 It's not every day one gets to tour the Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA, and when you are called upon to visit the famed location, you take it! We were lucky enough to get that call and we rounded up the Adventurers and headed to Emeryville, California, the home of Pixar Animation Studios.  If we had to describe the Pixar Studios we would compare it to a 20 acre college campus. It's truly a community. Pixar moved from Richmond to this beautiful location in Emeryville in 1990. Our tour started at 11:30am and of course we were super excited so we arrived at 11am. After a 30 minute selfie session out side the front gate we headed to the check in with the guard. We showed our ID's and got our visitor passes. and proceeded to the Steve Jobs Building.  As we walked along the path to the beginning of our journey, we passed a Cars 3 logo painted on the ground. Ummm how cool would it be to drive over that every day and they do change it per movie. SO MANY QUESTIONS!!! Then we rounded the corner and saw the the giant Luxo Jr and Luxo ball. Luxo Jr. is Pixar's equivalent of Disney's Mickey Mouse. The inner Pixar fan screamed and ran over to take pictures. Oh believe me, we asked if it was ok first. No need to get booted out 2 minutes after walking through the gates. Directly across from Luxo Jr is the Steve Jobs Building. Walking inside was almost overwhelming, we caught ourselves holding our breaths. We thought of all the greatness that walked through these doors and hoped it was contagious. We saw our Pixar contact, thanked them profusely for the invite again, signed our NDAs (non disclosure agreements) on a cool iPad check in system, and began to soak it all in. Looking around we saw the middle of the building is a very big open hub. There is a huge cafeteria called Cafe' Luxo which provides amazing food for Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner! There is also a kitchen for the employees who bring their own lunches. We saw the doors to the big in-house screening room that employees and their families can view movies or early screenings of Pixar hits. A huge mailroom...and yes Monsters Inc. jokes of "maybe we could start in the mailroom" were made. The first thing we saw was a glass case with some of the awards that Pixar had won. Getting to see an Oscar is impressive, getting to see an Oscar that upclose for a movie we've worn out the DVD on is unreal! We saw the Finding Nemo Oscar! It's so impressive!  Now the important parts of Pixar are a no photo area, which is good, we hate spoilers! As we walked through the halls looking at the art work for Finding Dory, we really learned the history of the Pixar Process. How a movie starts from a story idea, to text treatment, script, storyboard, to voice talent, reels, models, animation, shade, lighting, rendering and of course the final touches and musical score. We liked the various sculptures and storyboards on display, but loved all the first concept drawings of what could of been or even thank the heavens they didn't choose that! It was fun to also see drawings and to see how much it was changed or adapted for the film. We loved all the detail that went into each film as well. On the wall was the actual map for the Marine Life Institute from Finding Dory, now thats going in depth! One of the things that we noticed on the tour was how the employees are encouraged to decorate their office, and decorate isn't quite a word that does them justice. It's totally a "decorate with what inspires you" feel and the results are awesome! We saw offices with walls of hundreds of toys to crazy art to tiki collections. What a cool way to foster creativity! Since we were there during work hours we didn't take pictures of the artists working! As we explored the campus we saw the other ways that Pixar cultivates employee creativity. Pixar provides many options for their employees to clear their head or get the creative juices flowing. I think we all know about how hard it is to break a creative roadblock and sometimes a different setting, a swim in the pool, or a little yoga can do wonders for pushing past that roadblock and making magic happen. We walked the amphitheater outside that they use for events, the massive soccer field for a quick game of Futbol', a lap pool, a basketball court, an outdoor grill area and awesome fitness center. We appreciate how from the crazy cool offices inside to the epic fun outside, adventure...and inspiration is out there! Pixar also has some of the most amazing art hanging on its esteemed walls that has us wondering how can we afford, much less find wall space for it! We also found many great photo-op spots!  Who's your friend that likes to play?  Who wants to set a scare record?  The Dash Likes!  I loved you in Fairy Dream Adventure, Part 7. Okay, bye. I love you! We loved visiting the Pixar Animation Studios and felt very fortunate for the chance to visit. Not only did we grow up with Pixar, they continue to impress and excite us year after year, film after film. We loved understanding the process of how the movies are brought to life, from beginning to end, and then put onto the big screen and into animation mythology. If you ever get the chance to visit, don't just jump...fly to it! To infinity and Beyond! Of course don't forget...Adventure is out there! |
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April 2017
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