The IAAPA Attractions Expo opened on Monday. But the show doesn’t really get going until the “What’s New” presentation which was yesterday morning. This year the kickoff session featured performances from Universal and The Blues Brothers, dancers from Busch Gardens, and a new song from beautifully performed by a singer from Walt Disney World Resort. All in all a great showcase for central Florida.

Three new IAAPA members were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Arto Monaco (Land of Make Believe) and Edgard “Eddy” Meeus (Walibi Parks)  both played key roles in the early days of theme park development and were awarded posthumously. Larry B. Cochran helped open Six Flags over Texas and rose to the top of the company during his 41 years of service and team building. He gave a wonderful speech with a tribute to his family and team members.

The bi-annual Applause Award went to Xetulul a theme park in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. I’ve never heard of this park, but it looked like a lot of fun. San Diego SeaWorld cam in a close second.

After the morning performance everyone heads down to the show floor to make some deals and see what’s hot from vendors old and new. I only managed to cover about 20% of the show floor yesterday but click through the cut to read a few things that caught my eye.

The ‘Flogos‘ machines that were on Good Morning America a few months ago are at IAAPA. They can produce little ‘clouds’ of bubbles formed into your logo or other design. You can see a familiar shape in the photo above. In the photo below you can see the secret.

These are really just little bubbles, similar to the big blobs ’snow’ machines produce when they’re malfunctioning, formed into a shape and then released into the air. It’s a really neat affect and word is you’ll see them in action at Disney Parks next year.

Sadly the outside display area of the show is really reduced this year. Before there would have been a couple fun rides and other ‘tall’ items, now there are just four vendors.

Inside things are a little different. There are a few holes in the show floor where vendors would have been in the past, but in general it’s almost as full as usual. The traffic yesterday might have been a bit lighter than usual. But only 15-20% or so. So that’s a good sign. People appear to be making deals despite the slow down in the economy. You have to be willing to look ahead. Of course, you also have to have cash on hand, since credit is hard to get these days.

Finally, I did have at least one celebrity sighting. Joan Lunden, a big Disney fan herself, was at the show with her family and a new product called Kinderkord. But more on that later.

Now, I’m off to the show again. If you see me, please do say hi!

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An Initial Look at IAAPA Attractions Expo 2008

That’s a lot of money, I hope it pays off.

(Via Orlando Sentinel)

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Disney’s ABC/ESPN is now the home for College Football Bowl Championship Series

Unless I missed it during the recap show, it looks like we didn’t have an encore at all tonight.  That’s too bad.  I was looking forward to seeing Lance do his Jitterbug with both shoes on.

And I will give them this, having Julianne do one of the songs was nice.  Granted, she already has a built in audience from this show.  But as long as they are going to bring in all kinds of singers, might as well include the one they can do for free.  She’s got a great voice, too.

I did slow down the fast forward button to watch reigning champs Kristi and Mark perform.  I was reminded why I was rooting for her last season.  She’s still great!  And getting to hear Aretha Franklin perform “Respect” was fun, too.

Just as I was beginning to think they forgot what the “Results” show was all about, they did finally get to them.  50 minutes into the hour.  They didn’t do a bottom two.  They started off by telling us that Lance & Lacey and Brooke & Derek were safe.  No surprise with Lance, but I’d been wondering all day if Brooke really would be safe or not.

Of course, Lance and Brooke had to chat with Samantha.  Then a commercial break.  Can they drag this out any further?

Eventually, they did get around to telling us that Cody and Julianne are eliminated tonight.  On the one hand, I’m glad.  I’m tired of correcting my typo of Docy.  I type that every time I type his name, and I don’t know why.

On a serious note, I’d really love to see Julianne and Derek face off in the finals.  And Cody was growing every week.  As you know, I think Warren is the weakest dancer left, so I would have preferred to see him leave.  But Cody just couldn’t overcome those low scores.

Next week - the finals.  Until then, any thoughts on the final elimination of the season?

Mark

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Dancing with the Stars: Semi-Final Results

This year the main story is the same unavoidable story that’s affecting companies and families all over the world - the economy. A few parks did not survive last year (Hard Rock Park, for one) and even more look to fall to the side of the road this year. So everyone is a bit nervous. When I hit the exhibit floor this year, I’m curious to see how big a contraction the industry has already experienced.

I’d invite everyone down, but there is no public day this year. Next year the Expo will be in Las Vegas, and I’ll be looking for a correspondent. <grin>

That’s it for now. I’ll be back later with some stories on what’s happening at IAAPA. If you’re at the show keep an eye out.

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IAAPA Attractions Expo hits Orlando

ICE! at Gaylord Palms Resort is back for its sixth season. I was lucky enough to go last night and found the new displays to be a lot of fun. It’s amazing to see how huge blocks of ice have been transformed into wonderful works of art.

A little advice: make sure you buy your tickets online ahead of time to save a few dollars. Plus plan to eat somewhere else either before or after the event. The restaurant selection at Gaylord Palms are good, but very expensive, even more than what you might find on Disney property.

The ornaments are a whole new room this year and my favorite of the show. There are a few more pictures below the cut.

Fun Facts About ICE!

• Nearly 2,000,000 pounds of ice was used to create ICE!
• Nearly 5,000 blocks of ice was hand carved to be transformed into a winter wonderland.
• 9 degrees Fahrenheit is the average temperature inside “The Florida Fridge,” the home of the ICE! attraction.
• 1500+ fluorescent and fiber optic lights are frozen within the ice, creating a magical holiday experience.
• More than 18,000 total square feet of space is covered by the ICE! attraction. Kept at a brisk 9 degrees, the unique structure housing ICE! is also known as the “Florida Fridge.” It is believed to be the first of its kind in North America.

Yeah, I couldn’t resist the polar bears.

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It’s ICE!

These last 80 years have been quite transformative for you. You’ve gone from a sweet and unpretentious little rascal to a modern day role model for the young. The next 80 are sure to be as transformative, especially as more images of you begin to enter the public domain. Sure there will be fights, huge ones, for control of your future. You have become a part of us. And now you belong to all of us as much as you ever belonged to Walt and the company he set up with his brother. I only hope you’re up to the task.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse.

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Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse!

Brooke Burke & Derek Hough - Jive - Okay, so this wasn’t quite the routine that Derek and Julianne did last week, but it was pretty darn close.  That was high energy from the get go, and they never slowed down.  You know what that means.  I loved it!  I did notice one under arm turn that looked a tad awkward, and they definitely did some lifts, so unless the rules have changed, watch for Carrie Ann to dock them for that.  Len, however, said they messed up three or four times.  Bruno was surprised about how bad the technique was.  And Carrie Ann did come down hard on them for the illegal lifts.  Yet I could tell from their faces they agreed with the judges, so at least they weren’t too upset.  And Brooke confirmed that she agreed with the judges backstage.  Can I just say that impressed me even more?

Scores: Carrie Ann - 7 Len - 7 Bruno - 7 Total - 21  Her worst score of the entire season.  Wow.  Could she fall just short of the finals?

Cody Linley & Julianne Hough - Paso Doble - Julianne’s back!  When I first saw their costumes, I thought with the military look they would be doing a Jive.  This could be an interesting routine.  You know, I’d never noticed how much this dance has military precision until watching this.  And I do think I prefer Julianne’s choreography to Edyta’s.  But I still wasn’t too impressed.  Bruno said the timing was poor and the lines were non existent, but he did find the dance interesting.  Carrie Ann saw too much tension.  And Len wasn’t impressed with it, saying it was stiff and not dance quality.  Wow, I think the judges are being harder than I am tonight.  That’s a nice change from the last couple of weeks, right?

Scores: Carrie Ann - 8 Len - 7 Bruno - 7 Total - 22  I wasn’t sure what to expect for sure, but this is a combined score one better that Brooke’s.  This is getting very interesting.

Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson - Mambo - That was interesting, stating off in the audience.  And wow, Kym has great abs the way she could hold that back bend while Warren took off his jacket.  But again, I find Warren’s dances fun but not nearly as good as the others.  Obviously, I miss the technical stuff, so we’ll see what the judges say.  Carrie Ann started and said he could include more difficult moves.  Len praised him for showing great personality even if he doesn’t have much content.  And Bruno said it was engaging but very flat footed.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 8 Len - 8 Bruno - 8 Total - 24  So he’s got the highest score in the first round so far.  And with Lance being hit or miss with the judges, this just might be the high score of round one.

Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer - Mambo - And Lacey got to show off her abs, too.  While this had the fun of Warren’s dance, it also seemed like a better dance to me, which the various tempo changing moves.  Plus they really seemed to be traveling all around the floor.  But I’ve been shocked by the judges comments before, so let’s see what they say.  Len called it the best dance so far.  Bruno called it semi-final material.  Carrie Ann said it was a show stopper.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 10 Len - 9 Bruno - 9 Total - 28  They were so happy with their first 10 of the season.  And this makes it the best dance of the first round.

Now I’m really curious to see how things play out with round two.

Brooke Burke & Derek Hough - Salsa - Again with the lifts.  And right out of the gate.  Carrie Ann won’t be happy about that.  I think they were up to three by the time the dance was over since her feet stayed on the ground in that spin.  But I really did enjoy the dance over all.  I’m hesitant to get too enthused, however, after the way the judges have reacted to things tonight.  Brooke and Derek seem happier.  And so did Bruno who welcomed her back to the competition.  Carrie Ann did mention the lifts, but said they were appropriate to the number.  She even praised her for the way she came back.  Len told her to work toward her strengths, which is crisp technique like we saw here.  Naturally, they were much happier back stage.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 9 Len - 10 Bruno - 9 Total - 28  They have started the second round with an impressive score.  While Lance has some wiggle room, they’ve put the pressure on Cody and Warren.  Let’s see if they can keep up.

Cody Linley & Julianne Hough - Salsa - During the master class, Len tried to work on Cody’s hips.  I am seeing an improvement most of the time.  Of course, anyone standing next to Julianne is going to have a hard time standing out.  And we’ve got two lifts here as well.  I’d say their second round was stronger as well.  Way to answer back, guys.  Carrie Ann said it was fun, but he was slightly off from the music at times.  But Len thought the musicality was fine.  He even praised the lifts.  Bruno said it was a bit loose technically, but otherwise good.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 8 Len - 8 Bruno - 8 Total - 24  Funny, based on the comments, I expected a couple 9’s in there.  So they are now below Brooke.  But I think that Lance is really the one to beat tonight.

Warren Sapp & Kym Johnson - Jitterbug - I’m wondering about this one.  In my mind, Warren has been slow all season.  Why would they choose to pick the fastest dance they could have done?  Okay, the contestants must have decided to band together and do lifts tonight.  That’s all I can come up with.  When I think Jitterbug, I think a fast paced dance.  This one just seemed too slow to me.  It was fun at times, but it seemed very weak to me.  Len praised him for selling it.  Bruno came down hard on him, however, because his feet were all over the place.  Carrie Ann became the tie breaker and said she liked it, although she was afraid that the dangerous lifts wouldn’t work and Kym would get hurt.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 9 Len - 8 Bruno - 8 Total - 25  So, Len loved it and Bruno saw flaws, yet they came away with the same score.  Yep, I’m confused yet again.

Lance Bass & Lacey Schwimmer - Jitterbug - So that’s four for four in the final round.  I sure thought from what Carrie Ann said they weren’t supposed to be doing lifts, but everyone did so maybe I misunderstood.  And then Lance lost his shoe.  He missed a couple steps trying to kick it out of the way, but they soldiered on.  After how hard I was on Warren, I’ve got to say I thought this one was only slightly better at the start, but they seemed to pick up speed as the dance progressed.  And some of their moves were lots of fun.  As Tom pointed out, it was pretty amazing that he only missed a couple steps considering he was dancing with one shoe and one sock.  Len even got into the fun pretending to be upset about him dancing barefoot again.  But the real comments started with Bruno who said it was brilliant and a joy.  Carrie Ann agreed, saying they didn’t miss a step.  Len said this was his second fabulous dance of the night.  These should be good scores.

Scores: Carrie Ann - 10 Len - 9 Bruno - 10 Total - 29  The high score of the night, and they can’t completely believe it.

And that brings the semi-final round to an end.  Here’s tonight’s rankings:

1. Lance - 57

2. Brooke - 49

2. Warren - 49

4. Cody - 46

Encore: Well, Brooke has one more week to get an encore.  This week’s is going to Lance’s Jitterbug.  And I have no complaints because once it got going, it was really good.

Going Home: I feel pretty confident in saying Lance won’t be going home.  I think Brooke, being the only female, is most likely safe as well.  I bet it comes down to Warren and Cody.  There is a slight chance that Cody makes the finals, but my guess is that this is the week we say goodbye to the Boy Wonder.

Is there something I am missing, or will this be Cody’s week to leave the competition?

Mark

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Dancing with the Stars - Season Seven Semi-Finals

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Blessing of Disney’s Wilderness Lodge

2008 marks the last year Super Soap weekend will be held at the Walt Disney World resort. In 2009 plans are to have six regional events around the country.

(Photo courtesy Disney. Matt Stroshane, photographer)

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Susan Lucci Dances into Disney’s Hollywood Studios one last time for Super Soap Weekend

A couple months ago, though, the co-directors asked Mr. Walton to meet them in the recording studio. He assumed it was to re-record a line that was slurred or too quiet. Instead he was told he was the voice of Rhino.

The directors suddenly had a very animated 6-foot-2 bearded man on their hands. “I jumped up and down and screamed like a girl,” Mr. Walton said. “There’s a videotape to prove it.”

“Who cares about fame and fortune?” he said, clenching his fists in excitement and waiving them in the air. “I’m going to be a plush animal.”

Mark sounds like someone I hope Walt Disney Animation Studios plans to keep around a long time.

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Destiny calls Disney Animator to Voice Talent Stardom in Bolt!

We’ve always known there is a bit of a dark side to Mickey Mouse. Usually he was just being his mischievous self, but sometimes, as in Runaway Brain, he seemed like a completely different mouse. Okay. Maybe he was a completely different mouse. But he’s always been fairly squeaky clean when it comes to consumer products. In the last few years, however, we’ve been treated to some wider extremes of Walt’s most famous creation.

Walt Disney’s influence as a creative visionary and artist has inspired generations and BLOC28 by Disney is a new label that uniquely connects today’s street art and contemporary art culture with Disney’s most iconic character, Mickey Mouse. BLOC28 by Disney - Series 2, builds on the phenomenal success of the first series with well-known urban artists Aroe, Chaz Bojorquez, Ewok, Rime, Suiko and Tenga.

Each artist developed a one-of-a-kind piece of Mickey–themed art in their signature style which serves as the inspiration for a line of limited-edition product. And in celebration of the contemporary art community, Disney is kicking off a ten-day auction of limited edition BLOC28 product with eBay Giving Works to benefit Art Share Los Angeles – a community arts incubator whose mission is to shape lives through art, education and community action.

If you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles it can be incredibly difficult to get your hands on the BLOC28 line of products. So this auction is probably your best chance. Plus it supports a good cause. So everyone is a winner.

More information on the auction is available at eBay.

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Urban Street Art meets Mickey Mouse for good cause

The training included meet and greets with Disney executives, a complete overview of the history and heritage of The Walt Disney Company, visits to Walt Disney Imagineering, Walt Disney Studios and the Walt Disney Archives. After training at Disneyland, the team of eight flies to Florida for a similar experience at Walt Disney World Resort. The extensive training schedule prepares the Ambassadors to represent their Resorts, as well as The Walt Disney Company, for the duration of their term as a Resort representative.

The Disneyland Ambassador program began in 1965 under the supervision of Cicely Rigdon. Julie Riehm was the first Ambassador and was selected by Walt to help celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Disneyland.

2009 Worldwide Ambassador Team (From Left to Right in Photo): Chi-ho Law, Hong Kong Disneyland Ambassador; Makiko Okamoto, Tokyo Disney Resort Ambassador; Vanessa Rosas, Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador; Quinn Shurian, Disneyland Resort Ambassador; Danielle DuBois, Disneyland Resort Ambassador; Clay Shoemaker, Walt Disney World Resort Ambassador; Prisca Vigana, Disneyland Resort Paris Ambassador; and Julien Lothier, Disneyland Resort Paris Ambassador.

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2009 Worldwide Disney Park Ambassadors go back to where the magic began

Disney made a reported $125 million bid for the rights to the complete Bowl Championship Series, the five annual contests — the Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls plus the BCS National Championship — that ultimately determine college football’s No. 1 team.

Fox, which has the rights to all but the Rose Bowl at a cost of $82.5 million per year, has upped its bid to $100 million. If Disney is successful, ESPN will air the games beginning in 2010. The Rose Bowl, currently airing on ABC, would likely also move to ESPN.

I really hope the big wigs at ESPN listen to the talking head talent they’ve hired. Nearly all of whom agree that NCAA Division I football needs to end in a playoff series, at minimum a plus one game. Imagine the hero ESPN would become to college football fans everywhere.

(via)

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ESPN places $125 million bid for rights to College Football Championship

Below the cut you’ll find the transcript from a recent roundtable discussion with Director Agnus MacLane.

Previously: My Review of BURN•E, WALL-E on Amazon.

Q: BURN•E will be another great addition to the acclaimed canon of Pixar shorts. What is it, in your opinion, that makes short films like BURN•E and Presto so unique?

A.M.: I’m glad you enjoyed the short. What makes the films so unique is that all of the shorts are personal stories. Pixar supports the directors realizing their unique visions and as a result you get a wide variety of stories. Presto is Doug Sweetland and Doug Sweetland is Presto. Likewise for the other shorts.

Q: BURN•E has a very “Pixar” feel to it as an animated short. What is it about repetitive failure (Lifted, One Man Band, now BURN•E) that is so funny?

A.M.: Humor usually comes about when result doesn’t match the expectation. If everything in a characters’ life goes well it’s hard to relate to and probably not as funny.

Q: What do you think was the hardest thing to get right in the short?

A.M.: There were a lot of difficult shots to pull off in this film. From a technical perspective, the shot with WALL•E touching Saturn’s rings that transitions into the pebble meteor was the hardest to pull off. The Effects Supervisor, Bill Watral did a fabulous job stitching the shot from the film and a bunch of new elements that were on a literally planetary scale. On the performance side, the shot where SUPPLY•R drops the light on the ground was the trickiest to get right. There was something in the boards that was really funny that was extremely difficult to capture.

Q: What is the most difficult aspect of creating a character?

A.M.: For BURN•E, communicating his thought process to the audience was the biggest challenge. He is a fairly limited character, which is appealing, but more work must be done in the story process to communicate his intentions. With BURN•E and with WALL•E, if the audience can’t tell what the character is thinking or what is going on, then they loose interest very quickly.

Q: Where do you actually start on design with so many different kinds of robots?

A.M.: In the WALL•E universe most of the robots are designed and built around the idea of function first, character second. With the character of WALL•E we figured out his motion as a trash compactor first. After that had been firmly established we then worked on how to define his character based on the limitations of him being a trash compactor

Q: How hard was it to get the right type of emotion out of a robot?

A.M.: It is always our goal as animators to make our work clearly communicate the thought process of the characters to the audience. It was particularly challenging for us on BURN•E as well as WALL•E because of the limited nature of the designs and the lack of dialogue. Both characters limited designs are appealing, but more work must be done in the story process to communicate his intentions. With BURN•E and with WALL•E, if the audience can’t tell what the character is thinking or what is going on, then they lose interest very quickly.

Q: How did you come up with the story for BURN•E? Did you already think of it during the production of WALL•E?

A.M.: As a filmgoer I wanted to know what happened to BURN•E. I had a few ideas of places we could cut back to BURN•E in the feature, but it slowed the pace of the film down. Once Andrew encouraged me to take these ideas and develop them into a short, I needed to find a unifying story arc. I came up with this idea of him having a job and that job would be repairing this light. Then I thought, it would be funny to have WALL•E inadvertently cause this meteor to hit the light on the ship. This led to the central idea of the short. In the feature, WALL•E has a positive effect on everyone he meets. So I thought what if there is someone for whom WALL•E ’s arrival on the Axiom isn’t a good thing. WALL•E is never purposefully mean to BURN•E, it’s just bad luck. Once I had that central idea I looked for key moments in the film to cut back to BURN•E to see what he was doing at that particular time.

Q: How long did it take you to make that short?

A.M.: I first pitched the storyboard to Andrew Stanton in November of 2007 and we finished production in late June 2008.

Q: Where did you get your inspiration for BURN•E?

A.M.: BURN•E in the feature, but Andrew felt that it would slow the pace of the film down. He agreed it was a funny idea but encouraged me to develop it into a short film. Visually I wanted to replicate, or ‘pay homage’ to late 70s early 80s Sci-Fi movies. The unifying element in these films is that everything was hand made, they did not have CGI, and so it gives the worlds a tactile quality that has been missing from many modern sci-fi films.

Q: How did you come to choose BURN•E as the main subject of the short (and not other characters, like, say, M-O, who was interesting, too)?

A.M.: I was drawn to BURN•E because his story was not fully explored in the feature. I like M•O, but he is in the feature a lot already, so I did not feel like his story needed to be told as urgently. Also I liked the idea of having a short that took place outside the central story arc of the WALL•E feature film.

Q: John has previously said that Pixar’s shorts provide animators with the opportunity to experiment with new challenges outside the confines and limitations of a feature. Were there any particular technical or story challenges you set out to accomplish with BURN•E?

A.M.: The biggest challenge was how to make a 7+ minute film on a budget. I was allowed to make a film that long if it came in on budget. To be honest, I think the budget constraint helped. I wanted the film to look like a 70’s-80’s Sci-Fi films. On those films they built awesome sets on limited budget. We used a lot of the same principles of repeated forms for BURN•E. As an homage, the floor grating in BURN•E is based on floor grating in featured in the movies Outland, Alien, and Aliens.

Q: As far as I can tell BURN•E is your first film as a director. Do you see this film as a steppingstone towards directing features? Is that something you aspire to do?

A.M.: BURN•E was a tremendous opportunity for me. The shorts program at Pixar is designed to be a training ground for potential future directors and new department heads. Sometimes that translates into directing features or heading departments on features and sometimes not. I have stories that I’d like to tell, so we’ll see what happens.

Q: Are there any easter eggs we should watch out for?

A.M.: There are a few small nods here and there to various sci-fi properties. I won’t go through all of them, but I will mention that there is a graphic on the elevator inside the Axiom that reads “ELV 426″ indicating that this is elevator number four hundred and twenty-six. This is of course (pushing my glasses up on my nose) a reference to LV-426 the planet that is the setting of the movie Alien and Aliens.

Q: Why did you choose the Beethoven’s Ode (European’s anthem) to joy to play a key role in the soundtrack?

A.M.: It’s true that Ode To Joy has been used many times in the history of cinema. Most notably to me in Raising Arizona, Die Hard and A Clockwork Orange. There is a reason why is this piece of music has stood the test of time. It is a great piece of music. Using it in a film is a bit of a cliché’ but it is still a very effective piece in communicating a certain emotion. For BURN•E the needs of the emotion from the piece overruled the originality from the selection of the piece. I also thought that it was funny that BURN•E would be humming Beethoven.

Q: I noticed that BURN•E does a fist-pump when he cuts through the door. What gave you the idea to include that?

A.M.: That is a bit of an inside joke. Brad Bird’s pet peeve is the movie cliché’ where a character does that fist-pump an says “YESSSS!” I think that I put that joke in just to irritate him. I think there is an easter egg on the Ratatouille DVD that explains this. So if you watch that before you see BURN•E, the short will be 34% funnier.

Q: How hard was it to think of a name that sounded like a robot but was a pun for a human name (Bernie)?

A.M.: His name internally had been “Repair Bot” When I started the short, I envisioned him as being called WELD•R. About two days later Jim Reardon, the head of WALL•E Story handed me a drawing he had done of the word BURN•E burned into metal. After that there was no going back.

Q: WALL•E stands for Waste Allocation Load Lifter, Earth class. What does BURN•E stand for?

A.M.: I was called one day by Derek Thompson who worked in story on BURN•E, informing me that we had to know the answer to this question. He and fellow story artist Ted Mathot informed me that BURN•E stood for: Basic Utility Repair Nano Engineer. However, Jim Reardon, head of story on WALL•E thought of the name BURN•E.

I have since heard from some people that it actually be BURN•A because the “E” in WALL•E stands for “Earth-Class” and the “A” would be the appropriate “Axiom-Class”. Now I could argue that maybe BURN•E was a robot on earth that then was installed on the Axiom, but A: I would be lying and B: What is the point? If that is the biggest problem you have with the film, then I have done my job. Now put yourself in my shoes- you have to name this robot. The name BURN•E is funny and breaks the continuity of the film or BURN•A which is more accurate to the feature and is not funny at all. Which would you choose? I thought so. I do love that geeks pick up on this and I am happy to be creating this controversy. I’d probably do the same thing were I not involved.

Q: At what point during the development of WALL•E did you start planning the story of BURN•E? Did they construct any plot points in the feature to facilitate the short, or vice versa?

A.M.: I came up with and started boarding the short approximately 5 months before WALL•E was completed. However, no plot points were changed in the feature to make the short work. There were things that were changed in that one shot in WALL•E that featured BURN•E after it had been finished. The light spire that he welds was not originally in the shot.

Q: Did you work on BURN•E during or after the production of WALL•E?

A.M.: Both. I started boarding BURN•E on the evenings and lunches when we were in the heat of animation production on WALL•E. Once the animation was wrapping up on the feature, production started on BURN•E. It dovetailed nicely but I did have to put off a May vacation till August.

Q: How did you go about choosing scenes from WALL•E that BURN•E could impact? Did you have to scrap any ideas that just wouldn’t fit with the existing story?

A.M.: I came up with as many places in the movie as I could think of to cut back to. We cut whatever wasn’t funny or slowed the pace down. Oddly enough the scene from the feature that sparked the original idea for BURN•E was cut from the feature. The scene is too complicated to explain. Maybe that’s why it never made it.

Q: Brad Bird created a similarly fun companion short to The Incredibles with “Jack-Jack Attack”. What are your thoughts on side-stories like these?

A.M.: I am a big fan of side stories. Coincidentally, I had a side story pitch for The Incredibles that Brad was excited about, but budget constraints kept us from doing it. I think it is important that the side story not belittle or betray the main story. If the main story is about the existence of the Easter Bunny, the side story can’t say there is no Easter Bunny or it messes with the feature.

Q: Pixar has by now built a real legacy with some of the best animation film the last twenty years, beginning with short films in the eighties. Could you feel the pressure of that legacy while working on BURN•E?

A.M.: Certainly, the rich history of Pixar Short Films is a bit intimidating, but making BURN•E feel like a logical extension of WALL•E was more important to me. I wanted the film to be good but I did not choose to spend too much time worrying about it’s comparison to earlier work. I mostly sweated whether or not it was good enough to be in the WALL•E universe.

Q: How do you - as a modern day animator - view the classic ‘oldschool’ style of animation? Do you think that’s a nostalgic era in animation that will never return fully? Or do you think classic animation styles will become more prominent in the future? And in what way?

A.M.: I love all forms of animation. Each medium does different things better than others. 2-D or hand drawn animation allows for a stylization not achievable in CGI. The audience is open to whatever world you present them with. They just want good stories. I feel that unfortunately 2-D got associated with only one type of story and the audience for that story got tired of seeing the same thing over and over. I hope in the future there are a wider variety of stories told in all forms of animation.

Q: One of your big hobbies is building your own LEGO creations. For instance the big LEGO version of WALL•E you did a while ago. Any chances of a LEGO (short) movie in the future?

A.M.: I’d love to do a project with Lego. Disney and Lego are two huge companies who admire each other’s work but the logistics of doing a joint film project might be a little difficult. I open to it though. Imagine a film that has a main character who has to remove his head to put on a backpack. Pure gold.

Q: So when will we get to see BURN•E in Lego like you did with WALL•E?

A.M.: I designed a Lego BURN•E as a crew gift as a thank you for the hard work. I ordered the pieces, made custom decals and instructions and hand packaged each of the sets. If there is interest, I will post a picture on Flickr soon.

Q: How much of an animated film is software and how much is the result of an “artist’s” vision and his/her ability to bring that vision to life? What role does software play in the process? Is it a mere tool, like, say, video editing software, or does it allow animators to do things they could not do with ink and paper?

A.M.: WALL•E was mostly created by a computer robot we have here at Pixar called the EntertainmentBot 3000. Nah, the computer is just a big, dumb pencil.

Q: Is it harder to do an animated film with little dialogue? Does it put more pressure on the animation to do the talking? Because of this, was WALL•E a harder character to create than some of your others?

A.M.: It’s not harder to animate, but it is way more work in the story board process.

Q: Is there any Pixar film that you would have loved to work on, but didn’t get the chance to?

A.M.: I would have loved to have worked on the original Toy Story, which is the only Pixar feature that I was not involved in. I also wish that I could have worked on some of those Listerine commercials.

Q: Having been the directing animator on WALL•E, what did that involve?

A.M.: The Directing Animator’s job is to help the other animators keep their animation on model so that the acting and movement are consistent for each of the characters over the entire film. They work to be both a surrogate voice of the Director when he/she is available, and also offer acting and performance suggestions. Directing Animators also help to define the motion and character of the main characters in the film. The Directing Animator reports directly to the Supervising Animators. On WALL•E (as well as The Incredibles) I worked under the Supervision Animators Alan Barillaro and Steven Hunter. They interface more with the production staff about the direction and management of the WALL•E animation department. They also serve as both a surrogate voice of the Director and also offer acting and performance suggestions as well. Time permitting, Supervising Animators will also help to define the motion and character of the main characters in the film.

Q: How did you get selected to direct BURN•E? Now that you’ve done it, what would you do differently?

A.M.: I think it was opportunity met with preparation. Andrew liked the idea of the DVD short being about BURN•E. He encouraged me to storyboard the film. After the story was approved, Andrew asked if I would be interested.

Q: Which animator or moviemaker from the past has made the biggest impression on you? And how does that reflect itself in your work?

A.M.: That’s hard to say. It’s been great to learn from the directors here at work. Right now I’m really into Jean-Pierre Melville and I would say that the movie Aliens (1986) is the best movie ever made.

Q: How much freedom do you have at Pixar as a director on a little film like this?

A.M.: I pitched the film to Andrew Stanton and John Lasseter. Once they bought off on the concept I was free to pretty much do as I wished. There were budget considerations, but there weren’t any compromises that hurt the film. I checked in with Andrew periodically and if there was anything that wasn’t reading or could be improved he would make notes. I would say that 95% of his notes made the film better. Mostly he had notes on pacing. BURN•E by nature is fairly episodic. He had a lot of notes that kept the pace from slowing to a crawl. Freedom as a director is also the freedom to make a bad movie. I had the support of an extremely talented crew so anything that was bad they did there best to fix.

Q: Could you tell us how you got to work for Pixar? Was it always your dream to be an animator?

A.M.: I lucked out when standards were low. When I was hired in 1997, Disney and DreamWorks were the hot places to work. Pixar was looking for animators to work on the Toy Story direct to video sequel. I got an internship and then worked as hard as I could to learn how to animate. I had done 2D animation in school, but I had so much to learn. That’s one of the great things about Pixar. There are a lot of people to learn from.

Q: Could you give a piece of advice to all those who start in this of the animation and dream of working in Pixar or on a project like this someday?

A.M.: Surround yourself with people whose work you admire and whose opinions you trust. In school I worked really hard and sought out others who did the same. In your work make sure that you are making something that you believe in. In BURN•E I tried to have at least one thing in each shot that was true or real or relatable. Make the world of your film believable and relatable and the audience will follow.

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Interview with Pixar Director Agnus MacLane

Jerry at CartoonBrew recommends you see it:

I really enjoyed the film - especially its digs at the behind the scenes world of network television production. Bolt is a lot of fun, and a good step in the right direction as Disney continues to rebuild its brand in Feature Animation. I’m rooting for Bolt, and the studio, to succeed.

Honor Hunter at Blue Sky Disney was also lucky enough to see the film:

It’s as good as I had hoped. Possibly a bit better. It’s got that unmistakable Lasseter fingerprint. There’s more heart in this film than the entire last decade of Disney animation.

Both are fairly strong endorsements. So keep your fingers crossed that BOLT! makes a real charge at the box office. The race begins November 21st.

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Bolt Previews have begun

In addition to the theatrically released short “Presto” Pixar and Disney have decided to include an additional short on the WALL-E DVD and Blu-Ray releases. They did this with Tow Mater and the Ghostlight on Cars to great effect. Here WALL•E is partnered with BURN•E.

What BURN•E does differently than most other Pixar shorts is it inserts itself into the story of the main movie, in this case WALL•E. So it really helps if you’ve seen WALL•E first. In fact, it’s practically a requirement. You see part of the short from perspective of the main characters in WALL•E as the story takes place, but mostly you follow BURN•E as he faces his sysiphean task in the background of the larger conflict.

“Humor usually comes about when result doesn’t match the expectation,” says Director Angus MacLane. “If everything in an characters’ life goes well it’s hard to relate to and probably not as funny.”

It’s a cute idea and MacLane really pulls it off well. As an Animator, Angus MacLane has contributed significantly to Pixar Animation Studios’ short and feature length films since his arrival at the studio in 1997. In addition to WALL•E and BURN•E, MacLane has worked on various award-winning Pixar films, such as Geri’s Game, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, For The Birds, Monsters, Inc., and Finding Nemo. For his work on The Incredibles, he was awarded the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Animation. MacLane also supervised the animation on the Academy Award-nominated animated short film, One Man Band.

If you watch closely “there are a few small nods here and there to various sci-fi properties.” said MacLane. “I won’t go through all of them, but I will mention that there is a graphic on the elevator inside the Axiom that reads “ELV 426″ indicating that this is elevator number four hundred and twenty-six. This is of course (pushing my glasses up on my nose) a reference to LV-426 the planet that is the setting of the movie Alien and Aliens.”

One of the details I like is how BURN•E hums “Ode To Joy” to himself as he’s making the first repair. They’re able to bring that back full circle at the end of the short very effectively.

You can find BURN•E exclusively on the Wall•E DVD and Blu-Ray sets. It is available for pre-order now on Amazon.

Stay tuned for a full review of the DVD in the next couple days.

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WALL-E DVD available for pre-order; includes exclusive animated short BURN-E