It isn't often that the old and young interact in family films in positive ways, but UP is no ordinary film, and Pixar is no ordinary group of filmmakers. The always innovative team pumps out hit after hit, never running out of new material, but we may have learned a bit of their secret formula. I got to talk to Pete Docter, the director of UP and he let me in on how they manage to combine some of their seemingly unrelated ideas to work so well. Read on for the seven herbs and spices of Pixar.
UGO: I'm very excited to be talking to you right now. I saw UP about two weeks ago. I will say it is fantastic, though I wanted to cry about three times.
Pete Docter: Well, go ahead, nobodies watching (laughs)
UGO: Well I was sitting next to my wife so. I was like, no, 'cause then the bar is not there when something else happens and she wants me to cry in real life and not for an animated film. But, it was an excellent movie.
P.D: Well, thank you
UGO: What was the development for the story behind UP, like how did it start off before it grew to what it ultimately was?
P.D: Well, it started off kind of even more bizarre and then tamed down from there. We started off with a character who wasn't even really human and started with like a floating city and sort of, and this all happened over the course of weeks, realized pretty quickly that the thing that was attractive to me was the idea of escaping the world. So, then we kind of landed on the house with balloons as a way of getting away from everything that just seemed very attractive and interesting. Bob Peterson, who is the co-director and head writer, he and I were working on projects together and all of us wanted to do something with a grouchy, cantankerous old man and so this seemed like the great pairing: put the old man in the floating house and where is he going and why. And you it was just answering those types of questions that led us to the film.
UGO: And of course perfect for that is Ed Asner. That's just genius casting.
P.D: Well it's just one of those things where we designed the character already and we just pulled dialog from various films, from different actors and he just fit so perfectly that, you know, that was great.
UGO: He just fit so perfect. And the dynamic between him and Russell was fantastic. From the beginning of the film you kind of see that he and Russell are very similar, just at different points in their life.
P.D: Yeah, I mean, design-wise that was all intentional to make them sort of a little chubby and kind of an outcast. Neither of them are the first ones picked for the baseball team. And yet they come from such different points of view, both in terms of where they are in their lives, and sort of cultural background and whatnot, that it was really fun to pair them together. I would usually watch how Russell made Carl angry, but ultimately, hopefully in a good way, takes him out of his shell and reconnects him with the world.
UGO: Now, I've also noticed with both this and Wall-E, though they're not similar, thematically, at all, in the film making it seems that some of the most touching moments are silent. And I don't think I've seen that much silence from Pixar in the past. How have those kind of sequences come about in that way.
P.D: Well, on this one, and you know I can just touch briefly on Wall-E. When I was working on it back years ago, the intention was always to have it all silent [and] just based on the strength of - like I don't know if you've seen any of the short films that Pixar did, those are all not silent but without dialog - just relying on the strength of the character, the movement to carry the film. And I think that's just kind of our perspective as animators is coming from that background of really wanting the animation at the forefront instead of it being subservient to a radio show or something. A lot of times if you get actors in there and it becomes very dialog driven then it's almost like the funny is already there in the recording and the animation just kind of follows along and we're really trying to do the same thing that Chuck Jones and a lot of the great animation directors of the past really were after as well. It was just capturing movement and that's what animation does so well.
UGO: One thing that UP also has going for it is right after you're ready to basically fall down on your knees and start crying, the comedy comes back up and it's some of the funnier moments. How is the pacing in the directors chair because I know from script to absolute animation a lot of things change, how did you have to handle the pacing to make sure you had that type of balance?
P.D: Yeah, it was tricky, especially shift gears from where you go from the scene where Carl and Ellie have their life together and then now you transition into more comedy stuff. How to get from one to the other without stepping on the other is really tricky but that's something I think we really needed. There's plenty of examples of films where you have a great time watching or whatever they have a lot comedy or action or whatever but unless they have some sort of emotional hook they don't seem to stick with me. You know the films that I grew up on, my favorite films like Dumbo and Cinderella, they have these great parts of the story where they really have a heart to them. And that emotion is what I think really lands the audience. That's what we're trying to do with this film as well.
UGO: Now I have to say that the cutting of that sequence is one of the more -- not that any of the Pixar films are not adult friendly -- they're family friendly, but they're moments where I know that adults were watching and they'll get it more than a small child would, and I think that was one of the points that it works on different angles where your relationship stands with either your wife or your husband or even looking at those characters and thinking of your parents. That whole sequence is really effective at that. Was there any personal inspiration that you drew from?
P.D: Well, yeah. I mean both Bob who was the head writer on this and myself are married and Ronnie who did a lot of the storyboards is married as well and we've all gone through tough times and good times and everything in between and just tried to pull from all of those whether they're literally scenes from our lives or more just feelings of places we've been and experiences we've had. You know you always try to put a little bit of yourself in there.
UGO: Two of the funnier characters in the film are animals, which are Dug the dog and Kevin which are so... its strange when you take a look back its like "how do all these pieces mix together to make this movie?" So, where did the dog with the talking collar and then the strange bird come to play, like how did that come to mesh with the over arching idea of this film?
P.D: Well initially, to be honest it came from different movies we had developed and we sort of feel in love with the humor of the talking dog and then we worked backward to find a logical reason for him in the story. It worked out well in the end but it took some doing that these are both the muscle for this guy as well as the only relationship that he has. You know, Carl worries about not ever having this life of adventure; Muntz has had this amazing life of adventure but never any relationship with anyone, which of course is what Carl has. And Carl got the better end of the deal at the end so they end up kind of symbolizing that as well as just working for the plot. So you know it's always a matter of working back and forth starting sometimes just from an image or a concept or something that just seems appealing for one reason or another and a lot of things shake out, they never really find a place to plant themselves but some of them do. That's a very non-intuitive, non-linear process. It's very messy. (laughs)
UGO: So do you guys have any leftover characters from other films that you think might be making it into future Pixar works?
P.D: Oh yes, I'm sure. There's a couple that I've been thinking about now from a past project that could make an appearance. We'll see what happens in the coming years.
UGO: I know that you guys are also working now on bringing back Toy Story 1 and 2 to 3D and you've also got now a second Pixar shop opening up in Canada. How's that been?
P.D: Well that's still pretty early on and I think the idea there is that all the features and all the shorts will still be done [here]. The only thing that will be done in Canada will be projects for the theme park or other sort of advertising kind of things/needs that we have. Secondary, using our characters we just wanted to be able to continue to have the high quality that we've enjoyed so far, but also to continue to do that stuff, so that's what's going to go on up there.
UGO: Thanks again for your time. The films fantastic and I'm pretty sure it's going to do very well.
P.D: Thanks, glad you liked it.
