Countdown to the return of The Dream of Pixar

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I apologize to all readers, I am sorry to announce that The Dream of Pixar will be down for a couple of months due to certain conflicts. The Dream of Pixar official Twitter page will still be up, so check for updates! Any further questions may be sent through the “Contact” page.

Countdown to pixar: 91 days left & final touches on Cars 2 film were made today

©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

Remember in high school when you worked on that essay that your pesky teacher assigned to you, and you didn’t finish until time reached the AM that night, or you worked for hours on end coding a new website, or that time when to impress your boss you worked hard on every little detail of a presentation you were asked to present to a group of employees. Remember how you felt when you finished? That great feeling of accomplishment is one of the greatest emotions you will feel in life. Think back one of your biggest accomplishments, then multiply that feeling you had afterwards… by a hundred!

Today was the last day of animation on “Cars 2″, the last frames, rendering and touchups were made. The level of excitement that is within the Pixar campus today can only be imagined. “Cars 2″ has been in production for about 4 years now and today it is finished! Just in time also, there is only 91 days until the release of “Cars 2″. There wasn’t much time left to finish all the frames, rendering, and final touches. John Lasseter, the animators, and the rest of the staff that worked on “Cars 2″ have worked day and night, thousands of hours, sometimes even running on only coffee at times creating this film. They have given this project their all.

I would just like to take this time to congratulate all of those who worked on “Cars 2″. Without a doubt, this film will receive a great amount of recognition once it is released. Because of all the hard work all you (the staff at Pixar) have done, I know you deserve all awards and recognition that you will recieve. Congratulations Pixar, I’m extremely looking forward to seeing the film on June 24th.

It’s finally done! Time to celebrate

Here are what a couple of Pixar animators who worked on “Cars 2″have to say:

(Click images to go to animator’s twitter page)

Connect with other The Dream of Pixar readers and Pixar fans!

The Dream of Pixar blog Community site (click image to go to site)

Normal blogs are usually one-sided “conversations” with the writer(s) and their readers. Or maybe it is two-sided where the reader can send personal messages to the writer, but that’s it. What about readers communicating with each other, talking to other readers who share the exact same interests as you? Nope, unfortunately, hardly any blogs do allow readers to easily communicate with each other. Now it’s time to break that trend! The Dream of Pixar has set up an external site where The Dream of Pixar readers and fans can communicate with other readers and fans. You can talk about the article you read that day, or the next big Pixar project you’re excited about, anything! The best part is you are communicating with other readers with the same interests as you.

Once readers have set up an account on The Dream of Pixar Blog Community site readers can…

• set up a profile page (even with status updates, just like Facebook)
• Post or comment on Pixar-related forums
• Send personal messages to other readers
• Chat with other readers
• Become a fan of The Dream of Pixar on Facebook
• Follow The Dream of Pixar on Twitter
• And so much more!

Click here to go to the community site and become a member of The Dream of Pixar today!

Cars 2 countdown: 93 days & a look at the promotional action Pixar is taking

©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

New Cars 2 poster was released this week that featured Lightning Mcqueen in the lead, followed by debut character Finn Mcmissile, behind is the well-known and loved Mater, then last is another new character that will be introduced in this sequel named Holley Shiftwell. The background was taken from the original teaser poster and set at an offset angle. It seems that Finn Mcmissle and Holley Shiftwell are on Lightning & Mater’s side, but with this film centering around the action and thrill of secret agents you can never be too sure. This poster is for promotional purposes only.

Another major project Pixar has done in promotion of Cars 2 is the Agents On A Mission Tour that is presented by State Farm. Yesterday marked day #1 for the worldwide tour that will hit cities like:

• Toronto
• Phoenix
• Philadelphia
• New York
• Boston
• Washington, DC
• Miami.

Original unofficial Cars 2 poster issued by Pixar ©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

In this exciting tour fans will come face-to-face with their favorite characters in their life size forms as well as the actual cars they were modeled after. Other activities that fans will get to partake in is a video kiosk, e-photo opportunities, Cars-themed games, and of course plenty of giveaways to lucky fans. This is definitely an event that any fan young and old shouldn’t miss. I don’t think all of this commercialism that Pixar is putting out is tacky, I see it as a great way for fans to get excited about the release in a way they wouldn’t be able to before. With working on this film for a couple of years animators and other Pixar staff have grown close to the characters, they have a close connection. Now it’s our turn, by coming face-to-face with the characters!

Below are images of the life size cars (click image for full)

©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

©Disney/Pixar. All Rights Reserved.

 

Is Steve Jobs about to lose his position at Disney?

Institutional Shareholder Services of Walt Disney Co. are starting to consider whether of not if Steve Jobs is capable of holding his current position of being a member of the foundation’s board of directors at Disney. Due to his health issues within the past couple years that included his constant battle with pancreatic cancer along with his 2009 liver transplant. On top of all of that he has recently been on a leave of absence due to his physical state, missing several board meetings. Of course all of these absences were understood and excused on account of the unfortunate circumstances Jobs has been under, however ISS has demanded a more detailed explanation behind the pattern.

“Jobs’s poor attendance in three of the past four years, and recent leave of absence from his primary employer, raises questions about his ability to fulfil his responsibilities as a director of the company,” ISS said in a statement to shareholders.

Despite Steve Jobs’ health problems, Deputy director Brandon Rees of the AFL-CIO office of investment voted against Steve Job’s being a member of the foundation’s board of directors at Disney continuing any further. He says that his involvement with Apple is an additional conflict of interest with his position on the Disney board, that Steve Jobs has his plate too full.

“We would consider that as a reason to vote against a director,” Rees explained.

Other members of the foundation’s board of directors at Disney and should be and were understanding of Jobs’ conditions. However, the way I see it now it’s not whether or not they have compassion for Jobs, it’s how much his absence has hurt Disney. I do agree with Rees, Disney can only have so much compassion before their decisions of keeping Jobs on the board start to harm Disney. In the best interest of Disney, I believe that Jobs should be replaced. This is hard to say, knowing all that he has done for Pixar, let alone Disney. But business is business. Because of his incredible talents, Steve Jobs can never be replaced, but someone else must take his position for the good of the company.

reference: http://www.digitalspy.com/celebrity/news/a310495/steve-jobs-to-lose-disney-board-position.html

The Cars 2 Countdown: 95 days

Today 2 new Cars 2 characters were released, both you may recognize The first is Jeff Gorvette (none other than Jeff Gordon):

Official Description:

Jeff Gorvette is one of the greatest American racecars alive today. Donning the stars and stripes of his country’s flag, the #24 Corvette C6.R has proven his ability to succeed on the big ovals and the road courses of the Grand Touring Sports circuits. Having moved from his hometown of Vallejo, California to Indiana to be closer to the racing world, Gorvette’s ability to accelerate at such a young age has turned hoods wherever he competes. His championships and number of victories are unmatched, making him a respected competitor—and legitimate threat—at the World Grand Prix.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nNwFzmOZRGU

• Fun fact: during animation the animators at Pixar positioned the cars on a rotating surface to get full 360 view, similar to how you would showcase a car at a real-life car show.
• Fun fact: Jeff Gordon will be voicing his own character, of course.

The second character that was released today was Darrel Cartrip.

Official Description:

Darrell Cartrip is a legendary multi-Piston Cup champion turned beloved racing announcer. The Kentucky-born #17 Chevrolet Monte Carlo is known for his wild color commentary, delighting Piston Cup fans with his humor, charisma and signature catch phrases—”Boogity, Boogity, Boogity! Let’s go racin’ boys!” He’s spent years on the track, in the pits and in the grease, and he’ll tell you all about it. This American Southern gentleman knows what it takes to win, and plans to bring that fervent expertise to calling the World Grand Prix.

• Fun fact: Darrell Waltrip will be voicing his own character.
• Fun Fact: Darrel Cartrip was a character in Cars, will he play a bigger role this time around?

 

A look at Michael Giacchino’s style of music

Michael Giacchino has composed the scores for Pixar’s “The Incredibles”, “Ratatouille”, and “Up”. By listening to all of Giacchino’s songs in the compositions for “The Incredibles”, “Ratatouille”, and “Up”, I’ve noticed several patterns in Giacchino’s style that recur in his works, even when given different themes in the different films. Giacchino seems to be more comfortable with violins that are positioned at the base of the “pyramid”, instead of traditionally having the melody at the top of the “pyramid”. This style is not quite common in music, but of course this structure in balance has been used many times before. Giacchino also tends to have flutes or piccolos at the top, having the melody in many of his songs. This is normal in the “pyramid” sense. However, Giacchino seems to favor the flutes just a little bit more than the trumpets, clarinets, and saxophones. Giacchino did at times write parts for saxophones that were playing majority of the length of songs in a score, especially in “The Incredibles” (this can be explained by the fact that the overall style of “The Incredibles” score was jazz, which usually features saxophones and trumpets). But when the flutes come into the song, despite the saxophones, they contribute more to the song. By the parts they were given by Giacchino, they seemed to be featured in a more important way than the saxophones.

Another style that Giacchino has used are muted trumpets that either share or have the melody of the tune. A mute is inserted into a trumpet to contain the sound in that small, round, enclosed mute, this changes the overall sound of the trumpet. This style of using trumpet mutes was very popular during WW2. In his use of trumpet mutes Giacchino portrayed an sense of being in an old-fashioned state. Giacchino’s style was fitting especially for the film “Up”, where he used this technique the most, since the film centered around an older man who most likely grew up during the years were muted trumpets were popular in music.

“I think my writing has an old-fashioned feel to it, for whatever reason. I’m just so influenced by the music that I listened to growing up, a lot of it out of the 60′s, so it has a natural tendency to feel like it’s from another era.”-Michael Giacchino