“Up” director visits ONU, talks about importance of story

ADA — Though Pixar’s films are well known for crossing traditional film genres, the crew there doesn’t begin by thinking about how to make movies that will garner as many chuckles from adults as kids.

At Pixar Animation Studios, it’s all about character and story.

“You don’t remember a movie unless you’re emotionally affected by it,” said Bob Peterson, who wrote and co-directed “Up.” Peterson also voiced Dug, the film’s lovable speaking mutt who’s occasionally distracted by squirrels.

Peterson, a 1983 Ohio Northern University graduate, visited his alma mater Monday for the school’s Spotts Lecture series, reminiscing about his time there and giving an intimate look into the studio that has churned out 10 successful computer animated feature films, starting with “Toy Story” in 1995.

In the most recent, “Up,” the story centers on Carl, an old man who never quite lived his dreams who finds himself on a wild adventure.

As Peterson and the rest of the Pixar crew worked to develop the story, they drew inspiration from a home video Peterson had shot of his grandparents’ home after they both died about 25 years ago.

The otherworldly setting in “Up” also came from a very real inspiration — Angel Falls in Venezuela. The film crew spent time there taking photos, sketching and sleeping in caves. In order to develop the bird, Kevin, the studio brought in an ostrich to observe.

“We just look around us,” Peterson said. “We look at things that help us define character.”

Peterson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ohio Northern, joked that he decided to go to Ohio Northern for the girls, to play basketball and to study engineering. He got cut from the basketball team, but everything else turned out all right.

“Ohio Northern was great because they recognized I had interests on the side from engineering,” he said. In addition to his major, he took a course in computer graphics and was a cartoonist at the campus newspaper, both of which helped point him on his path to Pixar.

In his time there, Peterson’s gone from working on small parts of “Toy Story” to being a story artist on “A Bug’s Life” to story supervisor on “Monsters Inc.”

Everything Pixar does, he said, tries to find an emotional universal truth as the film’s lynchpin.

“First of all, it’s hard to find those, and when you do, usually people will resonate with the film,” he said. Only then does the crew begin working to assemble the humor, whether it be slap-stick or more cerebral.

Peterson said it can take three to five years to develop one of Pixar’s films.

“You’re working on less things, but maybe they’ll live forever,” he said.