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Planes Fire & Rescue In Home Release Interview with Paul Gerard & Jeff Howard

November 8, 2014 by Momstart Leave a Comment

I love my job more than anyone could possibly understand. I always wanted to be an animator, well, more like I wanted to do computer graphics. I studied art and computer science in college and somehow I ended up a writer that is capable of maintaining my website in all aspects. So, even if I sit through the same presentation from Disney animators, writers or producers more than once I’m still amazed, in awe and like a kid in a candy store;  because this is my favorite kind of candy. I love learning about how Disney movies are made. I spent some time with Paul Gerard Director of Creative Development and Jeff Howard the Co-writer of Disney’s Planes Fire & Rescue and this is their presentation to us.

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JEFF : Do your research. It has an exclamation point. And it’s a command, so it’s a — this is a mandatory thing.

PAUL : John Lassiter, our executive producer, believes in this idea, Truth in Materials, which is, uh, uh, you know. We can find not only character, but story, but the grounding of our movie in our research. Because we have a huge conceit going on, which is that airplanes talk and have eyeballs, so everything else around that should be as grounded in reality as possible.

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JEFF : Right. So we went out and talked to dozens of aerial firefighters and ground crew and smoke jumpers and air traffic controllers, and, uh, visited several national parks to try to get all of the details of the movie right.

PAUL : And one of our biggest resources was the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, which, to their friends, are known as Cal Fire, which is why we are required to still call them the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and everyone who’s ever heard that joke before never, ever goes over. It doesn’t. It just doesn’t work.

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JEFF : I think it’s very solid. It’s at least a B plus joke, I think. Yeah, so, one of the things that was interesting to us when we went out and visited Hemet Ryan was that all of our aircraft had a previous life. The S2, which is their main tanker, used to a sub-hunting aircraft. The Huey, goes back to Vietnam. The OB10 Bronco was a reconnaissance airplane. So, this whole theme of second chances started to sort of gel in our heads, that all of the aircraft are really on their second lives. We discovered that, you know, many of the things at the air attack base are scratch built. Like, this, you know, they had this Quonset hut that they’d just built themselves. They had a lot of, you know, repurposed equipment and stuff like that. It’s a lot of hand-me-down things. Even their display cases. They had these display cases where they had their t-shirts and coffee mugs and stuff that were just display cases from a video game store that was giving a — like, it used to be a Nintendo thing. So this whole idea of “Better than new” started to creep into our minds, as well.

PAUL : The other thing that amazed us was how often they go out and fight fires. Guess how many fires Cal Fire fights in one year? About 5,600. And, in fact —

JEFF : Just in California. It’s actually 50,000, nationwide, with all of the different agencies.

PAUL : Yeah. That’s just California, and this year is actually a banner year for fires. They were on track, last time we talked to them, for like, 6,500 this year. And, so — but the public only hears about the big fires, which actually became a line in the movie, when we were talking — first presenting our pitch to the different directors here.IMG_2309

JEFF : So, that became a line, and went straight into the movie. That you know, we almost had Dusty ask the very question that our other director asked when he gets there, and they get an alarm, and Dusty says, “Really, there’s a fire already” and Dipper answers back, “Yeah, you guys only hear about the big ones,” which is literally what they told us. We’re like, that’s a great detail, we gotta put that straight into the story.

PAUL : At Yellowstone we saw these iconic tour buses that they’d had there since the 1920s that were the inspiration for Old Jammer. Because they actually called them jammers.

JEFF : Didn’t we find out it was the drivers who were the jammers?

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PAUL : Yes. It’s the drivers that are called jammers, because they had no synchro-rings. They had their all manual transmissions and they were going up and down the mountains, so you just — they had, to like, grind the gears, and they called them jammers.

JEFF : So, Chuck Aaron was one of our other big consultants for the movie. You know, we wanted Blade to be one of the coolest helicopters in the world, so we went to one of the coolest helicopter pilots in the world, who’s Chuck Aaron, who flies — he’s probably one of the few aerobatic helicopter pilots in the world.

PAUL : He’s the only one the FAA has actually given a license to fly aerobatic helicopter flight —

JEFF : It’s something that a helicopter isn’t really supposed to do, like loops and barrels and stuff like that. His helicopter is a MMBB0105 that he’s customized heavily. He wouldn’t even tell us the modifications he’s made to it, ’cause it’s sort of a trade secret. He actually tears this helicopter down and rebuilds it at the end of every air show season, just to make sure all of the parts are working correctly. And he spent a long time trying to figure out how to actually aerodynamically do a loop in a helicopter because you’re not supposed to be able to do that.And like the Cal Fire guys, he has come here, several times, to watch the movie and give us feedback on how the helicopters move and the dynamics of it and everything, and he and Travis came to the premiere, and have been with us every step of the way in — in developing the movie.

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You saw this morning, the CL415, which is one of the inspirations for Dipper, and there were a couple of other aircraft that went into her design. She’s actually closer to the size of a Grummin Goose, ’cause the CL415 is quite a bit bigger than what she actually is, compared to Dusty. Also, the PBY Catalina, which is a gorgeous aircraft, if you’ve ever seen that.

And we also got to watch the tankers do, uh, their practice drops. Getting the coaching from the ground and the feedback who were telling them, “You know, um, more this way or that way, or one wingspan left, on your next drop,” or that sort of thing. And they let us strap GoPro cameras to the aircraft and the smoke jumpers, some of that footage just went straight into the movie.

PAUL : Yeah. This actually inspired many of the shots that are in the film, for the, uh, that first fire sequence.

Then we had a small Q & A, this is one of the questions we had time for.

Q : When you’re doing a movie like this, do you have a story before you go out and research or does the story develop from the research?

PAUL : Sort of a little bit of both, yeah.

JEFF : Little bit of both. There’s — it’s more of the latter. Basically, the — the impetus for it was, okay, you know we started it when the first Planes movie was only a year into development and production, so it was still going to be three years before Planes came out, but we thought it was coming together pretty well, and we said, “Let’s do — let’s start working on a follow-up, ’cause we think this is gonna be pretty successful,” and Bobs started looking into the different arenas of aviation. What could we do? We could do this sort of a story, this sort of story, different things, and —

And he started looking into aerial firefighting which is something that hasn’t been shown a lot in movies, and when he first started investigating it, the very — you know, this is where the research sort of led us into what the story was gonna be, because he discovered that the first aerial firefighters were crop-dusting aircraft, and that the type of planes that Dusty is modeled after are also used for firefighting. They put pontoons on them. They let them scoop off the water. Exactly what happens to Dusty in the movie. And we said, well, this is a natural extension for what Dusty’s next adventure is gonna be.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Disney, fire and rescue, movie, planes

Get Planes Fire and Rescue With Bonus Features

November 4, 2014 by Momstart Leave a Comment

We received a sample of Planes Fire and Rescue but the good news is that today you can get your own copy.

Landing on Disney Blu-ray™ Combo Pack, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, DVD & On-Demand Nov. 4, 2014! Planes: Fire and Rescue Sores on to the screen with Dusty still racing. However, he wasn’t made to race so he gets hurt and finds that he can no longer be a racer. You see a few characters from the first film, but you immediately get into the new characters as Dusty is discovering a new possible career choice. The new characters Dipper, Windlifter, Blade Ranger and MORE bring new adventure and sass to the story. That Dipper boy is she a firecracker.

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The kids love watching movies over and over and this one is going to be worn out in no time.

 

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BONUS FEATURES

Exclusive Animated Short – “Vitaminamulch: Air Spectacular”

“Welcome to Piston Peak! – This mock-umentary promotional piece shows off all the highlights of the acclaimed Piston Peak National Park and its aerial firefighting team.

“CHoPs” TV Promo – An in-world TV promo with announce.

Air Attack: Firefighters From The Sky – This high-energy, music-driven behind-the-scenes piece takes an inside look at the real smoke jumpers and firefighters who attack wildfires from the air as Director Roberts Gannaway and Producer Ferrell Barron take us through their journey in making the film.

Spencer Lee Music Video “Still I Fly”

Deleted Scenes with Filmmaker Introductions:
“Honkers”
“Dusty’s Dream No More”

Animated Shorts:
“Dipper”
“Smokejumpers”

Planes: Fire and Rescue Socially:

Like PLANES on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Follow PLANES on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: fire and rescue, movie, planes

Putting Out Fires Van Nuys Air Tanker Tour #FireandRescue #DisneyInHomeEvent

October 5, 2014 by Momstart 1 Comment

This week starts National Fire Prevention week and the release of Planes: Fire and Rescue. To celebrate Disney took 25 bloggers down to Van Nuys Air Tanker for a tour and tips on Fire Prevention. It was really amazing to see the planes and speak with assistant fire chief Steve Martin.

THE PLANES WE SAW

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The two super scoopers! And I sat in the Pilot seat!

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“They come from the province of Québec. They always come here in September and they generally can go through, depending on when the rains come, middle of November but we’ve had them as long as into January. I think last year we had big fires in January so they were here until February. We also augment with the air crane, this one over here. You’ve seen the movies. Obviously you’ve seen the characters based on these.” IMG_2338

Said Steve Martin….He continues….

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“So I received a phone call from some folks that Gaby had worked with about three years ago and they said hey, you know that movie Cars? I’m like yeah. They go were going to do one on planes. And I go well, that sounds like a cool idea. But the Disney folks are so square, they go yeah, we’re working for 2014, 15 and 16, like way out. So they were just doing, at that time, investigating it and fact gathering and wanted to know some things. So like I said I’ve got to give props to the Disney people. They do their homework.”

He also goes on to say that he became a technical adviser to Disney and that he’s super excited that his name is in the movie credits.

“Basically when they make a movie they want it to be technically correct. And if I look back and I think when my son was young and I go to Disney movies and it’s something that I don’t know a lot about, it sure sounded like it was correct. But in this case here when it was about the aircraft and it was about flying, it was about the fire department, it was about rescues, we knew the language that we speak. And they took every single one of those things that I said and put it in the script and change the script.”

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“And of course I didn’t know what the final product would be until the movie came out. So the movie came out middle of summer okay. Next thing I know my e-mail is blowing up. I’ve got people that said hey, I went to that Planes movie. And I saw your name on there. And I’m like really? They put my name on there? And they go yeah, LA County. How big was it? Was it big? Was it going fast? Was it like after a TV show or was it real slow with something funny happening? He said, no its slow. It was big.”

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And here is the inside of the plane seen above!

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FIRE SAFETY IN YOUR HOME

Make sure you have tested your batteries in your smoke alarms

It is recommended that every room in the house have two exits

Have a fire extinguisher easily accessible

TO PUT OUT A FIRE:

me putting out fire

We were also taught how to put out a fire with a fire extinguisher. If you have an electric or grease fire then you have to use a fire extinguisher. And I had no idea that put the fire out you need to be at the bottom of the flames and go back and fourth with the extinguisher. Once you use your fire extinguisher you should buy a new one. You could have it re-filled but the fire chief talking to us said that it’s just cheaper to buy a new one. He said that the pressure is gone and it won’t work as well a second time.

Filed Under: personal Tagged With: fire and rescue, Movies, personal, planes

Inside Planes Fire and Rescue’s Park Piston Peak

July 25, 2014 by Momstart 2 Comments

I actually got to visit Planes Fire & Rescue’s park. You know, when Disney makes a movie, they create a work place that represents the movie they are working on. Filmmakers knew that the backdrop for “Planes: Fire & Rescue” would have to be vast—the main characters can cover a lot of miles in a single scene—and they wanted it to be lush and scenic.

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So, they reasoned, why not build our own national park? And it’s behind those doors.  They even created a map for us to use so we don’t get lost while we were inside Piston Peak National Park.

PF_131Piston Peak National Park comes with a host of landmarks—all designed for a world inhabited by assorted vehicles. “We added a lot of aircraft motifs,” says art director Toby Wilson. “We incorporated items like rotor blades and tail fins throughout the set.”

Of course, our Piston Peak National Park was a smaller version but does give you the idea of what the campgrounds and Ranger Station would look like. I just loved this interactive National Park learning station they created.

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It included the Sights and Sounds

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And a description of all the heroes in the forest. PF_130

And of course there was information on the local wildlife.

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To raise the stakes, filmmakers decided on a valley environment that would prove challenging for the high-flying characters. Bigger than the Grand Canyon, Piston Peak measures 12 miles long and four miles wide. “It was hard to have a bad shot in the film,” says Dustin Mackay, previs/layout artist. “The landscape was beautiful and contained. It was a real treat from a cinematic point of view.”

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Then the gift shop included post cards. You have to have post cards right?

 

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Piston Peak is the park’s namesake. “We knew the name of the park would mean a piston motif—it’s the iconic shape of the park,” says Wilson.

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• La Pariah was inspired by Yosemite’s El Capitan.

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• Thunderbolt Bluffs pays homage to WWII Thunderbolt planes.

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• Anchor Lake features an anchor-shaped island. “We wanted Piston Peak to be a national park for all vehicles,”  says Wilson. “It’s not just for planes. We pay tribute to all modes of transportation.”

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• The Grand Fusel Lodge adopted the iconic shape from the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone, and took additional  cues for building materials from Yosemite’s Ahwahnee Hotel. The Grand Fusel Lodge is loaded with  vehicle motifs.

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— Each balcony is a helicopter-landing pad. 
— There are piston-shaped lanterns.
— The front deck overlooks Gasket Geyser. 
— The rugs inside the hotel feature piston and airplane shapes.
— The spa features a mitter curtain
—long strips of fabric that hang in automated car washes. 
— The chandeliers are wagon wheels with headlights.
— The fireplace features the grill of an automobile. 
— The steam-powered clock is shaped like a gear.
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• Augerin Canyon was named for the danger it represented to the air attack team. “Auger in” means to crash a  plane into the ground—so it was an appropriate name for the box canyon-like formation that is nearly  impossible to navigate. “It serves as our obstacle course for the park,” says Wilson.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Disney, fire and rescue, movie, planes, planes fire and rescue, review

Planes Fire and Rescue Movie Review

July 18, 2014 by Momstart 1 Comment

Planes Fire and Rescue is a great movie, it’s actually better than the first. The world-famous air racer Dusty has been pushing his engines to the limits by racing all the time. He soon learns that his engine is damaged beyond repair and if he pushes his engines too hard one more time he will never fly again unless they can find more parts. Meaning he may never race again, he must shift gears and is launched into the world of aerial firefighting to save his local airport. He has a hard time with his new transition but wants to keep his airfield safe and they need a new firefighter.

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Dusty joins forces with veteran fire and rescue helicopter Blade Ranger and his team, a bunch of all-terrain vehicles known as The Smokejumpers. Together, the fearless team battles a massive wildfire, and Dusty learns what it takes to become a true hero. This is a great story of finding yourself in the middle of overcoming your fears. Dusty even goes as far as giving up his ability to fly to save others trapped in a fire. The storyline is strong and the characters are well developed.

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“Planes: Fire & Rescue” features the voices of Dane Cook (“Disney’s Planes,” “Louie,” “Dan in Real Life”) as Dusty, Ed Harris (“Pollock,” “Apollo 13,” “A History of Violence”) as Blade Ranger, Julie Bowen (“Modern Family,” 1 “Horrible Bosses”) as Dipper, Curtis Armstrong (“Supernatural,” “American Dad!”) as Maru, John Michael Higgins (“Happily Divorced,” “Pitch Perfect”) as Cad Spinner, Hal Holbrook (“Promised Land,” “Lincoln”) as Mayday, Wes Studi (“Avatar,” “The New World”) as Windlifter, Brad Garrett (“Disney’s Planes,” “Everybody Loves Raymond”) as Chug, Teri Hatcher (“Disney’s Planes,” “Desperate Housewives”) as Dottie, Stacy Keach “Disney’s Planes,” “Nebraska”) as Skipper, Cedric the Entertainer (“Disney’s Planes,” “Barbershop”) as Leadbottom and Danny Mann (“Disney’s Planes,” “Up”) returns as Sparky. The voice talent also includes Barry Corbin (“Northern Exposure”) as ‘Ol Jammer, Regina King (“Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous,” “Jerry Maguire”) as Dynamite, Anne Meara as Winnie, Jerry Stiller as Harvey, Fred Willard as Secretary of the Interior, Captain Dale Dye as Cabbie, Kevin Michael Richardson as Ryker, and Patrick Warburton (“The Emperor’s New Groove,” “Seinfeld”) as Pulaski. Everyone bringing personality and life to the characters.

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“It’s a movie about second chances,” says director Bobs Gannaway (“Secret of the Wings”). “Each character was something else before finding their current roles, and Dusty is a crop duster-turned-racer who can’t race any more. When we learned that historically, the very first air attack teams were crop dusters, it was clear that the plane was telling us where the story was going.” The ending is a bit intense and looks like all will be lost, and you’ll have to see for yourself how it actually ends.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: fire and rescue, movie, Movie review, planes, planes fire and rescue

Meet The Spunky Dipper: Planes Fire and Rescue Julie Bowen Interview

July 11, 2014 by Momstart 2 Comments

She’s cute she’s funny she’s on American Family and now Julie Bowen is a Planes character. Julie Bowen is funny and very energetic, I don’t know if this woman can sit still for very long, she loves to stay busy and what you see is what you get. She is a firecracker and does an amazing job playing Dusty’s biggest fan Dipper in Planes Fire and Rescue. She did force herself to sit still for about 20 minutes allowing us to interview her in her upcoming role as Dipper. Here is part of the interview with Julie Bowen. IMG_1855

 

 

Q : Is this your first time playing an animated character?

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JULIE : Um, yeah, for a movie, yes. I did like a couple little quickie things. Cheap & Dirty, but it was, brought a lot out of it for my kids for like Scooby-Doo. Because they don’t watch, they’ve never seen Modern Family. Plus they don’t really want…you know, kids the world is about them. And according to my therapist, that’s totally normal, for awhile. So I’m like really? Everything is about them!

And, uh, they don’t want to see me on a screen that much. But they like the voice thing. So when I got an opportunity to do this, I saw how much mileage I got off Scooby-Doo. I couldn’t believe how much mileage I got from them. They were like worshipping me. So this, like I mean I’m genuinely excited to show off to my children.

Q : How is working in the sound booth.

JULIE : It’s kind of nerve-wracking.  ‘Cause there’s nothing there. Also my big fear is like you’re in the booth, and then there’s a glass thing. And they’re… And this is what I’m analyzing, like. It’s really bad. Is it too late to re-cast this? And so day one I went in and Bob… Did you guys meet Bob?

Q : Yeah.

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JULIE : First of all, his name is Bobs. [LAUGHTER] Second, overly Disney. Where else are you gonna go to work? [LAUGHTER] Go to Morgan Stanley. Then you’re like, Bob’s? Wait, I would say…you guys, when you’re just chitchatting, even if it’s about lunch, [unintelligible] mic open. Because I’m in here dying a thousand tiny deaths going, and they’re like- they’re like, you want pickles on it? Pickles? I’m fine. [LAUGHTER]

But once we got that out of the way then I could relax a little, because it’s just that silent alone in a room thing. And, you know, just please, please validate me. Makes me feel very uncomfortable. Yeah.

Q : How was it to do animated versus Modern Family?

JULIE : Oh. Oh. So different. So different. I am not, um, a trained voice actor. I’m keenly aware of my weaknesses, um, and that may be because there’s something that obscure or high, there’s no like, no, I think we might have seen your boob there. You know what I mean? It’s just your voice, and if you aren’t getting across clearly, the humor, the message, the- the real sentiment, you can’t deny it. You can’t go like, yeah, but she looks really big in that shot.

Or your hair looks nice, so maybe no one will notice. So, um, I was keenly aware of it. Luckily they are perfectionists and they are so pro that they very quickly figured out that the best way to work with me was just let me go. And then some poor editor had to sit somewhere going, oh my god. I mean I was leaping around, swearing. The original Dipper had quite a mouth on her. But that- but to get to the like sassiness of- of the way that she thinks, I kind of needed to spout some garbage.

Q : There are gonna be girls watching this film that are gonna come away going, yeah, I totally wanna fly planes or do something?

JULIE : No. No they didn’t. They didn’t. I was, um, shocked that they…I mean they filmed, you know, there’s always a little digital thing rolling and I was shocked to see how specific they made the plane. I mean a plane doesn’t have a lot of…it doesn’t have a front grill like cars did. Like they didn’t have even a bumper to do mouths and stuff with, or hands. Like they were really limited. And, um, they made it look really human and kind of like me.

And that, I think it’s all in the mouth, um, but no I didn’t- I didn’t meet anybody about it. Um, about that kind of a job and I only recently discovered what I’m called. ‘Cause I didn’t realize I had to be a real thing, you know. I- I- I underestimated the level of research that they had done. And I thought I was just, you know, one of those planes that picks up water. Like, noooo. You know, it’s much more than that.

Q : Do you watch the film first and then voice it?

JULIE : They draw- it- it’s kind of like what you would imagine as far as there’s like a, there’s a rough sketch copy. Like pencil drawing, um, and then sometimes it’s more, it’s- it’s more than that. It’s the pencil drawing against the backdrop because I guess the backdrops are more static, or they- those are painted in- in total, and then they…I’m not exactly sure how that happens. But what I see is just mostly some loose drawings in the very beginning.

Moving around and, and kind of marking the major things. Then I come back like six months later and they’re drawn more. And the cool thing is, six months or eight months later, they’ve taken all that spouting that I did in the booth, and running around and sweating, and they incorporate it into the character. And now they’ve started to draw her- her movement and her mouth and everything to fit that. And that was very cool to see. Somebody had to work very hard.

Uh, but then it was not until I saw this in the final film, but the last things I’ve seen have been, to my eye look finished. I’m sure a professional will have tweaking to do or something.

Q : Are you ever with other actors in the booth or always by yourself?

JULIE : No. I was always by myself which is, um…I don’t know ‘cause I don’t- I’ve done… Like when I did Scooby-Doo it was in a room with a bunch of people. But, but those are, um, serialized. You know, it’s- it’s weekly or however they do it. So they’ve got a much faster production piece. Um, I don’t think you can afford to bring one person in at a time. No, I was completely alone. But luckily, um, Dane Cook, I mean all theirs was done. It was completely done. So I could hear him, I could hear Ed Harris, I could hear all- everybody else.

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Q : At the end of the day did you walk away feeling different?

JULIE : You know, I think when I actually get to see the whole movie it’s gonna be really exciting. Um, I’m not very good at watching myself, but I’m- I’m okay at listening to myself. Like I’m very excited about this. It also feels so collaborative, it doesn’t feel like I’m raising the ‘I am awesome’ flag, which always makes me cringe a little. Um, I can look at this and go, wow, I was part of something that was so awesome so it’s easy when you’re done to embrace the whole thing.

And- and I’m really…from what I’ve seen, and even though I’m a little, um, I guess they were interstitials. I wonder what they call them. Bobs direct them. But were they interstitials? They’re part of the…

Okay. It’s really- it’s really fun. They really let me be a complete buffoon. She’s lookin’ for love. I’m allowed to say that. But this is Dipper lookin’ for love. And, um, I guess they’re gonna come out prior to the movie, as part of the advertisement. So that was really fun too. Because they- I guess they probably didn’t…maybe it doesn’t count as much [unintelligible]. And then again, some poor editor had to make all this.

Q : Did you get to have like a romance all on your own?

JULIE : On my own. That’s right. That was fun.

Q : Did you get to do any adlibbing with that?

JULIE : Oh yeah.

Yeah, like a lot of adlibbing. I’m not super great at joke telling or reading a line, um. Usually I have to lay the pipe a bit, like [unintelligible]. That’s the person who gives you the story. Um, sometimes it’s- it’s not the exciting stuff, it’s not the jokes, but they’re laying it out. They’re like, you know, Luke has the flu and Alex is here, and then Phil gets to go, oh…and my butt is frozen. Or whatever the funny line is.

And this was, everybody else for the most part, were laying pipe and I had to come in with exactly this romance in my head. So really the possibilities were endless because they weren’t necessarily a hundred percent connected to what was going on. Like one thing, you know, oh, we’re gonna go here and then I would take that to, well what do you want me to tell him? It’s a date, it’s our third date? Our second date? I don’t know anything. I- I still am not sure a hundred percent what’s in there. But I’m sure it’s very, very perfect for children.

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Filed Under: interview, Movie review Tagged With: Dipper, interview, Julie Bowen, movie, planes, planes fire and rescue

I’m Dipper In Planes Fire And Rescue

July 3, 2014 by Momstart 9 Comments

One of my very favorite things to do is a voice over. I love to visit Disney and do a voice over for a movie. I’ve been Piglet from Winnie The Pooh, Olaf from Frozen, Dottie from Planes, Vanellope from Wreck It Ralph. And I love doing it every time. It’s not as easy as it looks but practice does help the confidence inside the booth.

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This time we had a script and were supposed to time the words correctly. Sometimes they have the words on the screen and you have to read them off the screen this time we had a little music stand with the script. We get to wear the headphones so we can hear the other person’s lines and then we say ours. Here I am in the studio and you can hear the lines, but what you can’t hear is the director inside the recording booth giving me specific instructions.

 

 

As you can tell, even though I’ve done this a few times, I still need a lot of direction. This is me with the animation.

 

Planes is a really cute movie and Dipper is a great character. She’s a huge huge fan of Dusty’s and follows him around. She has a lot of energy and is great at putting out fires.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Dipper, Disney, Disney animation studios, Disney Toon, movie, planes, planes fire and rescue, voice over

The Journey Of a Movie: Disney’s Planes Fire & Rescue

June 20, 2014 by Momstart 4 Comments

Why is Disney so successful with their movies? They start with a very good story. Then they do all the research about every aspect of their story and then they combine the two and translate that into animation. Last month, I sat down with Jeff Howard (co-writer) and Paul Gerrard (Director, Creative Development) to learn about the research that went into Planes Fire and Rescue.

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To fully make a movie about forest fires and the people that put them out they had to actually go out and talk to them. Jeff and Paul actually traveled to Yosemite Park and Yellowstone Park, meeting with park rangers in order to make the park as realistic for the film as possible.  While watching Planes: Fire & Rescue, you will see some familiar sites with any knowledge of either park. The Grand Fusel Lodge was inspired by Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park. Disney personnel actually went to Old Faithful Inn and did on-site research. There are many similar characteristics in the film.

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They learned so much from these locations. CAL Fire was also a big resource for the film makers. They fight about 5,600 fires per year. So of course they were able to help Disney make sure they were using real words and phrases that fire fighters actually use. Jeff and Paul also participated in actual water drops on some fires. They even went as far as spending time with smoke jumpers for the US Forces!

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People called dispatchers have to check constantly on lighting strikes and find out if any fires were started. So of course Disney put one in Planes Fire and Rescue.

 

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Aerial firefighting planes can hold up to 16,000 gallons of water and can fill up in 12 seconds by skimming lakes, reservoirs and large rivers. Which I think is very impressive. The planes in Planes Fire and Rescue are based on actual planes used to fight fires, and Planes like Dusty were actually used to fight fires a long time ago!

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Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE flies into theatres everywhere on July 18th!

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: animation, Disney, fire & rescue, movie, planes

Learning to Draw Disney’s Planes Fire & Rescue Character Dipper

June 14, 2014 by Momstart Leave a Comment

Disney Animation Studios is such a fun place to visit. I LOVE Art and getting to draw with professional artist has always been a dream for me so I love and cherish every time I get the experience with Disney. This time we were studying how to draw planes for the movie Planes: Fire & Rescue that lands in theaters nationwide on July 18th. We drew Dipper! This is my Dipper. With just a few lines and circles you too can create Dipper.

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I brought it home for my son to color. Which made him really happy.

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He loves the Planes world and the Cars world. He’s your average boy that likes anything with wheels and anything that flies of course. And these artists take what children love and bring them to life and they make it look easy. These guys being Art Hernandez, the Head of Story, and Lawrence Gong, the Story Artist for Planes: Fire & Rescue, who are amazing.  It’s not until you sit down with a story artist, that you realize just how much goes into making an animated movie. A LOT! From Story boards to a little bit of acting and from being able to take criticism to the success of seeing your product on the big screen.

So much work goes into these movies….Each scene takes anywhere from 100 to over 1,000 drawings. That’s a lot of art work.

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I’ve seen Art draw before but really it never gets old. He is amazing at it and after drawing the same characters over and over and over again he can draw one in about six seconds.

 

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Here are some photos that illustrate the very early stages of the art which are transformed.

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Then from there it goes into more detail and becomes the amazing movie that you see on the big screen. And according to Art:

“If we do our jobs right, you’ll forget you’re looking at hand drawings.” – Art Hernandez

And after seeing Planes Fire and Rescue you forget. It looks so good. It’s better than the first movie Planes. So go see it when it comes out and I hope you appreciate the work that goes into it.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Disney, entertainment, fire and rescue, movie, planes, planes fire and rescue

A Week in LA With a Highlight of Angelina Jolie #MaleficentEvent #FireandRescueEvent

May 15, 2014 by Momstart 1 Comment

Oh I woke up this morning with a great deal of anxiety….and for a moment I was really confused and didn’t understand why I had anxiety, it’s because I’m doing three different activities this next week all in LA. I leave tomorrow morning at 4 am to head off to LA. I’m going to start my weekend drinking wine and learning about food blogging at Camp Blogaway. Then I head off to the heart of Hollywood where I’m going to actually get to interview Angelina Jolie for the upcoming Disney film Maleficent.

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I’m lucky enough that I’ve actually already seen 10 minutes of the movie. I saw the part where Aurora was born and all the fairies bestow gifts on the princess and then in comes Maleficent. Well Well Well, it’s amazingly done. Because Angelina Jolie steals the scene. But then the 10 minutes that I saw switches to when Aurora meets Maleficent and it seems like they become friends almost. And then as you can see in the trailers…shocker a betrayal happens as Aurora learns that she is the fairy that cursed her. Sigh….I’m so excited to see the film and have the chance to interview Angelina Jolie.

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Part of the Disney magic will include a screening of the new Planes movie coming out this summer, Planes Fire and Rescue. Yes, Dusty is going to return this summer and this time he wants to become a fire rescue plane. Can he do it? We’ll just have to see and we’ll be spending a day learning about the animation that went into Planes Fire and Rescue and you know that makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.

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We will interview Julie Bowen (voice of “Dipper”) and the filmmakers.  While there, we will attend a drawing demonstration with animators and get a chance to voice a character from the film in a recording booth!  And finally, we will also attend an exclusive Disney Consumer Products and Disney Store product presentation and tour at Disney’s Glendale Creative Campus to learn all about the new product lines for both films!  And for this trip I will be staying at the Universal Sheraton Hotel!

 

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MALEFICENT is rated PG and releases in theaters everywhere on May 30th!

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Plane’s: Fire & Rescue hits theaters in 3D on July 18, 2014.

 

Then after that I have another top secret trip that I will share with you as soon as I have signed the contract! SO Stay tuned for a week of excitement for MomStart!

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: fire and rescue, Maleficent, movie, planes

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