Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue is the follow up movie to last year’s successful animated film Planes. Last month while visiting Disney Toon Studios, I got a chance to watch planes fire and rescue and meet the masterminds behind one of this summers must see movies for kids, Bobs Gannaway and Ferrell Barron. They were both so gracious to meet with us and excited to share the movie with the world.
How much time did you spend at National Parks Institute?
A lot of time. Yellowstone and Yosemite are the two Parks, you can see there are a lot of Monuments in there that are kind of taken from both. Waterfalls I think from Yosemite, our Art Director spent a lot of time there obviously, taking a lot of pictures. We met with a lot of Park Rangers who toured us around and Old Faithful Inn, our Lodge is based on the Old Faithful Inn, Yellowstone. So we got to take a quick trip and didn’t have enough time. It was one of those Vacation trips where everyone’s cramped in a car. Griswolds like. Speeding to one location, jump out take pictures, speed to another. And you see places in the park that a lot of people don’t get to see which was really a lot of fun.
We were driving through Yellowstone and there was a sign that said Boat Rentals. And I went, Oh Look, Boat Rental, Boat Reynolds. So you know, just the littlest tiny thing will inform, you know, big choices. And even something no one will even get which is the Railway — Railway Station that’s hooked to the Grand Fuselage which is the best pun in the Movie. Um, the Railway Station is actually based on a Railway Station that no longer exists that was the North Side, North end of, um, Yellowstone, that was designed by the same Architect as the Old Faithful Inn.
Who was the Chips Fan?
Well you know, it was the easiest thing. I just had to change one vowel and it worked perfectly. In looking to tell a story that was different from Planes, I wanted a mentor Character who was fully realized, not broken. Skipper in the first film, Dusty helps heal him. I wanted someone who fully realized, had come to terms with the change in their life, like what happened, and then could distill that wisdom onto Dusty at a time when he needed to talk him off the ledge.
So I just used the idea like he used to play one on TV and now he does it for real. I just thought that’s such a fun thing and then I don’t know how we thought of Chips and Chops. And then we got Eric Estrada to come in and play Nick Lopez and he was like awesome and that was fun. And then you brought in Firemen. Did you have to go and get any other, um, Fireman. I heard you brought in a Jumper or something.
Smoke Jumpers, yes. So Smoker Jumpers we brought. They’re in the US Forces Service. Obviously, Cal Fire, LA County Fire. We brought in an Oil Analysis which is really interesting when Dusty has his mishap, his kind of heart attack. It was fun to realize that when that really happens. It can actually happen when gear starts shredding in an Airplane, they release metals into the Oil and that’s how they analyze it and they analyze the oil and find out kind of metal is in the oil, which will determine what part of the Engine is faulting.
So it goes back again to the research, bringing in as many Consultants as we can to help every aspect of the Movie that related to the Story, to bringing truth to it all. The Flight is of course, as with Planes, the Flight is all accurate. We had the same team, the same Consultant Jason McKinley who made sure the flight was accurate. We have Helicopters in our Movie and we brought in Chuck Aaron. Chuck Aaron is the top Helicopter Pilot in the world, you’ll see the amazing things he does. He flies the Red Bull Helicopter.
The only one of two Pilots in the World who does an inside loop in a Helicopter, actually goes upside down in a Helicopter. He trained the other guy and Helicopters aren’t supposed to go upside down and he does it, so it’s pretty amazing. And he actually took us out and did an inside loop in the Helicopter with us so you get the feeling of what it was like to do them, to do that. All the people we met, the Fire Fighters are everything you think they are. They were amazing, giving, caring, courageous people, so charming, and so giving with their time and wanting to help. It was really a wonderful experience and they’ve become friends of ours now.
Because of that, we really took this Movie to heart. We really put it on our shoulders and we wanted to tell a story that really paid a Tribute and gave homage to Fire Fighters. Again, we saw the Tribute at the beginning of the Movie to Fire fighters around the world cause there real. So they were all so honored to be talking with us and being a part of the film, helping tell their story.
What kind of research did you do to get the fire to look so realistic?
Cal Fire provided us with a lot of great footage. This was probably the biggest undertaking we’ve ever tried here to Disney Studios was this FX Movie. 53% of our Movie I had Visual Effects and the joy of that is Fire, Smoke, and Water. So when Bobs first pitched this to John Lassiter and he saw that first image, they knew we had to get on, call R&D Research and Development right away on the fire.
Cause it’s essentially a Character. So you want to be sure you’re developing this Character that it looks real. He was very specific. He wanted it to look real and not fake. So that was our first thing. And in the Effects world, Fire is a fluid simulation. It’s one of the most difficult things you can do. It takes a lot of time to get it right and then can also bog things down because it’s so heavy.
There was a lot more Adult Humor in this Movie.
Crazy you caught that. You know, when you do these and we have Multiple Screens. We put the first reels up and I wondered if people would be able to get that because it requires a little bit of Math. Like Oh this is a popular Show and Blade had this hoist that he uses often and so it’s so popular they decided to create a little game out of it where every time you use the hoist to take a drink of Oil. So I’m glad you got that because it requires a little bit of quick Math in your brain.
It’s so much fun crafting these worlds, It’s so much fun so I’m glad you picked up on that. And the humor. You know, we want to make it entertaining for everyone and again, you make the Movie for yourself and I let the Characters say what the Characters would say, you know. We’ve hopefully created real characters that have personalities that are true and to be honest and it sounds a little pretentious but there is a point where you Characters start to kind of speak and say what they would say.
Interesting Fact:
The director Bobs Gannaway is from Oklahoma, which is where I am from. It was really fun chatting with him about our love of one of Tulsa’s iconic restaurants Coney Island. It’s always nice to see a fellow Okie doing great things.
Planes Fire and Rescue is definitely a movie that you will want to go and see with your family. It’s got the same look and feel as the first Planes but it is a totally different movie. It’s got a great message (like most Disney Pixar movies) which is one of the things that I love most about these animated films. I’ll be bring you a few more posts including my review of Disney planes fire and rescue so be sure to check back over the next few weeks.
Disney Planes: Fire and Rescue opens in theaters everywhere July 18th!
“Like” Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
“Follow” Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE on Twitter: https://twitter.com/DisneyPictures