If you have heard any of the growing buzz coming out of the Cannes Film Festival, you will probably not be surprised to hear that Pixar has done it again. That buzz is about to become a deafening roar by the time it gets to the United States. Pete Docter’s Up is going to be one of the most beloved films of not just the season but the year. We'll be back soon (next week) to review the actual film but we got a wonderful, exclusive sit-down with Docter, the director of Up and Monsters, Inc. and part of the legendary brain trust at the most influential animation company since Walt Disney brought a mouse to life.

MovieRetriever: Let's start with 3D. Was Up authored in 3D?

PETE DOCTER: We came up with the story and were working on it for quite awhile before 3D entered into it. Once we sort of took on the 3D, we set up a whole 'nother group that studied as many films as we could - the pitfalls and the successes of 3D. We tried to learn from all the films that had come before us and what makes it work. The things that were important to me as a director was not distract people with 3D. You don't want to pop them out of the movie by going "ooga-booga." We basically said, "Okay, the screen is like a window and you can see into it but let's not bring too many things out." That adds a certain sense of depth and I think, for a lot of people, they feel more transported into that world. Hopefully, it's not distracting to the point of popping you out of the film and it's a more immersive experience.

MovieRetriever: What was the biggest challenge on a design level?

DOCTER: The degree to which we caricatured things, which was pushed compared to any other Pixar film. We've always pushed caricature but in this one Carl is like three heads tall, which is quite stylized. Even his house - they seem like very realistic textures, but they're basically like a dry-brush. Even the leaves in the jungle, it looks like someone went through and very theatrically painted. It was finding the balance between theatre and believability. We designed Carl's house first. We built a miniature of the house interior and built all these little models and painted them. It really helped inform how we would build them in the computer. Then when you get to the wilderness, you can't have that looking like a craft project. It has to be believable. You have to feel the wind in your face and smell the jungle. It was finding the balance between those two extremes.

MovieRetriever: I adored Ratatouille and WALL-E, but they both faced a little bit of criticism as to not being really directed at kids. This movie is about the spirit of adventure and child-like wonder and features a child protagonist. Was there a conscious attempt to make a film more directed at children after two that were more arguably for adults?

DOCTER: It's tricky. We're always directing the films at an audience. You want to make sure it communicates to people and has something to say. But, at the same time, it's a real director-driven studio, so the films are kind of like where we are as people that end up in the movies. So, it was just kind of the expression of Bob and myself as we developed this one as it has a balance of comedy, action, adventure, and that emotion that hangs it together and supports the other.

Director Pete Docter.

MovieRetriever: Let's talk about that. If this is an expression of where you are as a person, how so?

DOCTER: I love all the comedy and goofiness that is obtainable and that you do in animation - talking dogs and the weird, quirky qualities of the bird that was based off going to the zoo and watching a crane for two hours and thinking it's entertaining and that I want to animate that. And yet, without some sort of base of relatable emotion I don't think you end up taking that stuff with you. It's fluff and it goes away. I'm probably most proud of the sequence toward the beginning of the film that shows [Carl & Ellie's] life together. I think that is really cool. It was fun to work on and I certainly credit Bob and Ronnie largely for that. Bob had done these beautiful beats telling the story. We kept pulling them back and editing them down. Initially, they had dialogue and were like little scenes. And then we kept working it and refining it and I'm real proud of that.

MovieRetriever: There's a clear desire on Carl's part to escape reality. I can't think of a non-corny way to put this but I'm interested in the creative development so ... what makes YOU want to tie balloons to your house and escape reality?

DOCTER: For me, I'm just not an extroverted person. I think a lot of us became animators because talking to people is kind of scary ... especially girls. So it's easier to draw. It's easier to just communicate through drawing. It's a way to communicate with people. It was really hard becoming a director on Monsters, Inc. because up until then I had a chance to withdraw to my office and animate. As a director, you're thrust out and you're talking to people all day. And at the end of the day, I just want go hide under the bed or something and talk to nobody. This film was kind of born out of that.

MovieRetriever: What films or stories inspired this one, visually or thematically?

DOCTER: There are a lot of influences and I think this is true of all of the films that we do. Once you kind of figure out the story you're telling, you end up looking at films both good and bad. We looked at how other people have dealt with the subject matter. This one is no exception. We looked at The Station Agent, a great, simply, character-based story of a guy who's much like Carl, who comes out of his shell. Casablanca is a similar kind of story. Visually, in a lot of ways, we were trying to reach back to the films I grew up with that I loved like Lady and the Tramp and 101 Dalmatians. Movies that had a beautiful simplicity to them and a focus on character.

MovieRetriever: Do you guys see non-Pixar animation? Do you guys keep an eye on what your competitors are doing?

DOCTER: Yeah, we try to. With this one, I've been so busy that I haven't seen films in the last year. We try to go see what's going on. What I love - I did see Coraline, which I think is a great, very unique vision. It's great when you see people that have a very strong, different something like Henry [Selick] does. And to see that out there ... I would love to see more diverse stuff like that.

MovieRetriever: It's been nearly fifteen years since Toy Story. What's changed at Pixar since then?

DOCTER: Has it? (Laughs.) A lot of things have changed. It's a huge company now relative to where it was. There were about 150-200 people on that movie. We have nearly a thousand now. We had no idea what we were doing and we... still don't. That hasn't changed much. Every time we think, "Now we know what's going on," something else goes wrong. All things considered, this film did pretty well, the production did a really good job of scheduling things out. Nobody had to kill themselves or work too hard relative to the other films. Toy Story 2 - we re-did the whole story nine months before it came out. That was a lot of overtime for people. Everybody cares so passionately about what they do that they want it to be great. They can't just crank it out. It's against their nature. We try to consider all that in planning and scheduling.

MovieRetriever: Is that what separates Pixar? The passion enough to give yourself injuries - is that why Pixar has excelled where other companies have not?

DOCTER: I can't say that people at other companies don't care as much.

MovieRetriever: What's the secret?

DOCTER: Well, a couple things. One, we're run by a filmmaker - John Lasseter. When he says something, you know he's coming at it from the experience of having done it himself, which is really valuable. We have a system where people are selfless about giving up their own time, their own energy, their own comments. Brad [Bird] will be off in the middle of directing something and we'll drag him in to watch this movie and he'll spew out all these great ideas that I get to use and then I'll do the same with whoever comes along next. Between that and the philosophy of "If you don't make mistakes, you're not taking enough risk." We're sort of expected to fail along the way. It's expected that we're going to falter and pull the emergency cord and get everybody on board to make this good.

MovieRetriever: Do you guys ever worry about the other shoe dropping? No empire can reign forever and do you worry about the day that one of your films doesn't connect critically or commercially or is that something that you can't worry about?

DOCTER: All we can do is make the best film we can. You never quite know how people are going to respond. There's a lot of things that contribute to the success of something beyond whether it's even good. There are plenty of examples of lousy films doing great and vice versa. There's a certain amount of just good fortune as well as a ton of hard work and commitment on everybody's part to make these as good as they can.

MovieRetriever: Can you confirm or deny Monsters, Inc. 2?

DOCTER: I can neither confirm nor deny it. (Laughs.) Sorry.

MovieRetriever: Can you let us know anything about future projects?

DOCTER: Toy Story 3 is coming out in a year - next summer. Now more than ever there are more varied and diverse films in the pipeline than we've ever had. It seems like there's just a great variety and diversity of things that you're going to see stretching out into the future.

Up opens on May 29th, 2009