Richard Crouse interviews “Inside Out” star Phyllis Smith.
“I started out as a professional dancer. A show dancer. No stripping, but there were plumes, feathers, g-strings and all that. I was also in two ballet companies, a jazz company. I studied modern dance. That was my passion. I always wanted to be a dancer. Not necessarily an actor. When I came to LA I had an injury and I knew logically it was time for me to make a switch in my career because I was getting older. It was hard to make that decision. For dancers at a certain age there is not a lot to fall back on. So I just did what I had to do to pay my bills. I worked as a receptionist. I worked at a movie theatre. I’d go to my nine-to-five job then I’d change my clothes and get to my movie theatre gig and work the box office until eleven o’clock at night. I did that for three years.
“Before I got to LA I worked for JC Penny in the warehouse tagging the merchandise. I don’t think they do it anymore. I used to stand there and tag thousands of fishing lures or bowling balls or roller shades, which were heavy as hell to lift around. The people were great to work with but the merchandise was a little challenging. I used to stand there, thinking about life, wondering what it is we all have in common because we’re not all given the same opportunity. Some people’s health is impaired when they’re born and they don’t even have that to start with and others are charmed with intelligence or looks or whatever they’re given. I thought, ‘There has to be something that we all have. A commonality.’ I figured out that it’s the ability to love. We all, in some form or another, to love and be loved. That was my big revelation. My lightbulb moment. Also to make sure if you’re standing on a concrete floor to make sure you’re wearing comfortable shoes or you’ll pay for it later.”
The visionary director of Pixar’s Up and Monsters, Inc. joins us for this onstage interview to discuss his extraordinary career in animation and screenwriting — which includes collaborations on Toy Story and WALL-E — and his upcoming animated feature Inside Out, featuring Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling.
Pete Docter joined Pixar Animations at the age of 21, and has since become a creative force behind the studio’s string of hits, including the Toy Story films (supervising animator), A Bug’s Life (storyboard artist), and WALL-E (story treatment). In 2001 he made his feature directorial debut with Monsters, Inc., which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature — a prize Docter would eventually take home for his acclaimed sophomore film, Up. He joins host Richard Crouse to look back at some of these extraordinary career highlights and chat about his upcoming feature Inside Out, which is voiced by an all-star cast: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, and Lewis Black.
Docter returns with producer Jonas Rivera to introduce a special screening of their smash-hit animated adventure, Up, on March 23 at 9:15pm.
‡This screening is eligible for our Rush policy. Ticket holders must arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the screening in order to ensure entry. If this event goes Off Sale, tickets will be made available to the Rush line 10 minutes before the start of the screening.
The visionary director of Pixar’s Up and Monsters, Inc. joins us for this onstage interview to discuss his extraordinary career in animation and screenwriting — which includes collaborations on Toy Story and WALL-E — and his upcoming animated feature Inside Out, featuring Amy Poehler and Mindy Kaling.
Pete Docter joined Pixar Animations at the age of 21, and has since become a creative force behind the studio’s string of hits, including the Toy Story films (supervising animator), A Bug’s Life (storyboard artist), and WALL-E (story treatment). In 2001 he made his feature directorial debut with Monsters, Inc., which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature — a prize Docter would eventually take home for his acclaimed sophomore film, Up. He joins host Richard Crouse to look back at some of these extraordinary career highlights and chat about his upcoming feature Inside Out, which is voiced by an all-star cast: Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, and Lewis Black.
Docter returns with producer Jonas Rivera to introduce a special screening of their smash-hit animated adventure, Up, on March 23 at 9:15pm.
‡This screening is eligible for our Rush policy. Ticket holders must arrive at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the screening in order to ensure entry. If this event goes Off Sale, tickets will be made available to the Rush line 10 minutes before the start of the screening.
IN CONVERSATION WITH… PETE DOCTER AT TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX ON MARCH 23 Pixar Animation Studios’ Academy Award-winning director joins Richard Crouse for a special onstage conversation
Toronto – TIFF welcomes Pete Docter, Academy Award®-winning director and Vice President, Creative at Pixar Animation Studios, for a special on stage conversation on March 23at 7 p.m. where he’ll discuss his extraordinary past projects — including Up, Monsters, Inc., WALL•E and Toy Story. Host Richard Crouse and Docter will also discuss the director’s new film Disney•Pixar’s Inside Out, featuring an all star cast of Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Bill Hader, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan.
Following the In Conversation With… appearance, TIFF presents a screening of Up, introduced by Docter and producer Jonas Rivera. Tickets for these two events go on sale on March 4 for TIFF Members and March 11 for public.
Starting at Pixar in 1990 as the studio’s third animator, Docter collaborated with John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton in developing the story and characters for Toy Story, Pixar’s first full-length animated feature film, for which he also was supervising animator. He served as a storyboard artist on A Bug’s Life, and wrote initial story treatments for both Toy Story 2 and WALL•E. Aside from directing his two films, Up and Monsters, Inc., Docter also executive produced Brave and Monsters University. Upon joining Pixar, he animated and directed several commercials, and has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Animated Feature-winner Up and nominee Monsters, Inc., and Best Original Screenplay for Up and WALL•E.
Docter’s interest in animation began at the age of eight when he created his first flipbook. He studied character animation at California Institute of the Arts where he produced a variety of short films one of which won a Student Academy Award. Those films have since been shown in animation festivals around the world, and are featured on the Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 2.
For ticket information visit tiff.net. TIFF prefers Visa.
Chefs are the Food Network’s stock in trade. From Bobby Flay to Giada De Laurentiis, and Iron Chef to Top Chef, the delicious channel has created a cult of celebrity around the people who make our food.
A new film, Chef, takes a celebrity, actor Jon Favreau, and casts him as a restaurateur who has lost his way and desperately wants to reclaim his cooking cred.
In the film, he plays Carl Casper, a Los Angeles chef who hightails it to his Miami hometown when his fancy restaurant gets a scathing review from an online food critic (Oliver Platt). There he buys El Jefe Cubanos, a food truck he plans on driving across the country with his son (Emjay Anthony).
High on food porn — there’s even a shrimp scampi seduction scene — and Cuban sandwich recipes, Chef is a movie that may whet audience appetites for other movies about the people that make our food.
In The Big Night, Stanley Tucci plays Secondo, owner of an Italian restaurant called Paradise. The place is slowly going broke but may get a boost from a visit by singer Louis Prima. If Prima shows up, the restaurant will have a big night and be saved from bankruptcy.
It’s not only one of the greatest food movies ever made (you’ll want to go for risotto afterward) but it also features what Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers called “an unforgettable acting duet” between Tucci and Tony Shalhoub, who plays his temperamental chef brother, “that is as richly authentic as the food.”
Ratatouille takes a different approach. An unusual cross between America’s Next Top Chef and Willard, the Pixar movie does something no other film has been able to (not that a lot have tried): It makes rats cute. Lovable, even.
The story of a cooking rat is chef and TV presenter Anthony Bourdain’s favourite food film. “They got the food, the reactions to food, and tiny details to food really right,” said The Taste host, “down to the barely noticeable pink burns on one of the character’s forearms. I really thought it captured a passionate love of food in a way that very few other films have.”
Real chefs are featured in the documentary Spinning Plates. Weaving together three stories from a trio of very different restaurateurs, the film shows the personal and professional side of the food biz as well as the connection to the community that’s so important for success.
It cuts through the Food Network’s simplistic food-family-and-feelings approach with a tagline that sums up its philosophy: “It’s not what you cook. It’s why.”
Ratatouille could do for rats what March of the Penguins did for tuxedo clad furry birds. An unusual cross between America’s Next Top Chef and Willard, the movie does something no other film has been able to, (not that a lot of have tried), it makes rats cute. Lovable even.
Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) is a sophisticated rodent with a highly developed sense of smell. While his rat brothers and sisters are happy to simply survive by scavenging through the garbage, Remy has loftier goals. Using a recipe book called Anyone Can Cook by the famous French television chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett) he teaches himself to read and realizes that he was born to cook saffron scented mushrooms, not eat rotten apple cores from the trash.
His love of food almost gets him and his nest killed when a kitchen raid goes horribly wrong. In the ensuing panic he gets separated from his flock, floating downriver on his beloved cookbook until he ends up in Paris. Stumbling across the restaurant of his idol, the recently departed Gusteau, he puts his refined nose to good use and secretly adds spices and ingredients to rescues a soup that had been ruined by a bumbling employee named Linguini (Lou Romano). The soup is a hit, and Remy partners-up with Linguini to create more dishes. To paraphrase UB40, “there’s a rat in then kitchen and Linguini don’t care.” Intrigue follows when it is discovered that Linguini may be a relative of the late great chef Gusteau.
Ratatouille is the most visually spectacular of all the Pixar (the people behind the Toy Story films, Finding Nemo and Cars) films. Saturated in rich colors the action scenes in the busy kitchen as Remy assists in the making of soups and such while trying to avoid detection are breathtakingly beautiful. Intricately choreographed and exquisitely detailed these kinetic kitchen scenes absolutely sparkle—large copper pots bubble over with delicious looking sauces, vegetables are chopped by expert hands, waiters move to and fro, while a team of chefs labor over hot stoves. It’s a frenzy of action that will make your eyeballs dance.
As usual Pixar pairs the visuals with a solid, funny story populated by interesting characters. Director Brad Bird has given Remy a real personality, giving the ‘lil chef an endearing and funny non-verbal vocabulary of nods and shrugs to communicate with Linguini. When he does speak to the other rats (in English, no one in this French restaurant actually speaks French) he actually has something to say. Bird and his co-writers avoid the trap of so many other animated films that mistake clever pop culture references for dialogue. As a result the movie has the classic, timeless feel of old school Disney family films.
The relationship between rat and man—Remy and Linguini—however unlikely, is nicely realized and offers up a family friendly messages about friendship and cooperation. The characters are aided by nice voice work from Janeane Garofalo as the smart and oh-so-French Colette, Ian Holm’s psychotic chef Skinner, and Peter O’Toole’s as the snotty food critic Anton Ego who is reduced to tears by food that reminds him of his mother’s cooking.
Ratatouille is Pixar working at the top of their game. It’s a delicious feast for the eyes mixed with a timeless, charming story.
The phrase “golden age of animation” conjures up images of Mickey Mouse in a sorcerer’s costume, Snow White and Bugs Bunny. The words remind us of a long ago time before jaggedly illustrated television cartoons like Rocket Robin Hood or The Flintstones replaced elegant hand drawn art. As fuzzy and nostalgic as my memories of those cartoons are, though, I’d argue that we’re in a new golden age right now, a gilded era of fantastic animation spearheaded by a group of picture wizards based not in Hollywood, but the out-of-the-way city of Emeryville, California. In each of their ten feature films Pixar has raised the bar so high few—live action or animated—have been able to match their skill with imagery or story. Their latest, Up, is a crowning achievement and the first animated film chosen to open the Cannes Film Festival.
The movie is a touching comedy adventure involving 78-year-old retired balloon salesman Carl Fredricksen (voice of Ed Asner). After the passing of his wife Ellie and the impending destruction of the home he shared with her, Carl decides to belatedly make their dream of exploring South America a reality. He ties 10,000 balloons to the house in an attempt to float to Paradise Falls, a place he’s only ever seen on a map. Once in flight Carl discovers he has a stow-a-way, an eight-year-old Wilderness Explorer named Russell (Jordan Nagai). Reluctantly Carl brings Russell along for the ride and together they share adventures in the Venezuelan jungle.
Finding Nemo screenwriter Bob Peterson has crafted an epic but personal story about rediscovering humanity, dealing with the loss of a loved one and finding a sense of purpose. It’s a subtly complicated story that gently introduces adult themes into an art form generally aimed at kids. Binding together elements of everything from A Christmas Carol to The Wizard of Oz and Fitzccarraldo, Up manages to be somewhat familiar and yet startlingly original all at the same time.
By mixing high tech state of the art computer generated images with the most old fashioned form of communication—superior storytelling—Pixar has created a film filled with that certain something generally missing from lesser animated efforts like Aliens vs. Monsters—a sense of wonder. The screen is filled with imagination, something that should appeal to all members of the family.
It’s also by turns hilariously funny and achingly tender.
Up is probably the most emotionally manipulative movie Pixar has ever made. Near the beginning Carl and Ellie’s life together is played out in a tour de force sequence that will bring a tear or two to your eye. When was the last time a cartoon made you cry?
Add to all that great voice work from old pros Ed Asner and Christopher Plummer and some good, deep genuine laughs and you’ve got the best movie of the year so far.
Brave, the new Pixar princess movie, feeling as though the story was familiar, that was on purpose.
“We wanted it have that feeling where you wonder, ‘Was that a real fairy tale?’” says producer Katherine Sarafian. “Because it feels like a classic, dark ancient tale but told in a new way.”
Director Mark Andrews adds that it took years to fine-tune the story. “We didn’t really have the story done, done-done-done-itty-done-done in all its permutations, until December of last year.” He says. “In the last three months I honed it. That happens by watching it over and over and over again.”
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“The film will tell you what it needs and it doesn’t need much,” says Sarafian. “It doesn’t need every bit of dialogue ever recorded. You need to get the point across.”
The inspiration for the story of Merida (voiced by Kelly Macdonald), a flame-haired tomboy-turned-princess, who clashes with her mother and learns that you have to be careful what you wish for —especially when that wish is granted by an absent-minded witch — came from a number of sources.
“There are stories about people changing onto animals,” said Andrews. “There are stories about asking for a wish and it going wrong and teaching you a lesson. There are all those aspects of it in different pieces so we built this thing from scratch; pulling ideas that we know have worked in other places.”
The final stop before theatres is the head office of Pixar, home to hits like Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3.
“The people I have to show the film to have been through it,” says Andrews. “They have Academy Awards, so if they say, ‘I smell a rat,’ I have to get back in there. They are the best guys to have on your side. I want their response.”
“Our bosses are creative,” says Sarafian. “They have all directed, rather than having suits or business people make the decisions by focus group or budget. They’re making decisions based on what they find entertaining based on their experiences and training.”
The result is a classic feeling film, with no pop culture references. “We didn’t want to be glib,” said Sarafian, “we want generations to watch it.”
Richard Crouse interviews “Inside Out” star Phyllis Smith.
