The Magic Factory: Inside Pixar

Animation Temple

 

Pixar doesn’t always live up to expectations. People arrive expecting a magic factory run by a joyous staff of pixies. How else could Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc, Wall-e and The Incredibles have come from the same place?

 

The reality is of course not so. The magic – that heart-warming sensation that Pixar’s rivals have never quite matched – is dialed painstakingly into a computer or etched onto paper by one of hundreds of artists. Located just east of central San Francisco, the Pixar HQ resembles an art gallery when you first walk in. Statues of classic characters stand in the corners and artists’ impressions of favourite scenes adorn the walls. Further in, the magic-makers can be seen breakfasting on coffee and bagels.

 

These people are film stars. They just don’t know it and don’t act it. One giant star cast, the people of Pixar churn out a movie almost every year and hundreds of them play a part, conjuring layers of complexity we couldn’t imagine behind the charming simplicity of their scripts. Pixar don’t even need big names in the voice cast anymore. And neither do we. Will Smith in Shark Tale anyone? Thought not. Give us near-unknown Albert Brooks in Finding Nemo or Edward Asner at the front of Up, their latest release.

 

 

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Moving On Up

 

The combination of new-school tech and old-fashioned storytelling has never been so prevalent as it is in Up – Pixar’s tenth film about an old man who sets off on an adventure by tying thousands of helium balloons to his house. This one started with a drawing of a grumpy-looking old man holding a bunch of balloons, sketched in 2004 by Up co-director Pete Docter.

 

“We were throwing around some ideas in development and I sketched that,” says Docter. “Bob (Peterson, co-director) ran with it from there.”

 

“Development” refers to a room somewhere in the annals of Pixar where ideas are scrawled onto paper as the artists move towards a storyboard that will serve as a stencil for the final product. The abundance of rough drawings on the walls pays testament to the studio’s love of pencil-work. “We have the opportunity to just do what we want without a lot of outside interference.”

 

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Most recently, a huge new range of sketches have been hung showing the development of the characters of Up, many of them outlining an elderly gentleman with a rectangular head called Carl Fredricksen. Dressed in brown trousers, brown jacket and brown bow-tie, he’s miles away from the colourful, jubilant characters that have been at the front of every other Pixar film. 

 

“We’re always trying to surprise people,” reflects Docter. “Part of the joy of our movies is not knowing what’s coming. Hopefully it’s not quite like anything you’ve seen. That’s the goal.”

Since becoming the first animation to open The Cannes Film Festival, Up has trailed with it a string of five-star reviews. It not only impresses, but further serves to reverse people’s expectations of what Pixar are capable of following their bold venture into sci-fi with Wall-e in 2008. The breathless crowd reaction was lost on the director: “Cannes was great. Only thing is I was writing notes on the back of my program for things I wanted to change before the DVD release. I still get lost in the movie every now again. But I’ve seen it every day for three years so it’s different for me.”

The Daily Grind

 

The arduous process of animation is what the Pixar people always come back to when you speak to them. There are no shortcuts. Animator Scott Clark takes us through 5 seconds of animation of Doug – the talking dog that joins the adventurers for the spectacular action of the second half of Up – and the detail of the dog’s tongue alone is incredible. “Dogs make an awful lot of different movements with their tongues,” explains Clark. “I could easily spend 48 hours working on three seconds of the tongue alone.”

 

“We’ve always had a mantra that God is in the details” says Production Designer Ricky Nierva. “We’re able to push that more and more each time. But the character comes first and we never want to take away from the characters and the story.”

 

Nierva has the same buoyant quality that Clark, Docter and Peterson all emanate. He’s a relaxed character in his early thirties wearing chunky glasses and jeans. But the pride in his work and the final product is tangible. He’s the Pixar brand of film star, ever aware that he works in one of the world’s coolest offices.

 

“It’s probably one of the more fantastic places to work and we’re totally spoilt,” says Docter. “It’s a great studio.”

 

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