Pixar Canada is officially open – they completed the Air Mater short there and all other Mater Tall Tales shorts will be created and produced there.

Inside Pixar Vancouver

The old, cobbled streets of Gastown led the reporters to Pixar Canada studio on Water Street. The 30,000 square-foot facility, a 110-year-old building, houses the 75-person Academy Award-winning computer-animation giant. Inside, Pixar art was everywhere, with character portraits hanging on the walls. “There’s history that goes way back with Pixar, back into the Point Richard days,” Pixar creative director Dylan Brown said. “It’s important to remember that history and to be and feel a part of it.”

Rob Gibbs, director talks about CARS and Mater Tall Tales …

“There have been times when (Pixar chief creative officer) John Lasseter has come up to me and said, ‘You know, kids love monster trucks and they love professional wrestling. Can we put those together and put Mater in there and throw McQueen somewhere in the middle?” Gibbs said.

“Going from the drawings, the early storyboards, to seeing them animated…it’s taking it from a kind of 2-D drawing to this three-dimensional thing,” he said. “So many more possibilities happen in that stage. It’s really exciting.”

As a youth, Gibbs was inspired by the Looney Tunes. He still revisits the Warner Bros. cartoons as a reference for his short films today.

“I love the old Popeye cartoons, Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. I wasn’t interested in some of the flatter animation that was being done in the 70s, 80s, but I loved some of the more classic, and of course all the Disney films. That was a huge inspiration,” Gibbs said.

“For these shorts, we’ve gone back and looked at some of the timing of Bugs Bunny and learned from that.”

You can read the entire story at the Vancouver Observer.

Apparently they had no troubles finding employees for Pixar Canada – imagine that … hard to believe. Must be the free cereal bar. 🙂