Posted July 27, 2010 by Robert Velarde.

There's a wonderful scene in Up when the famous Charles Muntz invites Carl on board his air ship. "We're not actually going inside the Spirit of Adventure itself?" asks Carl, hardly able to contain his excitement. "Oh, would you like to?" replies Muntz casually. "Would I!" giggles Carl as he readies himself for the tour, shuffling off at a brisk pace. As I approached Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California in anticipation of a tour, I felt a lot like Carl Fredricksen boarding the Spirit of Adventure. "We're not actually going inside Pixar itself?" I thought.

After the tour I described my state of mind as being in Pixar Zombie Shock, wandering about in a daze. Fortunately, my wife and two of my children joined me on the tour, amply photographing the event and capturing images I could only vaguely recollect later. Yes, I've seen video footage released by various media outlets of Pixar's headquarters. And, yes, I've seen The Pixar Story and had an idea of what to expect when entering the building. Still, walking onto the Pixar campus, following the path to the large Luxo, Jr. sculpture, and entering the building itself, left me in a smiling stupor that I would not soon recover from.

"What's that, we're going to eat lunch at Café Luxo? Yeah,

that sounds great." I could hardly believe I was at Pixar, sitting down for a delicious meal. I think my Pixar hosts were used to fans entering Pixar Zombie Shock during tours, so I was grateful for their kindness and patience. By the way, Pixar is a closed studio, meaning that, with rare exceptions, it is not open to the public. That's not to say, however, that Pixar isn't ready for tours. They have a number of displays and even a Pixar Studio Store that sells all kinds of Pixar-branded goodies. There were areas where photography was not allowed, so I can’t share any details about the amazing storyboard and other conceptual artwork.

Unfortunately, the main entrance to Pixar was closed due to construction. As my guide explained it, Pixar is adding a lot more room in order to house many employees who are currently in off site buildings, as well as to alleviate decreasing space in the main Pixar building. Although I wasn't told this, I suspect Pixar is ramping up its staff numbers in order to begin to release two or more movies per year. Both Brave and the sequel to Monsters, Inc., for instance, are scheduled for a 2012 release. Will releasing more than one movie a year reduce the technical or storytelling quality of Pixar films? I don't think so, but releasing more than one movie a year would explain the need for more people and more space.

Getting onto the Pixar grounds requires going through security. The polite security guards asked for my name, who I was seeing, and a photo ID to confirm my identity. A couple of minutes later a guard returned with printed name tags featuring a green alien from the Toy Story movies and a quote at the bottom that reads, "A stranger from the outside!"

After making our way through security we approached the large sculpture of Luxo, Jr., which stands about 20 feet tall in a courtyard area directly outside the main entrance to Pixar's headquarters. Not far from Luxo is his favorite toy, the beach ball from Pixar’s 1986 short film Luxo, Jr. Most people will recognize Luxo, Jr. from the animated logo that opens every Pixar movie. After entering Pixar there's a reception desk where visitors sign in, thus legally agreeing to a non-disclosure agreement lest any Pixar secrets be revealed prematurely.

We were then in a large, high-ceilinged atrium-like area. If you happen to own the Monsters, Inc. collector's edition DVD look for a fun tour of Pixar and you'll see what I mean (find the paper airplane contest footage and you'll get a good idea of the main atrium area). After lunch we looked around the main floor, which included a number of displays from Pixar movies such as Cars, Monsters, Inc., the Toy Story films, and more. It's also hard to miss a large trophy case housing Pixar's many awards including the 5 Academy Awards they have won for Best Animated Feature Film (rumor has it that some of the awards are actually replicas). There were several paintings featuring fantastic artwork from Toy Story 3 including Evil Dr. Pork Chop's flying pig ship.

Also on the tour was Pixar's famous employee recreation room. This area includes air hockey, foosball, a ping-pong table, video game systems, etc. We also got to take a look at the free cereal room, featuring all kinds of cereal for Pixar employees. If they need a sugar rush, they know where to go! I wonder if they have Cowboy Crunchies, the only cereal

that's sugar-frosted and dipped in chocolate? Around this area we also got to see a recent addition: a wall of employee photos in order of the original hire date. Who's first? Ed Catmull.

Upstairs and in other areas we weren't allowed to take pictures, but we were allowed to photograph displays featuring The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, etc. (at right Bruce peruses The Wisdom of Pixar). While I can't reveal any details of what we saw in some areas of Pixar, I can say that everything we did see was not only fascinating to learn about, but really reveals a lot about the intense process Pixar goes through to create every film they release. One Pixar employee we spoke to, for instance, works in the special effects area. She explained how the effects team works very hard on content that may only appear on screen for a second or less. The example she gave was of Barbie tearing some of Ken's clothing in Toy Story 3 and how a team of employees worked diligently to make sure the tears looked just right.

Another interesting fact we learned on the tour is that Steve Jobs apparently had ideas for the design of the building that included essentially dividing it in half, roughly corresponding to left and right-brained theories. Consequently, more overtly creative types such as artists, animators, etc., are housed on one side of the building, while the other side contains more technically-oriented people. I don't know how much I buy into the whole left or right-brained theories, but I suppose it makes sense from an organizational perspective.

And, yes, as you may have heard, the main bathrooms are in the atrium area, requiring many employees to make a trip there and, as a result, bump into other employees for unexpected conversations and creative collaborations (there are, however, other restrooms throughout the building). It's also true that many employees have the freedom to decorate their office space in all kinds of cool ways.

Touring Pixar Animation Studios was an amazing experience! As the author of The Wisdom of Pixar, I was already well-versed with Pixar and their movies, having been a fan since 1995, but touring their headquarters is an entirely different kind of experience. I found the tour fascinating, delightful, and, in some respects, eye-opening. Did I meet John Lasseter? Yes, we had coffee at Starbucks. Not really, but I'm told he's been on campus a lot more than usual due to his involvement in Cars 2.

If you ever get an opportunity to tour Pixar, all I can say is do whatever you can to make it happen! Like Carl Fredricksen boarding the Spirit of Adventure, I was a giddy mess, in a good way, throughout most of the tour.