Up Interview
Pixar's guiding lights Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera talk to Pure Movies about putting their creativity (and balloons) together.

Pixar have a lot to thank Pete Docter and Jonas Rivera for. Docter is the writer of some of their greatest films including Toy Story and Wall-E, whilst Rivera has worked in the art department on Cars and A Bug’s Life. The two have now put their creativity (and balloons) together for Disney Pixar’s latest film, Up. They speak to Pure Movies about old men, Buzz Lightyear and pit Dumbo and Pinocchio against each other.

Carl, the hero of Up, is a 78 year old man. Were you ever worried that this might not work out in today’s youth-obsessed industry?

Pete Docter: Not at all. I think what attracted us to the story was the fact that it hasn’t been done a lot. It seemed like a there would be a lot of opportunity for humour and emotion in it.

There weren’t any tricky meetings with nervous executives trying to make you change the story?

Jonas Rivera: I guess what I love about working at Pixar is that it never even came up. The way we look at it is that it really doesn’t matter who or what the character is. If you can raise the stakes emotionally and make the audience connect with that character then you can make a rat, a car, a bug – whatever. I mean, we’d already done all those things, so we thought we’d have a pretty good shot at doing an old man.

Was Ed Asner always the name in the frame for this role?

PD: The way we work is that first we design the characters, then we take little bits of dialogue from other films and try them out. Ed’s voice just fitted perfectly.

JR: It was funny, when Ed Asner first walked into the studio he saw a sculpture of his character, Carl, and he goes “that doesn’t even look like me”. And we thought to ourselves, he’s perfect! He’s just walked in and he’s already mad!

What about Russell? You ended up using a young child instead of a trained voice actor, was this always the plan?

JR: I think we auditioned maybe forty, fifty kids for the part of Russell, and we couldn’t find the one we wanted. It was a needle in a haystack. Kids would come in with really good resumes and stuff, but they were too polished. They just didn’t feel real. So we were really looking for the kid that couldn’t act. Then this kid came up and got on stage and, I mean, he wouldn’t even read the script, he was just talking nonstop about football practice and karate and all this stuff he liked doing, and we just looked at each other and said, “that’s Russell!”.

Pete, you obviously like to keep things in the family regarding casting – in this film your daughter Elie has a role. How did she get the gig?

PD: Well, we always use our own voices at first when we’re putting the story together. We just temporarily put our own voices in with the intention of replacing them later on. But once in a while they work out.

JR: You were the voice of Buzz Lightyear, but that one didn’t work out!

PD: Yeah, still kind of bitter about that. But anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, she worked out pretty well so we kept her. It was fun working with her because I knew exactly how to get stuff out of her.

This is obviously a very funny film, but also a very sad one, and in many ways quite subtle. When you’re writing do you think a lot about your adult audience?

PD: Yeah, I think we do. Very early on we decided on this basic theme that Carl worries he missed out on adventure in life, that he didn’t get to South America and have all the fantastic trips he wanted to have, but at the end realises that he did get the most wonderful adventure of all which was his relationship with this woman. That became the theme of the film and I love it when you go to movies that remind you how precious life actually is. That’s the stuff we’re going for first, and then we add the stuff we think will appeal more to kids later on.

 

Jonas, you’ve grown up within Pixar, in fact your first job was working on Toy Story. How does it feel to be producing the tenth film to come out of the company?

Jonas Rivera: It’s awesome, I mean, it’s the thrill of my life. I never dreamed I’d be here to be honest. Growing up I was just a kid that loved animation, but I found out very early that I couldn’t draw. So I knew I had to learn production if I wanted to be involved in these movies and so I just learned everything I could. To end up producing this film is a dream come true.

What is it do you think that makes Pixar so special?

JR: When I was six years old I saw Snow White and I saw Star Wars and those two moments kind of defined what I wanted to do. I kind of think of Pixar as a collision of those two movies, a little bit. Because it’s classic Disney storytelling, but using cutting edge technology.

PD: I’m very proud of Pixar. We strive to make films like those ones that we saw when we were kids – the Snow Whites, the Bambis, the Dumbos – films that really ring true. Maybe I’m just a geek but those films you kind of take with you your whole life. I hope our films have that same kind of emotion. We definitely try to get that in them.

You’ve mentioned a collection of really classic animated films there. But if you had to choose one film that you could take a clip from and keep it with you forever, what would it be?

AR: I think it would have to be Pinocchio. The whole first act of that film is just absolutely incredible. That movie is almost like a lullaby to me. There’s something magic about it I can’t quite put my finger on.

PD: I think I’d probably go Dumbo. Just because it’s so beautifully simple. The story is so basic you could tell it in five minutes or less, but what that allows for is these wonderful moments of humour and tenderness.

AR: Dumbo vs Pinocchio – that debate will rage through our entire lives!