A Night Filled with The Good Dinosaur Research Trip Stories by the Campfire

While at Pixar Studios, I enjoyed a night filled with The Good Dinosaur research trip stories by the campfire and it was fun!!!



When we watch an animated film, we assume that it takes a lot of work to make it happen. We get that a lot of thought goes into the idea and then bringing that idea to life in a way that allows up to truly understand the story they are trying to tell. What most of us probably don’t realize is that they are so concerned about the accuracy of the places, lighting, look, feel, etc. that they do research trips to get a feel of it all. They even put themselves into situations so that they can experience their character’s emotion and state of mind in situations, like seeing what it feels like to be lost considering how crucial it was for the development of Arlo’s story.

The research trips are taken seriously but of course they have a blast in the process. They come back with stories and memories that they’ll treasure forever. Those are some of the stories we got to we got to hear from Director Peter Sohn, Producer Denise Ream, Supervising Technical Director Sanjay Bakshi and Director of Photography – Lighting, Sharon Calahan, by the campfire while we enjoyed BBQ & S’mores. Oh, and an actual guitar playing cowboy.



They shared the kind of stories that involve mention of that one time a member of the team almost died, the director getting tossed off a horse and coming face to face with animals, getting lost or losing your GoPro in a river only to have it found half hour later thanks to the tour guide (while it was recording the whole time). Their stories had me cracking up. I loved hearing hearing how situations they experienced or people they met along the way became a part of The Good Dinosaur story. Like when they stayed at an actual ranch with cowboys and cowgirls who listened to their father tell stories that later showed itself in the scene were the dinosaurs are sitting by the campfire telling stories or how they used Snake River as the “yellow brick road” of The Good Dinosaur.

As much as I loved the stories, the fact that they were being told be Director Peter Sohn’s made them even better. He has this energy about him that fills the room and draws you in. You can tell that he loves what he does and that without a doubt his team loved working with him on this project. They have a lot of respect for him, what he put into the film and what he invested into them as they brought his story to life. I, of course, had to take a picture with him.



*Also because he is the inspiration behind the look of Russell from the movie, Up. Can you see the resemblance?

I am super excited to see The Good Dinosaur with my family when it hits theaters on Thanksgiving!