"We were scoring when the call came," said Rivera. "We're just so honored because to us, we love animation - it's all we do, it's all we talk about. We work on it all day and then we go home and we talk about animation and we watch animated movies with our families, but we don't think of them as animated movies. I mean they're films that happen to be animated. It's our medium; it's not so much a genre with conventions. And so to be honored with opening that festival, it feels a little bit like being acknowledged by the industry. Like this isn't just a kids' movie. We certainly want it to be for kids, but ultimately it's for everybody. And this feels a little bit like, 'Hey, come sit at the big kids' table.' So we're proud of that."
Docter and Rivera have every reason to be proud as Up continues the tradition of Pixar by putting forth yet another quality film that entertains every age group. There's a little something for everyone in Up, from the senior citizen central character to his 7 year old tag-along companion to a gorgeous gigantic bird to Dug, the best dog character to be seen in an animated feature film in a decade.
Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera Exclusive Interview
How tough was it to decide to go with an old guy as the main character?Pete Docter: "It just seemed like something really unique we hadn’t done before and allowed for a lot of humor. Early on as we were exploring it, it was like, 'Oh yes, this will be great. We can do a super slow old man fight at the end of it' - the action adventure thing. And then as we got into it, it became a very emotional thing, a very unique perspective on the world that we hadn’t explored before, so it was just fun. I think the central core of the story doesn't mandate an old man. You know what I mean? The sort of central theme that is that worry that he missed some opportunity and whatnot, that's something that all of us can relate to no matter our age. You don't have to be old to relate to him."
Jonas Rivera: "It was fun. And the other thing I think with old-timers is that - and we talked about this a lot - we’re always looking for stories and their stories are about history, if you meet an old person. I mean we talked to my grandpa and it’s just solid stories. The minute you sit down, you're going to sit there for two hours and you're going to hear the best stories that you've ever imagined. He just has history and it’s kind of fun, like all the things he's done or wanted to do. You know, he's just got a lot of miles on him. And so it just seemed to feed what we were after."
Pixar doesn't necessarily target kids with your films - they're for everyone. How do you develop them and not make a 'kids' movie?
Pete Docter: "We make these for ourselves. We try to entertain ourselves, and by that I don't mean that we ignore the audience at all. It’s just that we happen to be sort of the emotional target age of... I don't know, it's like we’re adults but we're kids at the same time. And so by entertaining Brad Bird and John Lasseter, I think I have a pretty good chance of entertaining my kids and my mom and everybody in between."
Jonas Rivera: "Yes. We say we don't make these for kids, but we act like eight year olds. So it’s really different."
Does that just come with the territory of working at Pixar?
Pete Docter: "It sort of does. Almost everybody has toys all over their office."
Jonas Rivera: "I mean we’re not this way because we work at Pixar, we work at Pixar because we're this way. Glenn McQueen our dear friend, the late Glenn McQueen who did a lot of the great animation in the earlier films had said that Toy Story felt like lightning in a bottle to him, like the right people colliding at the right time, from computer science to art to animation, just colliding there. And we've tried to retain that and we attract those kinds of people that just kind of get that and love it. It’s all about passion and what we do."
Is it difficult to attract that and keep up that level of enthusiasm and passion in a corporate environment?
Pete Docter: "No, not really."
Jonas Rivera: "No, not so far. I mean it's an interesting dynamic there. As producer I have to watch out for all these things, how to get these things on the screen, and one of the things I find myself doing every day is telling people to stop. The work ethic is so intense, everyone is so committed to these films they will literally not stop animating and not charge me for the overtime. I have to go in at night and send them home. I mean I can't turn it off, and that's a good problem to have in a corporate environment, which it is. It’s a business and so forth, but everyone feels invested. Everyone feels that our names are going to be out there forever and we want this to be Snow White to us and to our kids and so we won't stop. We would work on it for a hundred years if we could. Of course we can't - we have to get it out."
Pete Docter: "Yes, that's what John Lasseter always says. He says, 'We don't finish the movies, we just release them.' So anyway, that's kind of all due to the people that we attract and look for and so forth."
