Hey guys! First of all I’d like to apologize for never-ever posting here anymore. It’s been a busy year for me- I don’t have a lot of time on my hands anymore, but I thought you’d all appreciate a a cool story I have, about my recent run-in with one of Pixar’s animators. I couldn’t resist coming back for a bit to write it up for you guys.
Early in November, there was an Animation Festival in Downtown Everett, Washington (state)- where I live. I jumped at the first mention of an animation festival being so close to home. The festival itself was called ‘2D or Not 2D’, and the night I attended was dedicated to the appreciation of women in animation. (Something I myself was quite interested in, being of the girly-persuasion myself.)
When I first heard about the festival, I didn’t exactly read the ‘guest list’- but when I did, I almost had a heart attack. Not that I knew who she was back then, but still- seeing the name ‘Kureha Yokoo’ and ‘Pixar’ right next to her name, I immediately decided that I would go to this festival, even if it was the last thing I did. The chance to MEET a Pixar animator was just too awesome to miss.
So, around came November 2nd, and it found me decked out in all my freakish Pixar-fan glory. Cars shirt, skirt, and hairclips- complete with mini-Lightning McQueen (really, it’s like a McQueen plushie) backpack. Not to mention my Mickey Mouse sweatshirt and Nemo (again, plushie-like) purse. (I’m not obsessed with Disney- what are you talking about?!)
I sat down in the old theater it was set up at with my best friend (also a bit of an animation nerd, though not as much of one as I) and waited for the festival to start. I wasn’t sure what to expect, having never been to one before, but I have to say, it definately exceeded my expectations. The first part was an hour of really cute shorts, all animated or directed by women. Well- one of the shorts was, well… ridiculous, and awful… but the REST were really cute. I wish I could remember the names of my favorites.
After the screening, the first guest was Nancy Beiman. So the first cool thing about this awesome lady? She went to school with two of our favorite directors- John Lasseter and Brad Bird! And if I remember correctly, she was the ONLY girl in that animation class (I think there was one other girl who ended up dropping?). Oh my God, she is AMAZING! She worked on Hercules, Treasure Planet, and a lot of others… She’s a woman who really kind of works ‘behind the veil’ in animation I guess. I think only really hardcorehardcore animation fanatics/ animators know of her, which is kind of sad, because her resume is so extensive and her work is so amazing. So even though I attended the festival primarily to meet ‘the Pixar girl’, Nancy was a kind of hidden treasure I found along the way. (In fact, I think I actually enjoyed her presentation more than I enjoyed Kureha Yokoo’s, just because it was so cool to see the ‘old school’ stuff you don’t often get a chance to.)
After Nancy, this lady from Microsoft who works on Project Gotham Racing talked about PGM…4? Which looks pretty crazy awesome if you ask me… but obviously I was just antsy in my seat, waiting for Kureha Yokoo… and video game animation isn’t so much my interest, although her presentation was pretty cool too. (Sorry, I forget her name!)
ANYWAY- up next was Kureha Yokoo, an intelligent and hilarious animator from Pixar. Just to hit you guys right off with how awesome she is, I’ll tell you one of the scenes she animated in Ratatouille, and maybe you’ll have an idea. You remember the scene where Linguini is spazzing out with Colette WANTING to tell her about Remy… but then to stop him Remy shoves Linguini forward and he accidently kisses Colette? This girl animated that scene! One of my favorite scenes from Ratatouille, honestly. And she worked some big parts on The Incredibles as well. She seems to be most involved in Brad’s work at the studio, but what’s funny is that her first job was on A Bug’s Life. She got into Pixar when they were desperate, looking for crowd animators for all those hundreds of ants we see on screen. The thing that I found most interesting about her story was that she actually got into the studio pretty easily. She told us about how, after seeing Toy Story, she knew animation was her calling. She immediately got into the San Fransisco based ‘Academy of Art University’ (largly because she knew Pixar animators taught there) and started working. Apparently in one of her classes, she was the only student to finish her final- and that final short is what got her into Pixar. So really, she went into Pixar as a bit of a rookie, just out of school, and was able to work her way up after working on A Bug’s Life. I just thought that was cool, that she got to grow with the studio. Even cooler was how she talked about Brad Bird like they’re old friends. Jealous much?
After her presentation ended, so did that portion of the festival, so I went to where a few people were asking her questions and talking to her about Pixar and such. It actually kind of bothered me; these people were asking really stupid questions about Pixar… the kind of questions that made it obvious to me that they were just trying to impress her with their ‘extensive knowledge’ of animation and Pixar. People like that bother me; they only ask questions to look smart, not to have an actual personal conversation with the person. It was annoying- but as she started heading out to the front of the theater lobby, she caught me and my Nemo purse and said “Wow, you’re a fan! haha” and I was like “OH! Yeah, and I have Lightning McQueen too!” and I turned around and showed him to her and she was all excited. It was cute. Then I… sorta kinda followed her out to the front. Another person wanted an autograph from her, but then I got my chance to talk to her. Oh my God…
I was so nervous, I was almost on the verge of tears. I’m silly that way; it’s hard for me to talk to my heroes. But It was totally cool! She listened to me and we talked about college, she asked where I wanted to go and I told her I’d actually been thinking about the Academy of Art U if I couldn’t get to CalArts, and she seemed surprised that I was actually still a high school student (senior). She was so funny and intelligent though… I really adore Animators. They’re probably some of the coolest people on earth. I didn’t ask for her autograph though, and I did that on purpose. I wanted her to feel like I actually wanted to talk to her- and I did. ANYHOW… She’s just awesome. Next time you watch a Pixar film, look for her name in the credits!
And, well… that’s how I met Kureha Yokoo, one of the awesome ladies behind Pixar Animation. 
