I love spotting Disney fans willing to show their love of wonderful stories and characters created by Walt and his talented descendents by dressing up in the parks. Yesterday at Disney’s Hollywood Studios I ran into this couple dressed as young Ellie and Carl in… Read More »Up Cosplay in the Park
I was able to sneak out to the Magic Kingdom for a few hours on Friday and will have some construction updates from around the park later this week. But first, I wanted to share a merchandise finds that caught my eye.
Monsters University has been in theaters for a few weeks now. Have you seen it? Disney hopes so, but just in case, Pixar has released three of the sort of videos you typically see as part of the DVD Special Features to show you a bit of the behind the scenes magic that made the movie possible
Monthropology
If you’re like me, you love to scour Pixar’s feature films in search of the Hidden Gems (aka Easter Eggs) the filmmakers sneak into each film: WALL•E’s explorations uncover a Mike Wazowski antenna ball and Eve scanned the Pizza Planet Truck, and in Up, the classic Luxo Jr. ball can be seen in the girl’s bedroom as Carl Fredricksen’s house flies by her window. If you’re looking for the hidden gems from Monsters University we have confirmation from Disney*Pixar right here in the form of these screen shots:
A113 – The School of Scaring classroom number is A113, which refers to the former classroom of John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton at CalArts. The number makes an appearance in every Pixar feature film.
Pizza Planet – The Pizza Planet truck is in the driveway of the JOX fraternity house when Mike is riding Archie the Scare Pig down Greek Row. The Pizza Planet truck, which first made an appearance in “Toy Story,” has made a cameo in nearly every Pixar feature film.Read More »Monster University Easter Eggs from Pixar
Google has a long running series where they bring in important authors and artists for a lunch length talk about their latest projects. Two of Pixar’s brightest stars — Director Dan Scanlon and Producer Kori Rae — took the short drive from Emeryville to the… Read More »Monsters University Director Appears at Google
Saschka Unseld, director of Pixar’s latest animated short, dishes on the making of The Blue Umbrella including the use of the new Global Illumination System: [W]e used the Global Illumination technology that Monsters [University] used as well. So that helped us massively in getting everything… Read More »How Pixar Used Light in its Short – The Blue Umbrella
I hope someone in Burbank is sending a big box of chocolates to Emeryville this week. Monsters University debuted number one at the box office with a take of $82 million domestic and $136.5 worldwide. That’s well above average for Pixar film openings, placing it… Read More »Monsters University Schools Competition at Box Office
Prior to Monsters University most audiences will be lucky enough to see the newest short from Pixar – The Blue Umbrella. It’s the least Pixar short of the series in terms of its photo-realistic design, but also somehow completely Pixar too. I don’t want to give anything away, but there is a definite connection between the world of the Umbrellas and Monstropolis.
It’s been 12 years since Monsters, Inc first made audiences fall in love with a short one-eyed monster and his giant fluffy blue friend. The kids that saw that film in theaters then have since grown up and are ready to introduce another generation of kids to the world of Monstropolis. But rather than making a sequel, Pixar decided to set the next film in the past.
“One of the challenges with a prequel is that by definition, everyone knows how the story ends. So it can be difficult to uncover the drama because we already know everything’s going to work out. It’s hard to define those stakes. You have to learn something new about the characters—which we ultimately do in ‘MU.’,” said director Dan Scanlon.Read More »Monsters University Shows Pixar Still Has The Magic