Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-Music

The music of every animated film i think is the most important instrument. I think the music brings the animation together and finishes it off. The music also sets the theme and works so well WITH the animation for example, Finding Nemo (2003), I personally think the music composed for that was amazing! Calm, flow-y, soft...just like the film. The same with Ratatouille (2007), the music is fast and upbeat, just how a rat would move around. Michael Giacchino (born October 10, 1967) the composer just comes up with these amazing pieces of music its just phenomenal! Shown in his wonderful work with Ratatouille, The Incredibles (2004), Up (2009) and many more. ''Music is suppose to show you what you cant see on screen''- Michael Giacchino and I totally agree! The music, whether it be at the beginning, middle or end of a film builds an image in our minds of WHAT the animation will consume of or HOW it will be shown. ''Music is the one thing in a film that can completely derail it in two seconds, because if your not on point, emotionally, with whats happening in the story, not just visually, but within the storytelling, then it can take the audience into a place where you can never get them back''-Michael Giacchino...again, agreeing with this statement I totally believe music is so vital because you, as an audience, 'paint a picture' in your head of the animation you think will turn out this way or just generally believe it will turn out like YOUR image. If the music isn't there to lead you onto the 'right track' then yes, you will get the audience drifting off into space.

Surprisingly Michael Giacchino had found Up (2009) a difficult film to compose music to. As he watched Up for the first time, without any music he found it very heartwarming. Ronnie Del Carmen (December 31, 1959), Animation Storyboard, story artist and designer was the person who had done most of the drawings for this film and at time even thought that some drawings would look good without the dialogue and just show it with just music itself and it worked brilliantly! I think the music grasped many emotions during 'Married Life Carl & Ellie', happiness, sadness, loneliness etc and not only in this film but in every film, the music does bring out a lot of emotion just like Randy Newman (November 28, 1943) carries out in Toy Story 2 (1999) with 'Jessie's Song'.

                    

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-The Animation

In Pixar Studios, everything you see in their films is built and designed all by themselves. The characters are drawn out and then traditionally sculpted so that the directors/producers can visualize how it looks in 3D and I guess it shows them how it would look like when produced as a final film.

The Making of Disney Pixar's UP: The Voice of Russell BONUS Trailer

I found this clip of Jordan Nagai (February 5, 2000) doing the voice of Russell in Up and I think he's voice suits the role perfectly. The tecnique Pete Doctor (October 9, 1968) American film director, animator, and screenwriter comes up with him running around to sound breathless is such a perfect fit with the character. I also found Jordan Naga cute :)

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-Voices

When it comes to voices of the specific characters, the crew at Pixar Studios do the voices because when making the film, they don't really know who will be doing the voice of which character...Pete doctor (October 9, 1968) director of Pixar's Up and Monster's Inc. (2001) does the voice of Buzz from Toy Story (1995), Andrew Stanton (December 3, 1965) writer/director of Finding Nemo does the voice of Woody from Toy Story. I think such voices chosen for these certain characters are amazing! I think it actually fits so well and makes the character even more alive. The voices chosen just influences the character and gives it its own personality and I find it incredible how it all fits together so perfectly. I don't know if others have noticed this but I think that the actors or celebrities, simply as such Tom Hanks (July 9, 1956), that are chosen for the voices look A LOT like their character

   

        Don't they all look alike?! :)

 

John Ratzenberger (April 6, 1947) American actor, voice actor, and entrepreneur is one man who has done MANY voices!

• ·         ‘P.T. Flea’, the Circus Ring Leader in A Bug’s Life (1998)

• ·         ‘The Abominable Snowman in Monsters Inc. (2001)

• ·         ‘Hamm the Piggy Bank’ in Toy Story series (1995, 1999 2010)

• ·         ‘The school of Moonfish’ in Finding Nemo (2003)

• ·         ‘The Underminer’ in The Incredibles (2004)

• ·         ‘Mack’ the truck in the Cars series (2006, 2011)

• ·         ‘Mustafa’ the waiter in Ratatouille (2007)

• ·         ‘John’ in Wall-E (2008)

• ·         ‘Tom’ the construction worker in Up (2009)

And MANY MORE! 

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-Clever Tactics

Some of the animators in Pixar such as John Lasseter (January 12, 1957), American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pete Doctor (October 9, 1968),  American film director, animator, and screenwriter from Bloomington, Minnesota. studied at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, in Los Angeles, California which offers BFA and MFA degrees in music, theatre, writing, dance, film and video. It was there were they took place in an animation programme which had taken place in a room called A113. What these animators done was include this specific number or 'code' in many of their Pixar films such as Toy Story (1995), Finding Nemo (2003) and The Incredibles (2004) and has ever since become a 'lucky charm' since then...

Pixar 25: Magic Moments-'Luxo Jr.' (1986)

The idea of 'Luxo Jr' (1986) actually came around with John Lasseter (January 12, 1957), American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, at his desk with a desk lamp beside him and he just started to measure it, draw it on graph paper and then make it come to life on the computer. The whole concept of a farther and son desk lamp came from one of Lasseter's colleagues who had brought in his little baby into work and Lasseter was sort of playing around with him and seeing how he moved, saw how a child's head is small compared to it's body and how we perceive the eyes of a child quite big and so he thought to himself ''what would a baby lamp look like''-Lasseter. Spencer Porter was the inspiration of 'Luxo Jr.' and so Lasseter came up with this idea of an adult lamp and baby lamp...

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-Steve Jobs

Purchasing from 'Lucasfilm' Pixar was born! Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) had brought Pixar in 1986. Working his way up to Lucasfilm (Founded in 2003), it was the first time Steve Jobs had met Ed Catmull (1945), computer scientist where Ed had told Steve about making an computer animated film...''And I, in the end, ended up buying into that dream, both spiritually and financially'' Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs rare interview (2003)

An interview with Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) where he opens up about Pixar and how he involved himself in Pixar due to George Lucas (May 14, 1944) American film producer, director, screenwriter and entrepreneur...ignore the very annoying '60 minutes overtime'!

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments-Lasseter's Pitch...

Whilst working with Disney, John Lasseter (January 12, 1957), American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios had watched a film called 'Tron' 1982, a film mixed with live action and CGI which really grabbed John Lasseter's eye and inspired his imagination. After watching this John Lasseter was very keen to make a computer animated feature film, I believe was called 'The Brave Little Toaster' (1987) and decided to pitch this idea to his employers. After being asked how much it will cost to make this film and was told ''The only reason to do computer animation is if we can do it faster or cheaper'' (Lasseter's words) John Lasseter was pretty thrown back by this. However, after 5 minutes Ed Hansen (30 January 1937–16 December 2005) had called Lasseter and wanted to meet him. From there John Lasseter was told ''your project is now complete, so your employment with Disney Studios is now terminated'' (Lasseter's reaction above :))
After this dreadful news, John Lasseter joined with Ed Catmull (1945), computer scientist and George Lucas ( May 14, 1944), Star Wars supremo. Unfortunately George Lucas couldn't progress  forward with this so he then decided to sell his graphics division. With computer animation going through the stages of development, it was all handed over to Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) where he brought Pixar in 1986.

Pixar: 25 Magic Moments

On the 1st of January 2012 I watched 'Pixar: 25 Magic Moments' which was broadcasted on Television http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x9cdm/Pixar_25_Magic_Moments/http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00x9cdm/Pixar_25_Magic_Moments/.I will be writing about some parts I found interesting and handfuls of information...:)

I think this programme gave a great insight on the Pixar animation studios and how things work around there. The 3 words Tim Allen (June 13, 1953) uses to describe Pixar: ''Creative, inventive and fun''. I think this is a great explanation of Pixar and really shows us, in those 3 words, what Pixar is all about. When John Lasseter (January 12, 1957), American animator, director and the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios says ''we wanted to be different'' I think they do exactly that. I think Pixar's style in animation IS different and unique. With their great success with Toy Story, Pixar then had to work on what their next film would be...then came 'A Bug's Life'. Lee Unkrich (August 8, 1967), Supervising film editor for 'A Bug's Life described how they attached a little camera at the end of a stick and saw what would be an ants perspective of nature...''Research was literally done in our backyard'' John Lasseter. I was surprised when I heard that because the footage did look as if they travelled far and wide to receive such footage. Then in 2009 they brought us Pixar's Up (2009), My personal favorite film :) as described, the scene where the house begins to lift off was such a nice and calm scene showing the house flowing up into the sky where the adventure begins. 

As we all know, John Lasseter is the Chief creative officer of Pixar and was the first to work at Pixar. After him Andrew Stanton ( December 3, 1965), the writer/director of 'Finding Nemo' was hired and soon after Pete Docter (October 9, 1968), director of Monsters Inc. and my favorite film Up. I never knew Billy Crystal (March 14, 1948), the voice of Mike Wazowski-‘Monsters Inc.’ (2001) turned down an offer from Toy Story (1995), and then got a call form John Lasseter's assistent about Monsters Inc. You learn something new everyday! :) I think the relationship between Sully and Mike is awesome. You can see that their the best of friends and it shows that through the film I mean they live together and that kind of shows a lot. In 2003 we got Finding Nemo. Andrew Stanton the writer/director of Finding Nemo (2003) described how he is with HIS son, all those restrictions etc and so he interpreted that into Finding Nemo through 'Marvin' and 'Nemo' which shows the typical father and son 'bond'. When it comes to storyboards, it takes Pixar about two and a half years. When it came to Toy Story and the storyboard, Woody was seen as the 'bad' character and was quite off-putting so it gave them time to experiment around and change 'Woody's' character as well as his personality.