Pixar Visit 2011: Preview Post!

[NewsMaker]

Unless you currently follow me on Twitter, it’s unlikely that you know how I spent the last couple of days. I’d like to tell you a little about my visit to the wonderful fun-factory known as Pixar Animation Studios.

As was the case last year, Pixar held an extensive press event for its upcoming feature length film. In this case, all eyes were on Cars 2. You’re probably eager to hear what I thought about the upcoming sequel— more on that later.

This post is designed to give you a rough overview of the activities we were fortunate enough to partake in. Look out for more images and elaboration on the following topics over the next couple of months, especially in the weeks approaching June 24.

Before any of the bloggers and other media outlets got to see any kind of footage, we were treated to a surprise celebration commemorating the studio’s 25th anniversary. Directors, producers and other well-known Pixarians mingled among the visitors to chat about, well, just about anything. Look out for images of the "soiree" soon and see how many faces you can recognize!

After the meet-and-greet, I couldn’t help but be a little starstruck. Keeping my composure, I headed to the main theatre in order to check out the studio’s brand new short film, Hawaiian Vacation. I think everyone will enjoy it— it’s hilarious, punny and fast-paced, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

The next day we screened 26-minutes of Cars 2. Since the film isn’t finished, we aren’t allowed to formally review the footage. However, I can say that I absolutely loved what I saw! Whether you’re a fan of the original or not, I’m convinced that you’ll love the sequel. In other words, it’s a big step up in many aspects.

Cars 2: The Video Game (which I thought was a lot of fun) was also available to demo. Can you believe they’re releasing a 3D version for PS3?! Look out for my full thoughts on that as soon as I can get my hands on the full game.

We wrapped up the day with demonstrations as well as roundtable and one-on-one interviews with the film’s cast and crew. I think everyone will really enjoy what the talent had to say about Cars 2 and Pixar in general. In the future, look out for write-ups on John Lasseter, Michael Giacchino and Larry the Cable Guy, just to name a few.

So much cool stuff was packed into two days that I couldn’t possibly write it all in one post. Look out for in-depth articles as we get closer to the release of Cars 2.

To wrap this up, I’d like to thank everyone at Pixar and Disney publicity for making this event possible. I’d also like to extend gratitude towards all the Pixarians that made my visit extra pleasant by being all-around kind folks.



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