116: Pixar

Sabina Graves returns to discuss the history of Pixar Animation.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hello, welcome to another edition of Nerdificent. I am one
half of your host, Danny Fernandez. Sitting across from me
in the virtual space is if you want you yea, yeah, yeah,
here we are. If you look slick with your hair,
and I got to see the process happening as you

(00:22):
were doing it, Yeah yeah, I got you got straight
and it got pressed. Every time I anyone puts a
pressing comb on a stove, I just get like tense
because there's so many memories of of burn marks right
on the forehead because that press and comb got too close.
But now you know my barber, she's a professional, and
she pressed my hair out and then braided it. Now

(00:44):
we're just living life. Yes, we have, um, we have
some news that we wanted to share with everybody. Yeah, yeah,
some big news. Go ahead and take a seat, you know, come, come,
come in, grab grab a coffee, because it's time for
us to tell y'all. You know there there there are

(01:05):
there are one pieces that go on for nine hundred
and thirty three episodes and sixteen movies. You have you
know in U Yasha, which I still never ends, you know,
even DBZ that go on forever and then you have
you know Gore and log On twenty six tight episodes.

(01:26):
You have megalo Box, another tight anime series. These are
the ones I like, even though I do like DBZ.
I think this is the way. What we're trying to
say is we're taking Nerdificent in for a landing, a
permanent land We're landing, putting in the hangar and closing
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(01:49):
we've been doing the podcast for I think over two years. Actually.
I think when we did our promos it was if
I remember when we first were recording, but um, yeah,
and this isn't uh, this isn't my heart's decision. I
just want to say that this was if then E's decision. Cut.
They didn't cut us. Honestly, they probably would rather we didn't.

(02:11):
But yeah, we just felt that this was the good
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with us before, we were doing krill in It for
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six years, and so I think that we um are
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(02:33):
think that it will still exist. You can still listen
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If you're trying to get your niece or nephew into
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(02:54):
But yeah, we just, uh, we decided that next episode
is going to be our last EPISOD, so so we're
gonna do some commemorative stuff with some past guests. Definitely
shout us out on our socials if you have good
Nerdive sent memories. Um. But yeah, we just felt like
it was time, and so we wanted to tell y'all,
so we didn't just disappear to either. Let's give you

(03:16):
all the heads up so that you don't start the
next episode and it's like, hey, well, by the way,
this is it. So yeah, thank you so much to
all our listeners, to everyone who supported us. It means
a lot. I mean, you're definitely not going to see
the last of us, but you know, uh, you probably
won't be downloading anymore. Well, you can save up some
space on your phone now, yeah, don't let anyone take

(03:37):
our name though I think my heart still owns it. Yeah,
but I did want to bring in our guest this
week we're talking about Pixar and she was actually on
our our Haunted Mansion episode. As she is the Queen
of Disney. It is Sabina Graves. Hey, everyone, thanks for
calling me the Queen of Disney like that. There many

(03:59):
There should be more Disney queens have um speaking of
who is your favorite Disney Princess, Sabina, it's Bell that
yeah you are. We're in goll right now. One of
my favorite things about her for the Disney Princess panel
I did last year that um Pedro Haara, who's a

(04:21):
voice of Bell, was on and that she was talking
about it was like this woman who was like, no,
I don't want to marry you. I just want to
read my books, like get out of here. Like it
was so funny to have this princess that was like
actively turning down, you know, not to not to go
after Ariel who I adore, but was chasing after a prince,
but um for her to be she was captured. She felt,

(04:43):
you know, Belle was captured and eventually fell in love
but to have this suitor and her be like, nah,
I'm I'm good, I'm not going to be your wife,
like l O L to that. I like how it
takes a look at a toxic masculinity and I think,
you know, the beast grows out of it. And then
Gaston does not, even though he's seen as like you know,

(05:04):
the town hero and stuff like that, and spoiler spoilers, spoiler,
he has a bit it's like twenty something Plussier spoiler alert.
But yeah, today we are covering Pixar. I guess I'll
just go, like, what is everyone's favorite Pixar movie before
we I hop into it? What a what a good question?

(05:28):
I definitely say ahead. I was gonna say Sebina probably
has one rage. I had like a tie between Wally
and Coco, uh while he was my long time just
favorite Pixar film. You know, it's such a simple, like
like simple story that is told through like you know,

(05:48):
this space and um the commentary about like protecting our planet,
but also just the beauty in um like the exploration
of these emotion and through robots that you know, like
robots don't have emotions, but you know, Whilely and Eve
are so expressive and uh effective in uh, you know,

(06:09):
seeing a future we don't want to have, but also
seeing the importance of what is worth fighting for in life. Yeah,
that's yeah, it's so hard because they've done so many
just refreshing I'd say, I'd say before I would have
probably set the Toy Story series that probably would have
been mine to Toy Story for I felt was really strong.

(06:31):
But I think it I think you're right. I think
it's coca Cocoa is just so there's just so much
more flavor uh in that movie than than uh than
than in the other ones. And it and it's and
I hope it's something they take note of because I mean, uh,
you know, just in general, I think a lot of

(06:53):
the like very I guess you would say, like legend
esque movies are so eurocentric, you know your braves and
even um you know, uh, what's the what's the one
is that's not sorry because Pixar and Disney or so
neck and neck that I get afraid of like confusing
the two. But yeah, for them, whenever they step out

(07:16):
and like use like a cultural voice, it just makes
it so much stronger. Ratitui with the French, you know, yeah, mine,
um are both of those. I would say Coco is
so representative obviously of my heritage that it was so anytime, Honestly,
anytime I feel bad as a creator, like my voice

(07:37):
doesn't matter, I'm not doing enough for like I'm not
supposed to be here, or anytime I'm just feeling really down,
I'll watch it and be like hell, yeah, well through tears,
then I'll go and want to write. But Toy Story,
um was so groundbreaking at the time, like just to
have that type of animation style and the humor it was.

(07:59):
It's really funny and something that I think adults enjoyed
as well. It had a lot of adults like inside
jokes that I wouldn't have gotten until I was older. So,
um yeah, Mine's definitely both of those two. Nemo is great.
I love how movies like Nemo and Toy Story informed
our senses of humor. I would say in very many ways.

(08:23):
You know, we like, uh, he touched the butt, you know.
So let's talk about the start of Pixar. Pixar Animation
Studios is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California,
and a part of the Walt Disney Studios group. The

(08:43):
studio has earned twenties seven Academy Awards honestly thought it
was more than that, but eight Golden Globes, three Grammy Awards,
along with many other awards and acknowledgements. It's best known
for c g I animated feature films created with photo
realistic render Man, its own implementation of the industry standard
render Man image rendering application programming interface used to generate

(09:08):
high quality images. So Pixar actually began back in nineteen
seventy nine as the graphics group part of the computer
division of Lucasfilm, before it was acquired by Apple Computer
co founder Steve Jobs in nineteen eight six. The Walt
Disney Company bought Pixar in two thousand and six at
a valuation of seven point four billion dollars. The transaction

(09:31):
made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney. A lot of
big names in there, from it being with Lucasfilm to
Steve Jobs, just people that were at the forefront also
of this type of technology in film, definitely, and it's
all these people who kind of knew each other coming up.
So because I know that last setter had left Disney
when he had met up with Steve Jobs and it

(09:53):
Captain Roll in the early days of Pixar and that
they had set up to do some computer science stuff
ended up doing, you know, more of commuter animation for commercials,
and from there that kind of like snowballed into let's
make some short films in this style, which led to
Toy Story. And so now kind of like what you
were saying, if he is at their neck and neck
what what um so Walt Disney Animation Studios is in Burbank, California. However,

(10:21):
it's hard to tell the difference between the two because
it used to be three D animation, right, and then
the two D animation. So Toy Story was coming out
when say they were still making Partisan the Frog or
Pocahonas which was several years before, or Mulan, you know,
they it was easy to differentiate between what was Pixar
and what was Disney or Walt Disney animation. Um now,

(10:44):
Mowanna is Walt Disney Animation. Frozen is Walt Disney Animation.
Ralph A lot of people will say, like, oh, your
Pixar character, I'm not I'm not. Ralph is not Pixar,
that's all. But it's very confusing now that they're using
three D animation. I would I would have said, yeah,
I would have said that that was Pixar. That's why
I had to catch myself when I was saying the

(11:05):
Eurocentric because in my head, uh, frozen his Pixar, Because
you're right, it used to be that Pixar did all
the three D animation and then Walt Disney Animation did
the two D and now it's just they just do
what they do. It gets so confusing because there was
a point in time where Disney separately was trying to

(11:27):
do computer animation than Pixar, so they did Chicken Little
Meet the Robinson. To Meet the Robinson is actually one
of my favorite movies. It's not Disney. It is Disney,
but it has like the Pixar touch. They had some
of the story trust from Pixar come in and try
to kind of like, uh, fix that movie. Um, and

(11:47):
I love it for all it's imperfections, honestly. Um. But
it's based around one of my favorite Disney quotes, which
just keep moving forward, and that I take that with
me everywhere in my just like keep moving forward, keep
moving past things, working through it and stuff. Um. But yeah,
So after those two films and then like Tangled and

(12:10):
like Too Onward. Basically, I guess it's like now it's
like there's it's just this big missimatch of like CG
feels like Pixar, but it's some some of its Pixar,
some of it's Disney. Um and uh yeah, I know
for a while it was very eurocentric and uh I
really like how with Onward, With Onward Pixar trying to
make a hero centric movie but with blue people. So

(12:33):
you know, we all know Pixar is this like huge
success and big you know, part of Disney history. But
I mean at first, I think one of the first
things is that it was they worked with Disney, but
they kind of because now technically Disney owns it, right,
but before it was like they were their own entity
and they and you know it c G I isn't

(12:54):
cheap and so uh so, like you know, they're the
first big con sept really, which was Toy Story. Uh
was was was kind of just touch and go, like
it wasn't the it was it wasn't like like we
look back and we're like, oh, yeah, that's a smash
hit of course, but getting it onto the screen was

(13:15):
was a challenge. I mean, despite uh the total income
from the projects before, they continue to lose money and jobs.
And as the chairman of the board and now at
the time of this full owner, uh, they like yes,
Steve Yes, Steve Jobs was considering selling it. Uh and

(13:36):
as late as it was, they were still trying to
figure out what they're gonna do. They're trying to sell
it to like Hallmark, Uh to Microsoft co founder Paul Allen,
or Oracle, which what is that world Oracle makes like
Java that you that you use online and they do
a lot of cloud servers now, but you know, what

(13:58):
is the world in which they over Pixar or Hallmark? Wow,
I mean they would make those movies a little bit better.
But yeah. But so it was only after learning that
from the New York critics that Toy Story was probably
going to be a hit and confirming uh that Disney

(14:21):
was going to distribute it in the Christmas season, that
they decided to give Pixar one more chance, and for
the first time, uh, he was taking us. Jobs was
taking active leadership in the company and made himself CEO,
and Toy Story then went on a gross more than
three hundred and seventy three million worldwide. Uh. And that's
when Pixar held its first initial public offering, which was

(14:43):
in November twenty nine, and it exceeded Netscape. Uh. Y'all
remember Netscape of the biggest I p O of the year,
and only the first half hour of trading, Pixar stock
shot up from twenty two dollars to forty five dollars. Man,
if I could have no, I mean, I was a child,

(15:04):
put money in back then delaying trading because of unmatched
by orders. Shares climbed up to forty nine dollars before
closing at the day at thirty nine. Which, man, yeah,
it's always funny because like, of course now you're thinking, man,
I wish, But if you were like this animation studio
that's kind of new, you're you probably like, no, I'm good. Yeah.

(15:28):
One of the crazy things though, is that during this time,
Steve Jobs pulled, you know, some of the main people
at Pixar side and was like, you know, I make computers.
You that computer reaches your doorstep, it's good for three
to five years. You have the potential to make things
that will be um, you know, immortal, that will just
go on and you know, open the hearts of like

(15:49):
families over the world, and that's essentially what pis are
ended up becoming. Yeah, so in the nineties and two thousands,
they gradually developed the Pixar brain Trust, which if you're
a Disney person you've heard this quite a bit. I
think actually before do you remember Sabina the short that
they showed of this gosh what it was like before

(16:09):
a movie maybe Finding Nemo. It was like they showed, um,
some of the created the directors sitting around a table
and they were talking about how they essentially at this
one meeting came up with what would eventually be toy
Story and um monsters E and do you remember that
I'll have to send up. Yeah, I don't exactly remember
which one it was in front of, but I loved

(16:31):
when like movie studios would do that like behind the
scenes before the movie to kind of get you, like
interested in like this is how we make things. Um.
But yeah, I know, like the brain Trust was originally
composed of the original filmmakers, you know, laster On Rich, Dr.
Santon and Joe ramp who was their story supervisor. Um.
But they basically all came together to you know, imagine

(16:52):
the house that Pixar would become. And I think that
it's definitely like originated by some of those conversations they
had early on with Steve Jobs about what they could
do as filmmakers. We have to take a really quick
break and then we're gonna hop back into more about
Pixar right after this, and we are back, we are

(17:17):
still talking about Pixar. And before mommy and Daddy got married,
they had a bit of a feud together Disney and Pixar.
Oh they had been married, they had entanglement. Pixar Pier
is in Disney's California Adventure at Disneyland across a little

(17:38):
across the way from Disneyland, proper um, and it is filled.
I was there before. I mean I was there before
it was Pixar Pier. To be honest, um, I was
there before California Adventure existed. But um um it is
a great It has our favorite place to drink, which

(17:58):
and I go we drink just go a drink fair
and which is the Lamp Light, which is a restaurant.
It's okay. So here's the thing I'm explaining to Pixar
fans who haven't been there, because it is really great.
So it overlooks a Peer which has the Screaming the
Incredible and Credit Coaster has formerly known as Screaming then

(18:20):
Credit Coaster. Um. But it overlooks the water and the
Mickey Ferris Wheel and they have it's just decked out
in Pixar everything. So it has the toy story Ball
sorry if that has an official name. I forgot the
Pixar pal around, but it still has the Mickey face. Um.
But my favorite thing about lamp Light the actual places

(18:43):
that it's all decked out and picks our stuff. Everything
is Pixar. Like all the drinks, like for the adults,
they have like monsters inc Like drinks. Yes, they have
drinks that like cold drink drink alcohol that like they
put something in it bubbles and you drink it and
can get you drunk. Um. I just love it because
it's my two favorite things. I sound like an alcoholic.

(19:04):
What I'm saying is I love being an adult and
having the money to buy Pixar things like Disney things,
but also having fun with my adult friends. Um. And
so they have a ton of quotes and artwork, Like
they have a lot of art Pixar art inside the restaurant.
It's really just beautiful and I adore it. Um. But
Pixar Pierre has a lot of the games, like Toy

(19:26):
Story Games, Monsters Inc. Um they now have Coco stuff
in there. They have an entire Coco mural actually there,
so it's uh, yeah, did I do it? Justice Sabina.
So the Monsters Inc. Crede is actually separated from Pixar Pier,
but that was there before Pixar p Here happened. Um. Yeah,

(19:47):
and I love all the murals and yeah, the Lamplight
Lounge is so much fun to go to with friends
because we're having all these fun fizzy drinks that are
like very you know, on brand for Pixar, but we're
surrounded by you know, original art from the studios that
is stuff from pre production. On the walls. They have
those quotes. They also have like the crew shirts that

(20:11):
people get from working on the productions that are like
way cooler than some of the stuff we have that
I'm like looking at they have. They had at one point,
I think a Coco shirt that was a Day of
the Dead um skull but it was styled like Sid's
shirt from Toy Story And yeah, that is so rad.

(20:31):
When I need one. I need one of those in
my life. I think one of my friends actually got
one from going to Pixar Um. But yeah, like and
you're just like hanging out having drinks and having yeah yeah,
watching it get built out was wild too, because yeah,
I remember early the biggest Pixar kind of footprint that
you had in California Screaming or California Adventure. Sorry was

(20:55):
the Bugs Life. But then you had the things where
they did a full remodel. I think I was working
I was working at Disneyland at the time, but they
fully remodeled uh, California Adventure to look like um uh
car the carthe Circle, And that's when they started to
add in the Pixar Land. And one of the biggest
kind of turnouts that came and probably is my favorite

(21:16):
part of that is going to be the cars Land
because the ride is like pretty pretty cool, but they
like those cone the cone like chili. Yeah, yeah, it
is undefeated. Uh, probably my favorite. But yeah, that was
the biggest thing is that, uh and you know y'all

(21:39):
talking about the drink, but that was the biggest piece
of trivia, is that that was the only place you
can drink in Disneyland because the only in the two
combined parts, because outside of that, the only place you
can drink in Disneyland was Club thirty three. Um, I
don't know if that's changed Disney Yeah, uh yeah, yeah,
like in in part now it's yeah, Paris Cantina a

(22:02):
galaxy also, you can those drinks are very overrated. Oh really,
that's yeah. I've heard people say the other just because
people like the tingly Mouth one I have. I haven't
seen any I haven't been the galaxies Edge. Yeah, but
I need the tingly Mouth drink. Going back to the
Cars Ride in cars Land, the Cars Ride is my

(22:24):
favorite Cars movie. Yeah, oh wait, what can you? I'm
sorry say that again. The Car's Ride is my favorite
Cars movie. Okay, Okay, I was lost. I thought you
were saying like that's your No. I thought you were
saying that that's your favorite Okay, I understand you now.
I thought you were saying that Cars was your favorite
Pixar movie. And I was like, ma'am, why, ma'am, why

(22:47):
are you on this? It's great. No, it's just like
you're going through like, um, you know the what's it
called the Ornament of the Radiator Spring's going through Radiator Springs.
But the ride is just so much fun. Like I
liken it to the Pandora ride at Disney World where
that is also my favorite Avatar movie is that ride. Um,

(23:11):
you know, just like they made some really great high
concept throw rights for some of the biggest I P
s you know, and some of the other ones they
kind of just slap the I P on the ride,
like the incredi Coaster. Um. But yes, you know, like
you know, I think cars Land was like the biggest
like sign for people to redirect them to California Adventure
because my girl, California Adventure was not doing good. It was.

(23:36):
It was definitely high mid for a lot of people.
The biggest highlight for a lot of people I spoke
to where was the soaring over because you've got the
smells blown at you. Um. But yeah, you could. I
could do a whole episode just on Disney Park culture
because that's a whole underworld that I knew all too well,

(23:58):
got angry at times about and just it's you know,
it's a whole thing. I may be involved with something
like that. Actually, yeah, about the theme parks with with
a with a mutual friend of everyone here. Yeah, um yeah,
I know, like definitely with the I p of Pixar

(24:20):
moving to Disney's Coffee Adventure, it opened up new avenues
for these worlds that we've always wanted to be a
part of. Two be places we can go to. Like
now there's a whole ride based on Inside Out called
Emotional Whirlwind, which is a re skin of a ride
from A Bug's Land, but it's still cute because you
get like the sound effects of like the orbs spinning
and like you're on this ride where you're you're on

(24:42):
an Emotional Whirlwind. Well, speaking of A Bug's Life, which
was the second film Pixar's second film, A Bug's Life, UM,
almost all subsequent Pixar feature films that were shown in
theaters had an original short film shown before it. UM.

(25:05):
And so now you can actually one of my favorite
things on Disney. Plus you can go and watch all
of the shorts. And also they're just constantly coming out
with new shorts. I think it's a great way, aside
from some of them being Academy Award winning, but it's
a great way for a lot of these artists to
kind of get their foot in the door, get their
name out there, that's kind of there. Um. I got

(25:27):
to see, not that Ralph was the same obviously it's
at Walt Disney Animation, but I got to see the
process of how you get promoted to getting to direct,
like moving from lead story moving from storyboard artists to
lead storyboard artist to director. Really fascinating. Um, a lot
of the people they're been working there for a decade plus. Um.

(25:48):
But yeah, So Pixar began producing shorts in the nineteen eighties. Actually,
the first shorts were made while Pixar was still a
computer hardware company, when John Lassetter was the only professional
animator in the company's small animation department, starting with Gary's
Game or Jerry's Game. After Pixar had converted into an
animation studio. All later shorts have been produced with a

(26:09):
larger crew and budget, and then are made four c
g I shorts produced for the TV series Sesame Street.
The shorts illustrate different weights in directions starring Luxo Jr.
You don't know Luxo Jr. That is the lamp and
Luxo light and heavy surprise, up and down in front

(26:29):
and back. Um, so what are some of y'all's um
do you have any shorts that stand out to you. Uh,
they were definitely because that used to be one of
my favorite parts of Pixar movies or the shorts that
came up before it. Um, I want to be late
to the movies. Yeah, you just wanted to catch some

(26:53):
of those early early joints. I mean, mine, what what
being is? The one with a guy playing chess with himself?
Wasn't that game? Oh? Yeah, so yes, so I have Yes,
you are absolutely correct. My recent favorite everyone should go

(27:18):
watch is Out. I actually shared it all my Insta stories.
We can link it, you can go watch it right now. Um.
It is I think their first main queer story short
story short about a guy who's afraid to come out
to his family. It's great and in the traditional Pixar style. Um,

(27:40):
very heartwarming and has great build They're just really great
at doing that. There's magical nous to it, there's a
magical component to it. So sorry, that's part of their
Spark Shorts series. I should say that Sparks shorts differently
just there I have been so great, you know, with
Out by Bobby Rubio, which is a Filipinos Filipino story, um,

(28:06):
and also about by Donmi she um which won the
Academy Award in and also made me very hungry. Uh.
I love the ones that you know incorporate the different
flavors of everyone's backgrounds and stuff, and even going back
to other shorts before, like Sparks shorts. Uh, Sanjay Super

(28:27):
Team was one of my favorites. I think that one
was before The Good Dinosaur, and that was about Sanjay
Petel kind of growing up on a show like Power
Rangers and basically extending himself to see people that look
like him be a like mashup of his culture and
the Power Rangers and how like that would look like
in his imagination. Like that made me cry so much. Um.

(28:50):
You know, it's interesting because we want to see more
consistent films with more inclusion behind the helm of these
big movie these, but with the shorts you definitely like,
I guess you know, like you said, that became the
testing grounds for people to get moved to the next level.

(29:11):
Someone that we should note that we haven't said yet
is Brad bird Um as being someone who has definitely
had a large role in shaping Pixar. Obviously is the
director of The Incredibles, which too many people is along
with Toy Story, one of the most iconic Pixar films. Uh.

(29:32):
Something that I think took fourteen years I believe for
a sequel is that people were writing brad Bird, they
were like would you will you do it? We were
like getting all these cars sequels and meanwhile like, oh,
the Incredible stands where like where where it's our sequel?
You left us hanging like why are there cars to
right now? Where is Incredibles too? Like over the years

(29:55):
and that those which is We're finally answered a few
years back with The Incredible. Well. I see a very
um controversial question here from superproducer Joel Monique, which says
some believe that The Incredibles is one of the greatest
superhero stories ever told. Do you agree or disagree? Looks
like she's trying to abit us if he what do

(30:18):
you think about Incredibles? I think it's I think it's
pretty solid. I mean, you know, there are while there
are like family superhero stories told, they're always like superhero
as family, and I feel like, uh, the Incredibles or
family as superheroes, which is a different, uh similar but
different kind of I think spin on it. So I

(30:42):
think it definitely can sit at the table, but the
greatest is definitely it's gonna be hard to top All
Star Superman for me. I think spiritually, an interesting thing
that has happened with pop culture is taking The Incredibles
for example, is that The Incredibles is seen as a
spiritual sort of reimagining of beloved stories like Fantastic Four

(31:08):
and like the X Men, Like, oh, they did some
of these things we've seen in the comics in this
film way better than some of those films at the time,
you know, like the Jessica Alba Fantastic four movie or
Slash Chris Chris Evans or like you know, some of
those X Men movies. People were like, we're seeing some
of these things we liked about these properties in The Incredibles,
and they're pulling it off. This should be I like

(31:28):
this idea of like spiritual sort of like reimaginings and
reboots that are like really good at uh, distilling some
of these stories that we love and the core of
what they mean to us and instead of just remaking it.
Like one of my examples that I kind of point
to all the time is the fandom of the opera
um Amazing Book, all the adaptations like kind of like

(31:50):
try to tackle like just certain beats of it and
then like the mask and he's disfigured. And but there's
a movie called The Fantom of Paradise by Diploma that
just takes the core of the message behind the fan
of the opera and is the most faithful adaptation. And
I'm tying this back to Pixar because, um, you have

(32:10):
Hunt for the Wilder People, which was directed by tycho
I t D. That is basically a spiritual like adaptation
of Pixar's UP that actually kind of think is a
bit more effective than UP. I don't know if you
all have seen Hunt for the Wilder People, but it
is basically the story of a like grumpy old man
who has to take in a young kid and they

(32:31):
go on an adventure in the woods, uh, in the
jungles of New Zealand, and basically it's it's it's up
but like very raunchy and hilarious and heartfelt. Um it
hits all those emotional beats of a Pixar story. Um
that you know, I think honestly draws from the d

(32:52):
n a of what has made these movies stand apart
from Disney movies and What I mean by that is
that Pixar films are about asking questions about the human condition.
And before then with other Disney movies, we're doing you know,
things about like I want to like I want to
meet the love of my life, or you know, like
these very like eurocentric stories that were about those, like

(33:15):
fairy tales and stuff. Pixar kind of helped break ground
in separating itself from that, which is why I think
it stands as its own entity. What I was going
to say that I do enjoy about Brad Bird's work
is he clearly is influenced by this mid century, modern,
post World War two type of feel like he had

(33:38):
that in The Iron Giant, which he directed um and
definitely in The Incredibles. If you look at the architecture,
the hairstyles, the wardrobe, and so I find that really fascinating.
It's all very like that mixed with today's technology. I
always am. I always think that's really cool because it
reminds me of some of my other favorite things like

(33:59):
Twilight Zone, you know, or just like that period of
time where it's very sleek. But they were also super
into aliens and you know, possible spaceships and whatnot. And
so I find that really cool that he kind of
just like has centered in on that hime period, those
timeless touchstones that get carried on through pop culture of

(34:19):
things that like we you know, grew up on, but
then like also look back and they're like, oh my gosh,
because like the Twilight Zone. One of the things I
noticed about like movies that Pete Doctor did um was
that after Pixar for a time had some of their
storytellers kind of um take care of the Ghibbli films.

(34:40):
When Disney acquired that for a while they were in
charge of sort of restructuring them, slash casting the voice
actors for American audiences or I guess English speaking audiences.
UM that after they worked on movies like How's Moving Castle?
For example, Uh, you got movies like Up and Monsters, Inc.

(35:02):
And if you notice in Up, there's you know, the
moving house and moves very similarly to how House Moving
Castle moves in that film, the same thing with the
doors inside Hell's Castle. They kind of lead to other
portals in other worlds. That is basically the you know,
that's where they got I feel like heavy inspiration for

(35:24):
the Doors and Monsters, Inc. That lead to other kids houses.
So you kind of see how all these like giant
touchstones of pop culture kind of all influenced one another
and carried those things. It's incredible. We have to take
another really quick break and then we're gonna have Sabina
talk to us about the Pixar Theory, which will blow
your mind. Right after this and we are back, Sabina,

(35:53):
would you like to talk to people about the Pixar theory? Yes,
I feel like the ground from It's always sunny, of
like there's all these things that have you know, kind
of consistently popped back up in Pixar films. Um, I'm
not quite sure how it started, but for me, I
think I started hearing about it when people started saying

(36:14):
that the Witch and Brave is Boo and that she's
time traveling to find Sully. How did this? And it's
the whole theory. The theory is created by Um John Negroni.
He basically put all of the Pixar films into a
massive timeline that he calls the Pixar Theory, and it

(36:36):
spans I think sixty five million years, Like it starts
at the Good Dinosaur essentially, and it makes its way
onto like onward, but that basically at some point, like
humans get wiped out, humans developed superpowers that like you know,
in Up, when Months is trying to like create like

(36:59):
you know, give dogs like sentients or voices or whatever, like,
he stumbles upon something that leads to the Incredibles having superpowers.
It's a lot um, but it's a really fun thing
to dig into if you're into that thing. And Pixar
hasn't entirely rejected this idea. UM. I thought that, like
you know, it would kind of fall apart at movies

(37:20):
like Coco and Inside Out, um, But actually, like one
of the things I saw recently was if you noticed
when someone is forgotten in the Land of the Dead
and Coco, they shimmer in like the same color that
the forgotten Memories and Inside Out shimmer when they're gone.
And that's really upsetting to me. But but it's also

(37:42):
you know, like you kind of see these little details
that kind of like informed that, yeah, this is all
like the same place. Um. Along those lines of thinking,
one of my personal theories is that being Bong lives,
and I think it would tie into the Pixar theory
because I firmly believe that the Being Bong that we
saw die in Inside Out or be forgotten an inside Out,

(38:04):
it was just like a mental avatar for Riley's monster
from Monsters Inc. I think that Being Bong is a
comedian who you know, was probably collecting Riley's laughter, and
he is probably somewhere at in Monsters at Work. Like
I am fingers crossed that he shows up in that
Pixar show of you know, the changeover from collecting children's

(38:26):
screams to collecting their laughter, and that we see Being
Bong return and be glorious and amazing and not dead.
I do see something here. It says you remember Merida
opening doors, and I'm saying that right right, yeah, yeah,
you remember Merida opening doors in the Witch constantly disappearing.
It's because those doors are made the same way from Monsters, Inc.

(38:47):
They transport across time, and that's why Mereda couldn't find
the Witch later in the movie. And then there was
also obviously this little wood carving of Solely that you
see for a brief second in the workshop. Now I
appreciate this. I definitely think they all live in the
same world. But I think that's just because Pixar and

(39:09):
Disney in general loves to do Easter eggs, So I
think that that's why you'll see like in Toy Story,
You'll see in Cocoa, like some things from Toy Story,
and you know, you'll see little Easter eggs throughout Disney. Yeah.
I like how some of them were like, oh, the cars,
cars talk and have sentience because the emotions have moved

(39:31):
into them. What it's it's crazy and there's like there's
a whole machine human uprising, and like have they built
out a timeline because it's it's a whole time. I'm like, no,
there's a whole book now, Like it's literally its own podcast. Honestly,
the problem is the podcast that just breaks down the theory,

(39:54):
which is basically like just picks our conspiracy theories, so
it has its own universe conspiracy. I would say, I
mean why not? And you know the cool thing is
like Pixar didn't just you know, stick to Pixar. I mean,
creative heads from Pixar were consulted to fine tune the

(40:16):
script in the two thousand eleven live action filmed The Muppets. Uh.
They helped with story development on the Jungle Book as
well as provide suggestions for the films, like in credit sequences. Yeah,
And I think that goes to show how, uh, there
was a big storytelling shift from just retelling mythology that
we've grown up with in those timeless self but to

(40:38):
also just ask what we're experiencing now, Like these questions
of does this story need to be told? What about
this story will tell us and inform us about the
life we're living in the life in the places that
we want to go to. UM and then being able
to go in and kind of like you know, infuse
all these other things around them with this tenant is

(41:02):
kind of I think what's made you know, the fabric
of film and like animated films like Richer contributed to that.
UM because like now you have I don't know any
if you've experienced part of this, but like when you
go into different rooms and get notes from like fellow creatives,
like that became a big thing with Pixar. So Pixar

(41:22):
Story Trust would go to Disney give critiques or ideas
for those films, and then Disney people go to Pixar
to screen their films and give story notes and like, yeah,
they'll become that. Yeah. So even though Ralph was at
Walt Disney Animation, they still went to Pixar to show
the executives there the movie and then get notes kind

(41:45):
of like a focus group. Uh. And then they would
cut scenes which I haven't seen and want to see,
maybe it's in the extra things or whatever, but Pixar
would be like, now, go ahead and cut this, and uh.
So that still does happen even though they're technically separate,
they are separate animation studios. Um. So another thing that

(42:06):
we left out was that both former and current uh
Pixar folks, both former and current Pixar animators, were recruited
for traditional hand drawn animated sequence for the film Mary
Poppins Returns. I also know that isn't um. Oh no,
that's not Pixar. I was about to say, Howard um

(42:29):
the guys that did, Uh, isn't there Brad Burt, No,
it is picked Brad Bird is working on something right
now right, that's that's um live action and animation. Yeah. Yeah,
well he's he's master and he did, you know, with
Mission Impossible film and did a tomorrow Land which was Disney,
which also kind of like brought him and like damon

(42:50):
Linda after other which ironically, I recently watched Watchman and
there is a thing in Tomorrowland, like a like a
memory sort of or but that the main character goes
to that found new life in Watchman, and I was like,
oh Tomorrowland reference, uh because Linda lof Um. But yeah,
he and lindelof like right stuff together. They've done tomar

(43:12):
Land and I can not remember what the thing he
is working on right now. Is hinted at it just
a tiny bit, but I do think it's like a
combination of both of those. Pixar representatives have also assisted
in the English localization of Studio Ghibli films, mainly those
from Hyao Miyazaki, and like Sabina was saying, they developed

(43:33):
a live action hidden camera reality show titled Pixar in
Real Life for Disney Plus. So you can watch that
out on Disney Plus right now. So Pixar in Your
Life is basically taking characters from Pixar movies and just
throwing them in like real life environments for strangers to
stumble upon. People have stumbled upon, like the emotional dashboard.

(43:54):
They've stumbled across dash from The Incredibles and no one
actually really got me, like some of some of them
were kind of like, Okay, this is cute. But the
Dash one, they had a kid at a block corner
like adults and be like, hey, can you time me,
I'm gonna run around this block in five seconds? And
they would time him and he would run one direction

(44:17):
and then he would just appear magically from the other
direction and be like, oh, how many seconds was that?
And they'd be like, oh, it's nine seconds. But they'd
also be like, how did this child just get around
this entire block in nine seconds? Um? But it was
identical twins spoiler alert that we're pretending to be the
character and it's adorable. Well, like you said, there's entire

(44:38):
podcast on Pixar because there's so many films. Their latest film,
by the way, which we mentioned, is Onward, So that's
the last Pixar film to come out. It dropped March
and then kind of didn't really get to be in
theaters because of the pandemic, so they moved it to
Disney Plus pretty quickly. I was shocked at how touched

(44:59):
I was by this film. I really didn't think I
would be, but they did it. They have a way
of getting you with parental They know that we all
have parental issues in our lives and they just really
know how to capitalize on that. Um, if you have
you seen Onward not yet, Oh you should watch it.
If you have, if you're like busy tonight or tomorrow,

(45:21):
you should watch it and then get back to us.
I think you would like it super super down. Oh
we didn't talk about the big thing. The moments that
picked the movies have made us cry every moment. Every moment. Well, yes,
we will give a shout out to Randy Newman, who
I think set the stage for Toy Story. I mean,

(45:43):
I don't think Toy Story would be the same without
Randy Newman. Just a lot of iconic UH songs. But
also he did the music for Cars we have to
talk about. Michael Chino did the music for The Incredibles,
also rad a Tui but contrected by Brad Bird and Up.
So yeah, they all at the stage, like with Michael j.

(46:06):
Keino's music for for Up and Co and Coco. Yeah. Yeah,
So we've talked about this on other episodes, but Brad
Bird has been very um adamant that these are animated films,
they're not kids films, and so I think he really

(46:27):
doesn't like when people tweet at him about like, you
shouldn't say that you make kids films, and he's like,
I don't. I make animated films, and so they're family
films for sure, but it should be for every member
of the family. And I do think that they do
that great. Like I was saying, there were jokes that
my parents got in toy story that I didn't understand
until I was older. It still was very much like
you know, I had a woody doll, my brother had

(46:48):
a buzz light ear, so it was still something that
we latched onto, but also that adults could enjoy. Yeah,
that's what you know, And I think that's I think
we've talked about this song one of our many episodes.
But that's kind of like the makings of a good
uh film is a good I guess animated film is it?

(47:12):
Should everyone should like it. I think really focusing on
that word family film, like family isn't just the kids.
Family is the parents and all that. And that's the difference.
You know, We'll watch a film uh and it'll and
I would classify it as a quote unquote kids film
because I'm like, yeah, I mean, I get why kids
would enjoy this, but for me net And then you'll

(47:34):
watch a film and you're like, oh, no, Naomi can
watch this, but I can want Even if Naomi wasn't here,
I'd be watching this, which is a lot of not
a lot. I'd say every Pixar, even cars. That's always
the discussion whenever. It's so funny. I've meant to mention
this earlier, but when the discussion of Pixar movies come up,

(47:56):
they always say, even cars. I don't know what it
is about cars, but people do not really enjoy it. Yeah,
and it's about community too though, because it's you know,
let McQueen was all about like being the winner and
like being number one or whatever, and he had to
be humbled down to embrace the community around him that

(48:16):
would uplift him to succeed again. And like how the
people around you are like the most important. Okay, fine,
cars is my favorite cars. I think that we did it.
I think we talked about we can't get into all
twenty two movies, but we at least said their names.

(48:39):
Most of them are actually sequels. As I'm looking through this,
a good portion of this makeup is this, like you know,
cars three toy Story three, four Monsters at the second
Monster Zinc Like they have a lot of sequels in here,
Finding Dory going along with Finding Nemo, so Incredibles to uh,

(49:01):
they definitely have that in the bank, making things that
they're able to make for a decade. You know. The
first Toy Story came out and the last Toy Story,
which I can guarantee will not be the last last
even if they think that it is, um, but Toy
Story four came out in twenty nineteen, so yeah, wow,

(49:23):
that is ah, that is a long run. Yeah, dude.
As we were talking about scenes that made you cry
with Toy Story four, when I knew that they were
retiring these characters, I was just like also fascinating because
it was the same year that this final Star Wars
came out and they were like, we're retiring these characters.

(49:45):
You'll never see them again, um. And so when I
was watching Toy Story four, I was like, this is chill.
I won't cry until the end. I know they're going
to be gone. In the end, something's gonna happen, they're
gonna send us off, but I won't cry until the end.
The first five minutes of Toy Story for why and
how dare you? Um? I was just like, no, they

(50:06):
got me the first how could they did it again?
They did it again. I'll give I don't want to
give anything away. But it was between Woody and bo Peep.
It was a moment between bo Peep and Woody and
I was like, why did you do this? There was
it was that was so brutal. It's so weird because

(50:28):
like some of these fixtre movies recently are kind of
way too real, because you know, that was like say
goodbye to your old friends and then you know, obviously
Coco was like how to say goodbye to your loved
ones and deal with death not being a final resting place.
They could you know, you will see them on the
other side. And then they had to drop the trailer
for slul like you always you're possibly incoming death. I'm

(50:53):
like mine, I don't know if I'm ready for this movie.
It was supposed to come out. I think last week.
Oh um, I forgot to say check out my friend
Roy Wood Jr. Starring and soul. Um. He's just so
roy for those that Jamie Fox is playing the lead
and soul but the character looks exactly like Roywood. Jr.

(51:18):
And so he's just been like running along with that joke. Um,
so check it out. I hope that he is at
the premiere. At least I think you should be invited
to the Yeah, when they borrowed his face, you know,
I feel like you gotta at least get an invite. Well,
a bunch of the animators follow him too, so I
want to be like get that, get that picks our money?

(51:42):
Roy Um. Sabina, where can everyone find you? Everyone can
find me on Twitter at Sabina has no R. I
do many things. I'm a filmmaker and I am a
story coordinator for the Something Scary podcast and channel on YouTube,
and that's that we are snarl Old. I write the
spooky things for everyone, um and yeah, like and anything

(52:08):
I do will be on that platform. And my Instagram
is at that Lady Graves, that Lady Graves. Um, I'm
at Ms Danny Fernandez and all the things. Yes, next
week will be our last episode, but don't worry. We
have a bunch of things planned and we'll be talking
to some great people and having a lot of fun.
So just remember keep it fun. You know, we're not dying.

(52:31):
We're not going to end Up in soul An Inside Out.
This isn't the first ten minutes of up or toy
Story for literally any of those films or finding Nemo.
Um yeah, Iffe, what about you? Yeah yeah, if you wait, Twitter, Instagram,
if he's on twitch, you know, uh yeah, just come

(52:52):
see me on Twitch. We'll be playing video games, you know. Um.
Thank you again, super producer Joel for popping in and
uh and for working with us, Zach mckebar, engineer Jacquies
Neil who's been doing of the editing. And we will
catch you next week for our final week. Until then,

(53:15):
stay nerdy, Stay nerdy, m asstssssss