Interview: Mark Walsh, Pixarian and Partysaurus Rex Director

Today, I had the opportunity to interview Pixar's Mark Walsh, the director of the latest Toy Story Toon, Partysaurus Rex! Partysaurus Rex is showing now in America, alongside Finding Nemo 3D - although they don't arrive here until March (unless you can attend the VIEW Conference that is). However, I was able to watch the short online, via a secure link, just prior to our interview, and it's great (I'll post a quick review later)! I've loved all of the Toy Story Toons, but this is definitely the most original one yet.

Thanks of the highest magnitude, again, should also go to Pixar's PR king, Chris Wiggum, for setting the interview up!

Mark is a lovely, down-to-Earth guy, who went out of his way to ask me about my own life; and his enthusiasm and zeal for the characters and the short was abundant. In our conversation, visible after the jump break, Mark and I discuss his inspirations for the short, basing it around Rex, his other work for Pixar, working with Pixar Canada, Finding Nemo 3D, the future and more!

New Brave Clip and Bloomberg's Visit to Pixar

After yesterday's high, it's back to business as usual today, and we have two new great Pixar videos for you. Firstly, above you can see the latest clip from Pixar's upcoming summer release, Brave - via AOL. Although a large portion of the footage you can see here has been seen in previous trailers, this is yet another straight-forward clip from the film; allowing us to get a feel of how the film flows. It looks pretty great, showing the deft blend of comedy and intensity that we've been promised for Brave.

And secondly, Bloomberg have a great mini-video chronicling their recent trip to Pixar and what they observed on what makes the studio great. In the video, we see the Pixar team (including Chris Wiggum, the kind gent that helped set up my interview with Enrico Casarosa), as well as a look at John Lasseter's office. The creative genius behind Pixar and Disney Animation recites his famous quote, "The art challenges technology. The technology inspires the art.", as well as sharing some touching words on the passing of Steve Jobs. The video doesn't seem to want to embed, so you can watch it here.

Via Upcoming Pixar.

Interview: Enrico Casarosa, Pixarian and La Luna Director

Yesterday, I had the chance to speak to the very talented, very kind and very friendly Enrico Casarosa via phonecall, from Pixar. Enrico recently directed the Emeryville based studio's latest short film, La Luna, which will be paired with Brave this summer, and is now working on Bob Peterson's film, The Good Dinosaur. Despite his very busy schedule, Enrico was kind enough to accommodate me for 20 minutes of interview yesterday.

I'd also just like to take this opportunity to send out a huge thank you to Pixar's publicity king, Chris Wiggum, the kind gentleman who helped to arrange this all for me. I've admired Pixar from afar (as I'm sure you all know) for several years, so to get the opportunity to interview someone from the studio was phenomenal and was definitely one of the highlights of my year so far! It meant the world and I'm extremely grateful to Chris, Enrico and anyone and everyone else involved.

Points covered in the interview include: the story process for La Luna, it's accompanying book, the Pixar Shorts Collection: Volume 2, The Good Dinosaur and the studio in general. Read the full interview after the jump break: