Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500189
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S 47
GR: …When we were doing Luxo
Jr., Ben was not available. So that
started my connection with Pixar.
My approach to Luxo Jr., which
became my approach to the Pixar
films after that, was to make it have
the effect of traditional Treg Brown
kind of cartoon sounds. The cartoon
sound world is broken down into
the Jimmy Macdonald versus Treg
Brown approach to sound. The
created cartoony sounds of the
Disney shorts, and the kind of real-
world rockets and ricochets and stuff
that Treg Brown used at Warner Bros.
shorts. So, to me, the Pixar films,
I wanted to do Treg Brown. Make
sometimes funny or personality
sounds from real things. So Luxo Jr.
made personality sounds from real
lamps. Or real springs. Or real metal
scrapes. So my approach to all the
Pixar movies was to make—if you
think of it this way—cartoony sounds
from real stuff.
SL: Right. Yeah, all of Treg Brown's
work was juxtaposing real-life things
into the cartoon world, which was just
marvelous.
For Toy Story... Is there any difference
in the approach for sound there than any
other animated feature?
GR: What was different about Toy
Story was that it was computer
animation. And I think that had
a different feel. If you look at the
classic Disney animated films from
the '80s and earlier, you wouldn't
hear—for instance—Foley.
SL: Right.
GR: Because it was lifted. More
abstract. It was music-driven, and
other special sounds … it didn't have
a weight and a reality to it. And Toy
Story was in the computer-animated
world almost insisted in having a
weight and a reality. And even in
Monsters Inc. and the others—
suddenly now you need Foley. You
need those kind of realistic sounds
to make you believe what you're
seeing, because it was created on a
computer! There's something about
a hand-drawn version of animation
that you can be a little more etherial,
and use what sounds you hear for
emotional reasons—but the Pixar
films, the trick was to put the kind of
realistic sounds in and make them
interesting as well. To me, the style
of computer animation called for a
different approach.
SL: You've had a chance to direct CG
films. I love Lifted. That was so much
fun. Was the spaceship console inspired
by a mixing console…?
GR: Oh yeah! And it's funny… I
always pitched that in my head as
"alien abduction as driver's ed."
When I drew it up, I had a student
alien, and a teacher alien, sitting at
two equivalent consoles. Because I
remember taking driver's ed, and the
teacher had his own wheel. And to
me, that was funny! John Lasseter,
bless his heart, he's the one who
said, "No! You're making a movie
about mixing consoles! You don't
even realize!"
SL: So it was his idea!
GR: It was his idea. So instead of two
consoles, we made one that was the
biggest one we could make, and it's
got 10,000 toggles on it…
SL: …With no labels!