I had the good fortune of attending a virtual roundtable with Pete Doctor and Bob Peterson, the director and co-director of Pixar’s latest film, UP.
Up comes out on DVD and Blu-ray November 10. You can pre-order it here on Amazon.com.
Below is the question and answers from our round table. This is provided without editing, exactly as it appeared:
Q: One of the most amazing things in “Up”, I think, it’s the treatment of the love story between Karl and Ellie, this is a true love beyond death. Could you explain us the development of this cruzial storyline?
Bob Peterson: Great question. This love story was the spine of who movie. When we develop these films we look for themes that guide us in how we tell the story. As the process of writing progressed, we realized that our main theme was “How does a person define adventure?” Is adventure out there in great deeds, or can it also be between people in the small moments that make up a life. Karl and Ellie’s love story helped us tell that theme – that small moments lead to a life’s adventure.
Q: What was your favourite sequence in the film, and why?
Pete Docter: I personally like the part we call “Married Life” — the wordless section showing Carl and Ellie’s life together. I think it plays to the strengths of film and animation in general, letting the visuals tell the story. And it seems to hit home for people. The bookend to this sequence is also one of my favorites — where Carl looks through Ellie’s adventure book (towards the end of the film).
Q: Bob, Dug is definitely an interesting character. Do you have fun voicing him? His characterizations are very engaging and likable. Do you ever see a feature film around Dug?
Bob Peterson: Thanks!! It was a thrill for me to voice him, mainly because I have been a dog owner/lover for my entire life. This dog collar idea let us animate Dug with true dog behaviors. I crafted Dug’s voice around how I talk to me dogs. “Hiii you dawgs,” I’ll say with that Dug like voice. I also love how my dogs are interested in the simple things in life – balls, treats, SQUIRRELS!! Dogs to me have a soul – they’re very emotional and I’m happy to pay homage to dogs with this character!
Q: Where did the character of Dug come from? What inspired that character?
Bob Peterson: The reason for Dug being in the film is that we wanted to give Carl a new family after his wife passes on. We essentially gave him a family dog, a grandson…and a 12 foot flightless bird. You know, a family! It is up to Carl to accept this new family in the body of the film, thus doing what his wife would have wanted – to move on and forge new relationships. Originally Dug and Kevin were with Carl alone (before Russell was created). Carl had noone to talk with so we invented the talking dog collars! Thanks, Dominic.
Q: Which character from UP do you find that you most relate to?
Pete Docter: I relate most to Carl. I find myself griping about how they changed this or that, or how music these days is a bunch of noise. I’m going to make an excellent old man.
Q: Of all the exotic locales in the world, why did you choose South America as the place of Carl and Russell’s big adventure?
Bob Peterson: We wanted our locale to reflect and resonate with Carl’s emotional state in the film. The Tepuis, or table top mountains, of South America are old, isolated, rugged, dangerous but with a soulful beauty – a pretty good description of Carl! Going there gave us a good sense of what it would be like for Carl and his friends to be up there. In the film, we used a great many plants and rock shapes that we saw from the Tepui.
Q: I’ve read a lot about the character of Carl as inspired by actor Spencer Tracy, but not so much about the source of Charles Muntz. Could you confirm if, in some way, it is inspired by actors as Errol Flynn or Clark Gable, funny adventurers?
Pete Docter: Yeah, we looked at Spencer Tracy, Walter Matthau, James Whitmore… as well as our own grandparents. For Muntz we modeled him on strong, 30’s era adventurous types — Errol Flynn and Walt Disney were two inspirations, as well as real life adventurers like Roald Amundsen and Percy Faucett.
Q: Is there anything about the movie that you’re still not satisfied with? If you could go back and change one thing about the movie after the fact, what would it be?
Pete Docter: Hey Folks, Pete here. We’ve trained ourselves to look for ways to improve our films at every turn. As John Lasseter says, we never actually finish our films, we just release them. So yes, every time I watch UP I see things I would change… cut out two frames here for better timing, add another gag there… but overall I am happy with it. (I’d better be after 5 years of work).
Q: Watching one of the special features titled “Adventure Is Out There”, I was surprised to find out that six of the crew were left behind until a helicopter could return after weather conditions cleared up. Curious, were you guys scared out of your wits having to stay huddled inside the “Lou” during the storm, or did you all embrace the weather conditions and think “how are we going to incorporate this into our film”?
Pete Docter: Bob and I were lucky enough to be in the first two helicopter trips, so we were already down when the storm closed in. I was in the last copter shuttle, and when we flew out we saw huge storm clouds closing in. The pilot said, “That’s going to be the last trip up here for today.” Uh oh… Once down, someone got us food, but we felt too guilty to eat, knowing our pals were still up there. I had stood in the Lou during an earlier downpour and it was pretty cramped quarters. I can’t imagine anyone would have slept at all had they been stuck there — neither the group on the mountain nor the group back on the ground! All part of the adventure I guess.
Q: With “Up” being a film that is so adventurous and exciting, if there was a ride or attraction for “Up” at Disneyland or Disneyworld, what would you both like to see?
Bob Peterson: Pete Docter is so tall, that I think we could build a ride around him! Just string a gondola or ski lift up over his head, and you’ve got a great ride!! So far no plans for an UP ride, but of all of our films, with its adventurous flying and travel, UP seems like it would be a natural. As the voice of Dug, I’d love to have Dug appear in the theme parks somehow!
Q: Was there a draft of the script before you took this research trip, or was it more of a treatment/outline, which was shaped by the locations?
Bob Peterson: We had a few drafts under our belt before we headed South. We workshop all of our stories until right before the film comes out, so we had some key elements of the story that were still in flux – mainly Charles Muntz. We hadn’t figured out why he would go to South America and stay there for so long – the idea of Kevin the bird therefore was still being developed. We wondered about making Kevin more magical – the bird who lays golden eggs, or contained the secret to eternal life. In the end, we went with a more “conventional” primitive bird who’s bones cause Muntz’ Geographic society to doubt his credibility.
Q: It isn’t the first time Pixar chooses an old man as first character in a plot, I remember the wonderful short “Geri’s Game”. But could you talk us about the challenge of the conception of a character like Carl, an lonely old man, in this film?
Pete Docter: Yeah, Geri’s Game was great — I got to animate a shot on it and was surprised by the challenge of animating an older guy. One of the biggest problems was to break habits we have as animators; we generally try to loosen up movement with things like overlapping action and nice fluid movements. Watching real old men, we noticed there is a stiffness that comes with age — your bones fuse and you tend to be less flexible. So we came up with some rules for ourselves: Carl can’t turn his head beyond 15-20 degrees without turning his upper torso, for example. He can’t raise his arms too high. Then we also wanted to have him grow more flexible at the end, so he transforms into an action hero and rejoins life.
Q: Did you consider using other animals than dogs as companions for Muntz?
Bob Peterson: Not really. We felt that dogs could play a wide variety of roles in the film just as dogs do in our lives – from loveable companion to enforcers. Ulitimately a dog’s unquestioning love fit well with what Carl needed in the film – to accept new relationships in his life. And simply…DOGS ARE THE BEST!!!
Q: In an earlier interview, Pete Docter said he modeled Russell after Pixar’s Pete Sohn and a boy in his son’s Boy Scout troop. Has the “real” Russell seen the movie, and if so, what does he think of it?
Pete Docter: Hey Edward. Russell’s namesake, my son’s friend, was happy with the film but told me we should add dinosaurs and a spy subplot to the story. (This is why I didn’t show it to him until we were finished.) Jordan seemed to like it as well, though said he didn’t really recognize his own voice.
Q: In the Up Blu-Ray, you talk about being inspired by a drawing of a grumpy old man holding balloons. At what point did you realize you had a movie, and not just a premise?
Bob Peterson: I think the first pitch to John Lasseter when we made him cry (with no visuals!) did we think we had the emotional underpinnings of the story!! Storywise we had finally cracked Carl’s motivation for escaping life – that he had lived an amazing relationship with his life that ended in something not quite completed. It’s a good feeling when you find that nugget of truth in your story. Humor and characters will come in and out of a story, but that nugget will remain.
Q: In conversations with Ronnie del Carmen and Peter Sohn, they both talked about the advantages of collaboration: animators adding stuff you wouldn’t have thought of. Are there any scenes in particular where somebody gave you an idea that was better than you originally intended?
Pete Docter: ALL of the scenes got better in animation! But there were certain parts that really came to life once we started in animation — like where Russell climbs up Carl in an attempt to scramble up to the house. All the business of him stepping on Carl’s nose and stomach was stuff we added in animation. The Bird was another one that was fun to animate. Tony Rosenast was the story board artist, and he came up with really funny stuff for that scene where they meet Kevin, but pantomime characters like Kevin just come to life once you get them moving.
Q: What do you think it is the most important adventure in life?
Bob Peterson: The great thing about this film and any film we work on is that it contains truths taken from our lives. Pixar lets the directors create an “autobiography.” in other words, things that are important to us make it into the film. I do believe that the greatest adventures happen between me and my kids, my wife, and in small moments. A morning around the kitchen table eating breakfast is an adventure in my house!!!!
Q: Hello! I´d like to know, from both of you, how does your children feel about your job…I believe they think it´s great to have a father animator.
Pete Docter: My kids don’t seem to think it’s unusual or unique. They probably think EVERYBODY works at a company where they ride scooters and eat candy. They’re going to have a rude awakening when they graduate…
Bob Peterson: I have 3 kids who each feel differently about my job. My 14 year old has now grown up with 10 pixar films. She loves what I do but doesn’t want to brag to her friends – she wants to keep it “cool.” At the same time she is taken by the glamour of Cannes, and the Oscars and wants to go with me to these events! My 7 year old is a good story sounding board for what is funny to kids. He loves to analyze the humor in our films. My 4 year old is confused when she hears my voice coming out of dogs and monster slugs!!!
Q: To Bob Peterson – did you model Dug’s character after any real dogs you know?
Bob Peterson: Of course! I’ve owned a lot of dogs in my life – Marcela, Rusty, Petey Pup, Precious, Rosy and Ava. Each were in love with life’s simple pleasures, but being people in dog suits, as they seem to be, they each had a defined personality! Rosy, my present dog is very interested in squirrels!!