Interview: David A. Price, author of The Pixar Touch

Recently I had the opportunity, via e-mail to speak to the author of the brilliant book, The Pixar Touch, David A. Price and he, very generously, agreed to do an interview with me. Following on from my review of the book, which charts the origins of Pixar, David, who featured my review on the book's website, agreed to answer some questions for me, about his book, his thoughts and feelings about Pixar and what's coming up for him; read on after the jump break for the interview.

The Pixar Touch Review - A (David A.) Price-less Look at the Building of The Animation Gurus of Our Generation

This is going to be the first of a different breed of A113Animation Reviews, namely a review of David A. Price's insanely detailed chronicle of all things Pixar, about the turbulent rise to the top of Pixar Animation Studios.

The first thing to say is that this book has been out for a while now, first published not long after Ratatouille's original theatrical release in 2007, now with an updated epilogue that covers the release of WALL E. The book literally touches on practically every single detail of Pixar's history... ever... this book is insanely, absurdly, completely-over-the-top-ly detailed. I'm a massive Pixar mark myself and have at times have completely immersed myself into everything Pixar for weeks on end, yet, nonetheless The Pixar Touch taught me a thing or two (to understate it a million fold), a very trivial example would be that I had no idea that Ed Catmull was a Mormon! Price's devotion to the source material is, simply put, exemplary; he obviously spent weeks and weeks and years and years fully devoting himself to every little morsel of Pixar, and it shows. The level of detail is one absent from any other documentary or book I've seen out there, even more spectacular considering that it's based on a very secretive company.

BAFTA Predictions

Since it is the 2011 BAFTAs tomorrow night here in the U.K., it thought it best to - similarly to my Oscar predictions - give my humble predictions. As previously, the films I want to win are in bold and the films I think will win are underlined, more than one in bold or underlined means I can't decide, none means I haven't seen any of the films nominated:

BEST FILM

BLACK SWAN - Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin

INCEPTION - Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan

THE KING’S SPEECH - Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin

THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin

TRUE GRIT - Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Oscar Predictions

Since the nominations for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards have been revealed, I thought it would be a good idea to give my predictions for them. The films I want to win are in bold, the films I think will win are underlined. Categories with no bold or underlined entries means I haven't seen any of the films nominated.

Best Picture
'Black Swan'
'The Fighter'
'Inception'
'The Kids Are All Right'
'The King’s Speech'
'127 Hours'
'The Social Network'
'Toy Story 3'
'True Grit'
'Winter’s Bone'

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky, 'Black Swan'
David O. Russell, 'The Fighter'
Tom Hooper, 'The King's Speech'
David Fincher, 'The Social Network'
Joel and Ethan Coen, 'True Grit'

Best Actor
Javier Bardem, 'Biutiful'
Jeff Bridges, 'True Grit'
Jesse Eisenberg, 'The Social Network'
Colin Firth, 'The King's Speech'
James Franco, '127 Hours'

Best Actress
Annette Bening, 'The Kids Are All Right'
Nicole Kidman, 'Rabbit Hole'
Jennifer Lawrence, 'Winter's Bone'
Natalie Portman, 'Black Swan'
Michelle Williams, 'Blue Valentine'

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale, 'The Fighter'
John Hawkes, 'Winter's Bone'
Jeremy Renner, 'The Town'
Mark Ruffalo, 'The Kids Are All Right'
Geoffrey Rush, 'The King's Speech'

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, 'The Fighter'
Helena Bonham Carter, 'The King's Speech'
Melissa Leo, 'The Fighter'
Hailee Steinfeld, 'True Grit'
Jacki Weaver, 'Animal Kingdom'

Best Animated Feature Film
'How to Train Your Dragon'
'Illusionist'
'Toy Story 3'

Best Foreign Film
Mexico - 'Biutiful'
Greece - 'Dogtooth'
Denmark - 'In a Better World'
Canada - 'Incendies'
Algeria - 'Outside the law'

Best Original Screenplay
'Another Year'
'The Fighter'
'Inception'
'The Kids Are All Right'
'The King's Speech'

Best Adapted Screenplay
'127 Hours'
'The Social Network'
'Toy Story 3'
'True Grit'
'Winter's Bone'

Best Art Direction
'Alice in Wonderland'
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I'
'Inception'
'The King's Speech'
'True Grit'

Best Costume Design
'Alice in Wonderland'
'I Am Love'
'The King's Speech'
'The Tempest'
'True Grit'

Best Original Song
'Coming Home' - 'Country Strong'
'I See the Light' - 'Tangled'
'If I Rise' - '127 Hours'
'We Belong Together' - 'Toy Story 3'

Best Original Score
'How to Train Your Dragon' John Powell
'Inception' Hans Zimmer
'The King's Speech' Alexandre Desplat
'127 Hours' A.R. Rahman
'The Social Network' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Documentary
'Exit Through the Gift Shop'
'Gasland'
'Inside Job'
'Restrepo'
'Waste Land'

Best Film Editing
'Black Swan'
'The Fighter'
'The Kings Speech'
'127 Hours'
'The Social Network'

Best Makeup
'Barney's Version'
'The Way Back'
'The Wolfman'

Best Sound Editing
'Inception'
'Toy Story 3'
'TRON: Legacy'
'True Grit'
'Unstoppable'

Best Sound Mixing
'Inception'
'The King's Speech'
'Salt'
'The Social Network'
'True Grit'

Best Visual Effects
'Alice in Wonderland'
'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1'
'Hereafter'
'Inception'
'Iron Man 2'

Best Documentary (Short Subject)
'Killing in the Name'
'Poster Girl'
'Strangers No More'
'Sun Comes Up'
'The Warriors of Qiugang'

Best Visual Short Film (Animated)
'Day & Night'
'The Gruffalo'
'Let's Pollute'
'The Lost Thing'
'Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)'

Best Short Film (Live Action)
'The Confession'
'The Crush'
'God of Love'
'Na Wewe'
'Wish 143'

It's certainly a packed show this year, I'm personally predicting that the films that will pick up the most Oscars are The King's Speech, The Social Network, Toy Story 3 and Inception. I'm personally pulling for Toy Story 3 and Inception. Also... what?... no Best Director nomination for Christopher Nolan or Lee Unkrich, they better be saving Chris Nolan's nomination for the Dark Knight Rises! 

The awards are set to take place on February 27th.

Toy Story 3 Awards

Toy Story 3 is starting off strong in its awards season, as well as all of Disney's Best Picture campaigning for the Academy Awards, today the National Board of Review announced their picks for 2010 and Pixar scooped up the Best Animated Feature prize for the 5th year in a row. It was also named as one of the top 10 films of the year, but it lost out to The Social Network.

Furthermore, the nominations for the 53rd annual Grammy Awards were announced, with Toy Story 3 and Randy Newman being recognised for Best Score Soundtrack Album. You can check out the full list of nominees here. The awards will take place on February 13th, 2011.