Hello, everyone. I’ve been checking this website for a few days, and I finally decided to join you. The first thing I did here was to wish Brad Bird a happy birthday. It came late, but it doesn’t matter. Anyway, despite all, I felt I needed to introduce myself in a proper way, so I’m writing this.
My name is Tiago.
I’ve been a Pixar fan ever since I saw Toy Story in the movies, when I was 6. It was a great thing in my life. I already loved animation films, but this one was visually different from everything I had seen before. So bright and colorful, and so 3D. By that time, Toy Story was the greatest thing in the world to me.
Since then, I’ve been aware of every new Pixar movie that comes, and I know the order each movie was made and premiered in the theaters.
I came to this website so I can be more aware of more Pixar news that come around, but also to share my thoughts with other fans.
When I was 12, I discovered I liked to create stories. I tried to write them down, but I couldn’t make them as interesting on paper as in my mind. As I imagined them, I thought they would make good cartoons some day. So I tried to do some drawings.
Even though drawing is such a nice activity I like to write too. I enjoy reading, and I believe that whatever story I create may be better as a film or as a book. Pencils, pens and paper aside, Word, Paint and Photoshop are my personal choices. 
I’m exploring other programs as well.
Brad Bird is sort of a role-model to me. The Incredibles is no doubt my favorite Pixar movie. It has a great story, the music is cool and the animation rocks. It’s very well done. I love watching Brad Bird talking about his works or tell us about the film’s concept and production. When I watch this movie’s DVD extras, I usually get more excited when watching the Making-Of’s or the deleted scenes, listening to what Brad Bird says about the movie. There’s lots of stuff I can learn from him. The “animation is not a genre” and “the mundane and the fantastic” are some of his marks.
John Lasseter is a great guy too. He made an awesome job with his movies and shorts.
Andrew Stanton impressed me with Finding Nemo. But I think he’s really outdone himself with WALL-E. It’s better than I thought. 
I love the sci-fi, WALL-E’s and EVE’s designs, the story, everything is just beautiful. WALL-E is my second favorite Pixar movie. It’s a movie that makes us feel glad for being alive.
Monsters Inc. is another one of my favorite Pixar movies. The story was better than I could imagine. It’s thrilling to know that this film’s director is also directing Up.
From what I can see, the ambiance at Pixar is pretty good. They all look very open-minded and they even have fun when making a movie. It’s good that the employees enjoy working there. People can see that through the final product.
Pixar’s small video presentation… Oh yeah! I love it. It sure is something. I never get tired of watching it before and after the movie. Luxo bounces in, stops in front of the logo, bounces on the “I” smashing it just like he did with the famous red, blue and yellow ball, makes some sounds, looks at us, and makes a “click” sound when the lights go off. I love every sound, and mostly everything about this small video.
I’d like to talk a little about Pixar’s traditions.
- Pixar film references: It’s something I always loved about their movies. Flik saying “To infinity and beyond!”, instead of his original line, Geri repairing Woody, Luxo Jr.’s ball mostly everywhere, Jessie and the ball as two of Boo’s toys, Andy’s wallpaper in Randall’s camouflage training, a Buzz Lightyear action figure in Dr. Sherman’s waiting room, etc. It’s always cool to find one.
- John Ratzenberger: I know him from Cheers, so it was awesome to discover that the Cliff Clavin voices a character in every Pixar movie. The first time I noticed him was in Finding Nemo.
- In Memory Of…: It’s nice to pay a tribute to deceased employees. Pixar does that really well. They, not only tell the public about how amazing someone was, but also gives us some word of advice and encouragement through the employee’s career and life.
- Production Babies: It’s a family company. Most of the employees are parents. And they actually celebrate it, by writing in the credits the names of the kids who were born through the production of a movie. It’s like, for Pixar, a movie they create, which has been given lots of worthy attention, is like a plant, something that is as alive as them. It is, kind of, since the animators, writers, directors, everyone, have given a part of themselves to make the movie come to life. This is Pixar’s way of showing it.
- Pizza Planet Truck: So this truck appears in ALL movies?! I had no idea. I knew it was in the Toy Story films and Finding Nemo, but that’s about it. When I found out, I also read the truck was in The Incredibles, in the car scene. I also read it was blurry, but I expected it would be easy to see. I’ve looked for it, and I haven’t found it. But it must be there. I’ll just trust that story about Brad Bird not being too familiar with Pixar’s traditions, so he eventually added the truck in the final touches, in a very blurry shot, unfortunately. I don’t know exactly which one is it, there are several chances.
- A113: Say that again? Pixar also shows this in every single movie? That’s interesting. It’s a classroom number from CalArts, isn’t it? I only noticed it in The Incredibles, but back then, I didn’t know it meant something. BTW, nice going on the timing of this site’s opening. After I found out, I saw it in WALL-E. The truth is, who wouldn’t have noticed?
- Pixarian voices: I’ve read in their official site why this happens. It’s really interesting. My favorite one is Lou Romano, who voices Dash’s crazy teacher and Linguini, both funny characters, and coincidentally, both from Brad Bird’s films. The fact that is Brad Bird who voices Edna Mode and Ambrister is just hilarious. It sort of creates a new tradition: Brad Bird voices a character in every movie he directs. I’ll keep my ears opened. It’s cool that Pixar does this. It helps showing that their employees (who may or may not make a not so obvious job in a movie) are just as important as the directors or the voice actors. Employees lending their voices for a film… That is so cool!
- Teasers: I love these trailers. Seriously, why are they called like that? Is Pixar teasing / making fun of us by making us believe these scenes will appear in the film? Just kidding. My favorite is Ratatouille’s. I love it for Paris’ landscape, the part where Remy runs away with a piece of cheese and the waiter’s hand moving around the cheese tray, which is very funny, animation-wise. I also love the one for The Incredibles for the things on the wall, the music, the Incredi-phone and the lighting in the first half. Another one I like is WALL-E’s. I like the hand-painted artworks related to the movies Andrew Stanton is mentioning, and I like the music, although I think it’s from somewhere else. The teaser shows WALL-E unpacking himself. To me, that’s one of the best parts of his design. Watching him doing that (in the teaser and in the website) makes me want to build (and imagine how it would be like) a 3D model or LEGO creation of him, with that feature, along with all his other movements. I’ve always been fascinated for robots. The year where the lunch happened was in the same year my brother was born.
I only found out about these traditions recently, when I was reading about WALL-E on the web, before and after watching the movie. At some point, I stumbled on a list of “traditions” used in that movie, as well as in other ones.
With all these traditions, especially the easter eggs (or In-Jokes), the Pixar movies start to look like “Where’s Wally” books, which is cool, since I grew up with those.
Pixar must be really passionate about animating. So much that they take every new movie as an opportunity to give us a short film they made either a long time ago, or specially for this movie’s own theater release. No other animation company does that. And now, they make yet another short exclusively for the home release of a movie. This short has continuity with the movie, but I myself don’t find them so attractive. Let’s see how BURN-E goes. Since it has very little dialog, it probably will feel like the other shorts. I liked Your Friend The Rat, though. But the humor is different from the humor in the actual shorts. Seeing WALL-E there was cool. And it’s the first Pixar “thing” with 2D animation. We must give them credit for that. Jack-Jack Attack is creepy but still funny. The part where he turns into a red hulk-like thing is my least favorite of the movie, but all around it is good. Well, no movie is perfect. The famous Luxo Jr. / Andy’s room ball in the short is an interesting cameo. Exploring the Reef with Jean-Michel Cousteau wasn’t a short to me, it was just a featurette. Right now, I don’t really know what to call it. It’s not in the Short Films’ Collection. Either way, it’s the first film Pixar has made with live-action. Although, it may not be quite that, since it’s real footage with cartoons put in, like in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
Boundin’ and Presto are my two favorite shorts. Boundin’ was nice. The water effects are awesome, the music is good too, and it’s cool how Bud Luckey got inspired. Presto was funny. When I heard about it being about a rabbit, I thought the rabbit would be a gray version of Boundin’s jackalope. But it’s a small white fluffy rabbit. When he’s in the corner of the stage with that pointy hat on, it looks like he’s the dunce of the stage. 
The fact he’s upset and seating on a bench makes it even funnier. And the hat is purple, my favorite color. I love the rabbit’s fur, his animation, and his face expressions are classic, funny, cute and very cartoony. This film may be the funniest short I’ve seen in Pixar. 
And it’s visually beautiful.
Two years ago, I found out about Disney buying Pixar. I didn’t like the idea because I was afraid the Pixar name would no longer be shown, and that the movies’ quality would get mixed up with the Disney movies’ quality, which is a different kind. And it would be harder to tell a Pixar movie from a CGI Disney movie. Fortunately, everything worked out. I hope Steve Jobs and Ed Catmull are well in their new positions.
It’s good to be here. I hope I have a good time and I hope I can be helpful in anything.
I’ve been waiting for WALL-E’s release, and since it’s now on the shelves, I’m h«just waiting for Up to come to the movies. I hope more information comes soon. No dinosaurs in this movie but… Pixar has time. I’ve been waiting for Toy Story 3 since TS2. It seems to be the only Pixar movie worthy to have sequels. I don’t have anything to say about Cars 2. Pixar is good at making movies, and they don’t make sequels like crazy.
2D animation and 3D animation, I love both types. Pixar does an awesome CGI.
Pixar, as an animation company, is, no doubt, great and unique.