Pete Docter’s student short film, “Next Door.” Also more proof that he loves child characters. (x)
“Well, my favorite scenes are usually the sad ones. I don’t know what that says about me. But I loved doing the “Married Life” sequence on UP, and the scene in Monsters where Sulley has to say goodbye to Boo.” - Pete Docter
“Monsters, Inc.” visual development art
“ Every film is different, but there’s always some hook that gets you into the project. On Monsters it was the thought that maybe monsters are real, and that they scare kids for a living — it’s their job. That simple premise lead to everything else. On UP it was a combo of doing something with a grouchy old man character (which just seemed fun) and my own feelings of wanting to escape the world. Nobody warned me that as a director basically all I do is run around and talk to people all day, and I’m not an extrovert… so by the end of the day I usually wanted to crawl under my desk. That feeling of getting away from the world lead to the story of UP. On my next film, it all started with— oops, I’m not supposed to talk about that one yet.
— Pete Docter
“ Yeah, MU is turning really well — it looks fantastic and is really funny. The kid who did the voice of Boo was Mary Gibbs — daughter of Rob Gibbs who was a story artist on the film (he’s since directed a bunch of Cars shorts too — very talented guy). Mary was too young to understand what we wanted her to do, so we had to trick her into stuff by playing games, jumping & running around, talking to puppets…. Later I used the same tricks working with Ed Asner. (Ha!)
— Director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) is doing a Reddit AMA right now. Head over and ask away. (via disneypixar)
“ I like Buzz, because I’m delusional.
Attention
Pete Docter will be answering questions on Reddit this upcoming Wednesday at 1:30 pm EST!
Happy Birthday, Pete Docter
“ You can’t hold on to anything too tight, but you have to hold it tight enough so that it doesn’t drift away.
— Pete Docter, on ideas (via disneypixar)
![elliefredricksen:
thedailywhat:
Letter Of Note of the Day: Pete Docter joined Pixar 22 years ago, and since then he’s had a major hand in hits including Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Up.
Middle school teacher Martin Kelsey wrote to Docter in 2009, asking for some advice to pass on to his students.
Docter’s reply was all encouragement:
What would I tell a class of Middle School students?
When I was in Middle School, I liked to make cartoons. I was not the best artist in my class — Chad Prins was way better — but I liked making comic strips and animated films, so after High school it was no surprise that I got into The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a school that taught animation.
CalArts only accepts 25 students a year, and it attracts some of the best artists in the country. Suddenly I went from being one of the top artists in my class to being one of the absolute worst. Looking at the talented folks around me, I knew there was no way I would make it as a professional. Everyone else drew way better than I did. And I assumed the people who were the best artists would become the top animators.
But I loved animation, so I kept doing it. I made tons of films. I did animation for my friends’ films. I animated scenes just for the fun of it. Most of my stuff was bad, but I had fun, and I tried everything I knew to get better.
Meanwhile, many of the people who could draw really well kind of rested around and didn’t do a whole lot. It made me angry, because if I had their talent, man, the things I would do with it!
Years later, a lot of those guys who probably still draw really well don’t actually work in animation at all. I don’t know what happened to them. As for me, I got hired at Pixar Animation Studios, where I got to work on Toy Story 1 and 2, direct Monsters, Inc., and Up (due out May 29th this year).
So, Middle School Student, whatever you like doing, do it! And keep doing it. Work hard! In the end, passion and hard work beats out natural talent. (And anyway, if you love what you do, it’s not really “work” anyway.)
Good luck,
Pete Docter
[lettersofnote]
One of the executive producers of Brave~!](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m7zhaxVtSG1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg)
Letter Of Note of the Day: Pete Docter joined Pixar 22 years ago, and since then he’s had a major hand in hits including Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., and Up.
Middle school teacher Martin Kelsey wrote to Docter in 2009, asking for some advice to pass on to his students.
Docter’s reply was all encouragement:
What would I tell a class of Middle School students?
When I was in Middle School, I liked to make cartoons. I was not the best artist in my class — Chad Prins was way better — but I liked making comic strips and animated films, so after High school it was no surprise that I got into The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a school that taught animation.
CalArts only accepts 25 students a year, and it attracts some of the best artists in the country. Suddenly I went from being one of the top artists in my class to being one of the absolute worst. Looking at the talented folks around me, I knew there was no way I would make it as a professional. Everyone else drew way better than I did. And I assumed the people who were the best artists would become the top animators.
But I loved animation, so I kept doing it. I made tons of films. I did animation for my friends’ films. I animated scenes just for the fun of it. Most of my stuff was bad, but I had fun, and I tried everything I knew to get better.
Meanwhile, many of the people who could draw really well kind of rested around and didn’t do a whole lot. It made me angry, because if I had their talent, man, the things I would do with it!
Years later, a lot of those guys who probably still draw really well don’t actually work in animation at all. I don’t know what happened to them. As for me, I got hired at Pixar Animation Studios, where I got to work on Toy Story 1 and 2, direct Monsters, Inc., and Up (due out May 29th this year).
So, Middle School Student, whatever you like doing, do it! And keep doing it. Work hard! In the end, passion and hard work beats out natural talent. (And anyway, if you love what you do, it’s not really “work” anyway.)
Good luck,
Pete Docter
One of the executive producers of Brave~!
(Source: thedailywhat)
I definitely think Pete Docter’s “Untitled Pixar movie that takes you inside the mind” is the most intriguing of the slate of the films, mainly because it features a girl protagonist and because Pete’s my favorite. And while I love dinosaurs and think the Dia de Los Muertos sounds amazing, I’m a lot more excited for Pete’s. What do you guys think about the new films?
