Spring Break
Cigar Exclusive! Pixar director moves on 'Up' in world
Caity Cudworth
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: Entertainment
04/29/09 - Pixar has long cornered the market on spectacular CGI stunners. For more than two decades, the studio masterminds have been churning out colossal hits, combining their large-scale animation with an odd knack for drawing emotion from the weirdest of characters.
And the formula works: given the proper story line, Pixar could take a poorly-maintained gas station toilet and make it a likable hero.
The studio-heads take an inspired idea and inflate it to sweeping, monumental proportions. Take last summer's smash, "Wall-E," for example. If you don't think a creaky, environmentally-conscious robot can make you weep, well then, you clearly haven't gazed into Wall-E's sad, mechanical eyes.
It makes only makes sense, then, that Pixar's latest creation, "Up," which lands in theaters May 29, is another meticulously animated trip that spins a simple story into a full-blown (and, in this case, literal) flight of fancy.
"Up" follows a curmudgeonly balloon salesman, Carl Fredricksen, as he sets our to fulfill his childhood dream of exploring Paradise Falls, a pristine oasis in the wilds of South America. Rendered as an eerie terrain dripping with color and brimming with bizarre creatures, Paradise Falls is all Carl has left after his wife Ellie dies.
And with nothing to lose- aside from a ramshackle house that's more or less doomed for the bulldozer treatment - Carl embarks on the grandiose adventure he's always dreamed of: he hitches a thousand balloons to his house, inflates them all at once, and sets sail.
The film's director, Pixar director, animator, and general mastermind, Pete Docter ("Toy Story 2," "Monsters Inc.") sat down to talk to the Cigar about his latest feat of animated artistry.
"It was basically born out of the idea of escaping society," Docter said of the film's creative spark. "We drew this house with balloons in it, and just felt like, 'yeah that's appealing.' So we were just asking ourselves, 'who's in there, and what is he doing, and where did he come from?'"
And the formula works: given the proper story line, Pixar could take a poorly-maintained gas station toilet and make it a likable hero.
The studio-heads take an inspired idea and inflate it to sweeping, monumental proportions. Take last summer's smash, "Wall-E," for example. If you don't think a creaky, environmentally-conscious robot can make you weep, well then, you clearly haven't gazed into Wall-E's sad, mechanical eyes.
It makes only makes sense, then, that Pixar's latest creation, "Up," which lands in theaters May 29, is another meticulously animated trip that spins a simple story into a full-blown (and, in this case, literal) flight of fancy.
"Up" follows a curmudgeonly balloon salesman, Carl Fredricksen, as he sets our to fulfill his childhood dream of exploring Paradise Falls, a pristine oasis in the wilds of South America. Rendered as an eerie terrain dripping with color and brimming with bizarre creatures, Paradise Falls is all Carl has left after his wife Ellie dies.
And with nothing to lose- aside from a ramshackle house that's more or less doomed for the bulldozer treatment - Carl embarks on the grandiose adventure he's always dreamed of: he hitches a thousand balloons to his house, inflates them all at once, and sets sail.
The film's director, Pixar director, animator, and general mastermind, Pete Docter ("Toy Story 2," "Monsters Inc.") sat down to talk to the Cigar about his latest feat of animated artistry.
"It was basically born out of the idea of escaping society," Docter said of the film's creative spark. "We drew this house with balloons in it, and just felt like, 'yeah that's appealing.' So we were just asking ourselves, 'who's in there, and what is he doing, and where did he come from?'"
Be the first to comment on this story