijes which are imaginary characters made of many characters put together. They are beautiful full of many colors and features that bring them to life.

The origination of Alebrijes:

Pedro Linares came from a family that created pinatas and he became very sick and had a fever dream. His dream took him into a forest that chimera animals started to appear. When he woke up, he wanted to capture in a “paper mache” type sculpture of what he saw. Now they are made from a wood called copal. And the amount of love and detail is amazing. These creatures aren’t really from a religious background, they are just the artist’s imagination. They are pretty amazing.

About Pepita

Pepita is an Alebreje and her development was also fully researched. She is a mixture of a lot of different animals. She has a ram horn, a lizard tail, eagle feet and eagle wings, tiger face and tiger arms. The animator really liked creating her, he basically said that this is the type of animation animators dream for. They get to be so expressive and creative when crating a mythical creature. They were realistic yet dream like in origin and it had to be that way in animation and it was a joy, I could tell by the look on his face as he described the process that he really had a blast. He researched lion and tiger faces. Pepita had to be able to scare people. Feathers were also key to creating Pepita.

Think Voltron, Thundercats put together. The color had to look like real fur in Pepita, they thought about how hair looks on horses. The light from Peipta can be seen on the other characters in certain dark scenes as a reflection. As a natural light would reflect. Pepita seems to belong to mama Imelda and is her spirit guide. I think we’re to assume that Dante is Miguel’s spirit guide. I’m sure that will become clear once we watch the movie.

About Dante:

If you go watch a movie at AMC and get there in time to watch the pre-show, you will learn all about what type of dog Dante is. He is a Xoloitzcuintli, and they call him Xolo for short. Actually, I can share the short here:

Now let’s talk a little bit more about animating Dante. Dogs have such expressive tongs, the animators had so much fun looking for “stupid” do videos. The short Dante’s Lunch was a way they started developing Dante. Many of the personality posing photos are thrown out because they don’t fit. It’s the pushing of the character and posing though, that helps the animators figure out the character. He evolved even more from the short to the actual movie. He’s going to be an integral influence on Miguel. Just like every boy and his dog they get into and out of trouble together.

See COCO in theaters November 22.

Pixar’s COCO: A Simple Story With a Complex History of Día de los Muertos

August 28, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

I’ve always been interested in art and how computers have changed the definition of what animation can do. While I was in college, Pixar raised the bar times 100 and continues to do that with every animated picture they put out. From what I’ve seen of their newest movie COCO coming to theaters November 22, they’ve done it again. I participated in a press day at Pixar and talked to animators, computer engineers, innovators, and pretty much everyone department that had a hand in making COCO. They never let anything get in the way of creating a masterpiece like this. We’ll get into all of that over the next few weeks because I have TONS to share about COCO and Día de los Muertos.

While talking with the Director Lee Unkrich, Writer and Co-Director Adrian Molina & Producer Darla K. Anderson about the making of the film I learned so much about their process in making COCO. Of course it started with an idea, three different ideas were pitched. From there they spent a lot of time in Mexico learning about Día de los Muertos and narrowed it down over the course of many years.

The green light for COCO was given because John Lasseter loved the idea of the world that would be created in telling any story about Día de los Muertos. There are so many colors and emotions to Día de los Muertos and from what I’ve seen Pixar has captured all of that in COCO. I learned that in Mexico Día de los Muertos is celebrated differently from city to city. To some it’s a celebration a way to remember the dead. In other cities it’s a time of mourning while also respecting those that have left us behind. It’s even called Día de los Muertos in some locations and Día de Muertos in others.

Why then did they call the movie COCO and not Día de los Muertos.

COCO has a mystery to it. COCO is alsy Miguel’s great grandmother, the matriarch of the family. Even though she has passed on, all tradition and family values came from her and hear heartache, her blood sweat and tears so to speak. It’s through all of this that the themes of family, heritage and the importance of all that come about. She has earned the family respect.

What was the most challenging part of the process of making COCO.

The answer was that nothing was easy and like I said before, I’ll get into each part of making it from the animation, to story development, to even the technology behind it from now until the movie comes out. In short, the story is quite simple but told in an emotional, grand way. It’s very visually complex though and you’ll see what I’m talking about. The story, while being quite simple has a grand scale historical background that needed to shine through.

How Did They Share the History of Día de los Muertos without a Lecture?

Many of the lessons and history of Día de los Muertos shines through in the animation. They were able to illustrate so many of the meanings or “lessons” without words. It became about establishing a world and you could learn enough visually without having it all spelled out. It’s ok if you miss something, because you’ll still walk away from COCO with the sentiment of Día de Muertos

I strongly believe that you are going to love COCO when it hits theaters November 22, and if you want to see it early you might plan a trip to Mexico as it’s going to be released there first in time to run with the celebration of Día de los Muertos.

Wreck-It Ralph Breaks The Internet: The Princess Scene

July 17, 2017 by Momstart Leave a Comment

WOW! This last weekend at the D23Expo John Lasseter gave us a ton of information about everything coming down the pipeline for Pixar, and Disney Animation. But what I want to focus on is Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet. My favorite scene from everything we saw during his presentation was The Princess Scene. The Princess Scene includes all of the official Disney Princesses and we were treated with their appearances on stage as each of them came back to voice their parts.

Wreck-It Ralph 2

ANAHEIM, CA – JULY 14: (L-R) Chief Creative Officer of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios John Lasseter, actors Paige O’Hara (Belle/BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), Irene Bedard (POCAHONTAS), Mandy Moore (Rapunzel/TANGLED), Auli’i Cravalho (MOANA), Sarah Silverman (Vanellope von Schweetz/RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET: WRECK-IT RALPH 2), Kristen Bell (Anna/FROZEN), Kelly Macdonald (Merida/BRAVE), Anika Noni Rose (Tiana/THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG), Linda Larkin (Jasmine/ALADDIN), and Jodi Benson (Ariel/THE LITTLE MERMAID) of RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET: WRECK-IT RALPH 2 took part today in the Walt Disney Studios live action/animation presentation at Disney’s D23 EXPO 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET: WRECK-IT RALPH 2 will be released in U.S. theaters on November 21, 2018……….(name of talent) of (name of film) took part today in the Walt Disney Studios animation presentation at Disney’s D23 EXPO 2017 in Anaheim, Calif. (name of film) will be released in U.S. theaters on (release date). (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney) *** Local Caption *** Paige O’Hara; Irene Bedard; Mandy Moore; Auli’i Cravalho; Sarah Silverman; Kristen Bell; Kelly Macdonald; Anika Noni Rose; Linda Larkin; Jodi Benson; John Lasseter

We saw some footage, The Princess Scene, from Wreck-It Ralph and it was hilarious. This Princess Scene from Ralph Breaks The Internet has Vanellope who has decided to give the princesses, all the Disney Princesses voiced by the original actresses, a hard time. Right after she sneaks into their room all the princesses turn on her in classic fighting moves. Then she tries to convince them that she’s a princess and that’s when you will start laughing and not stop until the scene is over. You will hear each princess practically break the third wall. They all say what we’ve thought about them for years. Bell admits to being held captive, Ariel wants to break out into song and everyone is annoyed. I mean, I can’t even properly give this scene it’s due credit trying to describe it to you. It was SO FREAKING good that as I was watching it, I was beginning to think it was a fake scene that won’t be in the final version of the movie. Would John Lasseter allow such humor against the precious Disney Princesses? I sure hope so and I have to say it’s about time!

Disney Princess Scene

Wreck-It Ralph 2

This Princess Scene is Genius! I can’t wait for all of you to see it when Wreck-It Ralph 2 hits theaters November 21, 2018.

Just in case you want it here is the Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks The Internet Synopsis:

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ follow-up to 2012’s “Wreck-It Ralph” leaves the arcade behind, venturing into the expansive universe of the internet—which may or may not survive Ralph’s not-so-light touch. Outcasts-turned-BFFs Ralph (voice of John C. Reilly) and Vanellope von Schweetz are reuniting with Fix-It Felix (voice of Jack McBrayer) and Sergeant Calhoun (voice of Jane Lynch). Filmmakers revealed a new character, Yesss, an algorithm who plays an important role in Ralph and Vanellope’s journey within the internet. Golden Globe®-winning actress Taraji P. Henson (“Empire”) lends her voice to the character. “Yesss is a new character who owns the website Buzzaholic,” said Henson. “Yesss knows about everything cool and on trend. And she does spell her name with a triple ‘s.’ Yesss is very savvy, smart and sexy.”

Stay tuned we will bring you updates on Wreck-It Ralph 2 as we receive them.

Why You Should See Toy Story of Terror on Blu-ray & Digital HD

August 22, 2014 by Momstart 2 Comments

Last year on the Disney channel this special came on, it was Toy Story of Terror and my husband set the DVR so we wouldn’t miss it. I think with all my travels I still missed it but he and the kids watched it.

What starts out as a fun road trip for the Toy Story gang takes an unexpected turn for the worse when the trip detours to a roadside motel. After one of the toys goes missing, the others find themselves caught up in a mysterious sequence of events that must be solved before they all suffer the same fate in this Toy Story OF TERROR!

Well now you can OWN Toy Story of Terror it came out on Blu-ray & Digital HD this week. I brought it on vacation with us so we could watch it with all the cousins but the darn player in the Condo doesn’t have Blu-ray and my computer doesn’t have a CD player, oh so it’s a VERY good thing that it does have a digital download copy. GO DISNEY. Now why should you get it?

Well for one it has a great voice talent. “Toy Story OF TERROR!” features the voice talents of original “Toy Story” cast members Tom Hanks as “Woody,” Tim Allen as “Buzz Lightyear,” Joan Cusack as “Jessie,” Timothy Dalton as “Mr. Pricklepants,” Don Rickles as “Mr. Potato Head,” Kristen Schaal as “Trixie” and Wallace Shawn as “Rex,” along with series newcomer Carl Weathers as “Combat Carl/Combat Carl Jr.”

For another reason because it’s Toy Story and kids everywhere young and old love it. And to see the Never-before-seen bonus features include parody vintage toy commercials, deleted scenes, audio commentary.

The additional all-new bonus features include Audio Commentary, Deleted Scenes with Editor Introductions and “Team of Specialists,” in which director Angus MacLane goes deep behind the scenes to introduce the team of specialists required to make this fun-filled “Toy Story” adventure!

Additional in-home special features include three “Toy Story Toons” shorts: “Small Fry,” “Partysaurus Rex” and “Hawaiian Vacation” – each with Audio Commentary; and the rarely seen, especially spooky teaser created for the D23 fan conference. Also available only on Disney Movies Anywhere (DMA) is a new short piece about film references featuring Mr. Pricklepants and a Bonus Deleted Scene with Editor’s Introduction

Monsters University Movie Review #MonstersUPremiere

June 21, 2013 by Momstart 1 Comment

Monsters University is the prequel to Monsters Inc. telling the story of how Mike and Sulley met. The two monsters were not always best friends. If you’ve seen Monsters Inc. then you may think the monsters met in the fourth grade, “You’ve been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade” Mike says to Sulley as a joke. But that must just be a Monster’s saying because these two met in college.

The movie begins following Mike, which really made me like Mike even more. He’s with his class as they visit Monsters Inc. to see how monsters work on the scare floor. Mike being the runt of the class can’t see anything and he wants a front row experience so he finds a way to get a really close up view, a first hand through the door view. Instead of getting in trouble, everyone is shocked that he survived going into the human world and one of the monsters working gave Mike his Monsters University hat and from that moment all Mike could focus on was how do I become a scare-er.

From there the movie follows Mike on his first day of college and that’s when his adventure begins. He meets Sulley the first night in the most unusual way. Sulley was chasing the rivals mascot and he chased it right into Mike’s bedroom. The little pig finds Mike’s hat and takes off with it; ensuring that Mike would join in on the chase. And from there their relationship begins with a lot of rivalry until they get so irritated with each other that they get kicked out of the Scare Program at Monsters University.

Monsters University includes all the things I loved about college and yet maintains the innocence that you feel comfortable taking your children too. It’s smart, cute and an adventure of friendship. The two must work together to achieve the dreams they both have in common. As they become friends things don’t always work out the way they had planned but they do always stick together from that moment on.

I recommend seeing the film with your whole family as you’ll laugh smile and find yourself rooting for the underdog.

3 Hilarious New Clips for MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

May 31, 2013 by Momstart 1 Comment

The summer kids blockbuster Monsters University is coming soon, June 21st, to crack you up. I’ve seen some of this movie and I was laughing so hard I can’t wait to see the rest. Mike and Sully become friends in an unexpected way. For now I have these three Hilarious New Clips for MONSTERS UNIVERSITY.

Monsters University – Film Clip "First Contact"

Monsters University – Film Clip "ROR Material"

Monsters University – Film Clip "OK Initiation"

“Like” MONSTERS UNIVERSITY on Facebook:

"Follow" Disney/Pixar on Twitter:

Visit the website: http://www.Disney.com/MonstersU

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY releases in theaters on June 21st!

Monsters University: Being in Class with Producer Kori Rae

May 20, 2013 by Momstart 1 Comment

Transportation to the event was covered by Disney/Pixar.

Monsters University: Being in Class with Producer Kori Rae
You know? I’m like a kid in a candy store whenever I visit Pixar and this last time I visited they made me go to school. Not just any school, I attended Monster’s University and had a class with the Producer Kori Rae. She taught a class on following your dream and learning to take what you get in life and you’ll be surprised where your dream takes you and it’s amazing how Monsters University follows this theme!

Because sometimes you think you’re meant to do something, and then you discover that, well, that wasn’t really the thing. You find another route. That part of the story is really meaningful to me, and I love that. And I’m super happy that, that we’re telling that story. That we’re telling a different version of the story that if you work hard enough, you can achieve anything. Sometimes that is true, and sometimes you hit that brick wall, and you have to figure out where to go from there.

After learning more about the movie Monsters University, we interviewed the professor/Producer of Monsters University. And it was interesting to learn that she was also a teacher at one time (really, in real life). Check out the interview with Monsters University Kori Rae to learn more about her and Monsters University.

Q: Now were you approached to be the producer for this or did you want to be a part of it?
KORI RAE: Yeah. The latter. As soon as I knew that it, they were thinking about it. I said I really want to work on that movie if I can. So, luckily that worked out.

Q: What made you change directions?
KORI RAE: You know, I wanted to go explore a little bit. I had been an athlete all my life. I’d been involved in, in sports and everything, and I wanted to go. I wanted to travel a little bit, and then I just wanted to, to explore other things. I did editing for a while, and, journalism and stuff like that.There was a period where I just did a whole bunch of things, and it was fantastic, ‘cause I just, I, [STAMMERS] everything. I just wanted to, to discover more. I wanted to see what else was out there. So. And then ended up here, so that worked out…

Questions Tell us about casting:
KORI RAE: So we cast the film even when it’s just in story reel form. That’s when we start thinking about casting the characters, and as soon as we cast them and record them, we cut it in, and, and we start working, and that’s usually in the [STAMMERS] Sometimes it’s still in the storyboard phase, and sometimes it’s in the layout stage, which is where we’re just laying out the camera. Then we have to get it all in, and locked before it goes to animation. So all of the voices are in and final, and edited in before animation. They use that to animate to. They have to have those voices in there to animate to.

Q: So they can add facial features?
KORI RAE: Yeah, and kind of just get the emotion, and get the character through the animation. The intonations that they use. It’s amazing how much you can see coming through, not even just in the facial expressions, but even in their body and their movements are all comes through the voice. Kind of what the emotion of the character is for a certain scene.

Q: What do you like working with more?
KORI RAE: Not necessarily more? The good thing is that, because our process is fairly linear, you get to spend a good amount of time in each department, and so it’s totally satisfying in that way. For this film, we were in story a lot, and I think because the, the challenges of doing a prequel were so intense. I really loved being in story on this film, and we had an incredible team dealing with the really challenging problems.

It was also a little bit new for me. As a first time producer it was the first time that I had really been in the story room every single day all day. So I really loved that part of the film. But I always love animation.My first gig on A Bug’s Life was managing the animation department. And, uh, so I, my heart is always with the animators. I love that department, and it’s where the film really comes to life, so it’s always great to go to dailies and see what people are doing when they animate a scene, and how much they, they plus it, and, make it its own thing. So that’s always great.

Q: When asked what she would attribute to Pixar producing consistently high quality movies Kori had this to say… ”You have to be willing to let go. You have to be willing to throw stuff away, and not get too attached to it. And you have to do that over and over again in order to get to the right, right place.”

Q: Anymore sequels coming?

KORI RAE: We’re so focused on getting this one done. Not a whole lot of thought has been given to anything else.

Q: Did you work on the original Monsters, Inc.?
KORI RAE: I did. I was the associate producer on that.

When asked about the crew size on Monsters University:
KORI RAE: At our peak, the crew size ramps that start small, then it ramps up, and then it ramps back down. At our peak, we’re about 260, 270. Working on the movie, just on the movie here.

So departments kind of come in and out. It’s kind of a linear process. So you have story and editorial and art up front when you’re designing and, and creating the film, and then all of the other departments come online. So, at a point probably about five months ago, we were at our peak at about 270 or so. And then it kind of ramps down.

Q: So how close are you to having the movie ready?
KORI RAE: Very, very close. We’re working on the mix right now. We have a little bit of score left to do. We have a couple of score days the end of this month. The picture will be done this week, and then all of the assembly of those bits and pieces happen, and it will have a finished product by mid mid-May.

The truth is, we back into our release date, so we’re actually right on schedule. We were scheduled to finish picture this week. Everything’s on, on schedule.

update….. I think the movie is about 99% done.

Questions about Kori’s background in education:
KORI RAE: Yeah. I majored in secondary education, in English, and I taught and coached right out of school, for a little bit. Then decided to change directions and do other things, and that led mehere to Pixar eventually after a few years. Producing is definitely a lot like teaching and coaching, I think.

Q: What did you teach?
KORI RAE: It was eighth grade English.Then I coached volleyball, softball, and basketball. All three.

To follow all the action check out the #MonstersUEvent hashtag Want to keep up with all Monsters University updates? Check out the Monsters University website then Make sure your following Disney Pixar on Twitter and you “Like” the Pixar Monsters University Fan Page. Monsters University comes out in theaters June 21st.

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Class Orientation at Monsters University #MonstersUEvent

April 9, 2013 by Momstart 4 Comments

WOW, so my class orientation was overwhelming as I knew my first moment on campus would be. The school though is just as amazing and impressive as all my expectations were. I arrived on campus and had to take a photo through the bus window.

We were rounded up for orientation

I had my Monsters University Student ID card made

And today I’m going to have to make the choice of which sorority I want to join. I wonder if anyone would accept me.