I work with a company that does a lot of product tie-ins for Disney and Pixar. While working on a video game based on Up, I was invited to see a very rough draft of the film - only some of it was fully animated, a lot of it was rough animation or simply storyboards. They’d very recently rewritten the final act of the film - they didn’t even have storyboards ready for it, apparently, because shortly after Carl and Russel find the blimp, the houselights came up and one of the animators came out and did just what you describe - he acted out the film’s end for us.
It was an interesting insight into Pixar’s process in a lot of ways, particularly in terms of what scenes they animate first. For example, one of the few fully animated scenes we saw was the brief clip of the girl playing in her apartment when Carl’s balloon’s float by, and the room lights up in the balloon’s colors. While I’m sure there were some minor tweaks between the preview and the premiere, the scene was essentially fully complete, while more important scenes such as Ellie’s death, or meeting Dug for the first time, were still in storyboards. I suppose there’s a more prosaic explanation, but I came away with the impression that they just really, really loved that scene, and couldn’t wait to animate it.
Funny, I’ve always felt that what set Pixar films apart from other animated features is that they didn’t do this. A lot of the voices are easily recognizable, sure, but very, very rarely does it come across as “stunt casting” the way it does in Dreamworks or Fox animated features. I mean, nobody goes to see a movie just because its got John Goodman in it, or Craig T. Nelson. They’re celebrities, in the sense that most people would recognize them as “that guy from that thing,” but they aren’t draws in and of themselves. It seems pretty clear that they write the films first, and then cast actors who best fit the roles they’ve created, without much regard to the actor’s star power.
I mean, Billy West and Maurice LaMarche are great talents, no doubt, but I have a hard time seeing them do a better Buzz Lightyear than Tim Allen. And Tim Allen is nothing like a great talent - his voice just happened to be perfect for the character they developed.
I’ll grant you, The Incredibles was better WRT my complaint than most. I did think Craig T. Nelson and Holly Hunter were perfect for those roles.
Nelson is hardly a “star” though. He just fit the role. Good for him. I enjoyed his character.
Holly Hunter - while she fit her role perfectly, it again, was basically her just playing Holly Hunter. Compare her role in O Brother - it’s a very similar character.
I do agree with Miller - Pixar doesn’t do “stunt castings” like some of the lesser animation studios. I dunno - I just find it a bit lazy to use a well established celebrity voice for a character.
I would love to see Billy West tear it up in a Pixar Flick.
Similarly, I loved Patton Oswalt in Ratatouille - I think he actually did a proper voice. I didn’t even realize it was him until I wiki’d it.
Helen Parr and Penny McGill the same character? Man, I don’t see that at all. Similar roles maybe, in that they’re both wives exasperated by their husbands, but I don’t think you could have gone further in two different directions with the characterization.
I use the Rich Little metric for determining if a casting choice is legitimate or not. This is where I ask myself, “Could they have replaced that voice actor with Rich Little doing an impression of that actor, without materially affecting the quality of the film?” (Dreamworks could have saved a bundle on Shark Tale.) Pixar almost always passes the Rich Little test. Tom Hanks may not have been stretching himself dramatically for the role of Woody, but he wasn’t just doing self-parody, either. I view it as more akin to writing a particular movie role with a particular actor in mind. There’s nothing wrong with tailoring a role to your actor’s strengths, in film or in animation.
On the other hand, it’s not a perfect system. Note to Pixar screenwriters: if you ever find yourself thinking, “You know who would be absolutely perfect for this role? Larry the Cable Guy!” then you desperately need another rewrite.
It was probably a good test segment for how the light passes through thousands of differently colored balloons. There are different crews working on different segments, and I’m pretty sure that scene was done early because it could have presented problems that might have taken some time and engineering to get right. It had no lead characters, no fur, no foreground soft, fluffy clouds. But it did have an interesting lighting challenge that would figure in a good percentage of the rest of the film.
That is an excellent phrase. I feel the same way about Billy Crystal, that Mike Wazowski was the least objectionable version of Billy Crystal. I shall use it frequently: “His role in Joe Dante’s Innerspace was the least objectionable piece of acting by the otherwise execrable Martin Short.”
