Inside Pixar Studios

I’ve lived nearly next door to Pixar Studios for something like a decade, but it took a friend visiting from Moscow and a chance encounter with Jeff Pidgeon at APE to gain entry into that famous gate.

Here’s Sergey with Jeff and Sulley. Jeff has been working at Pixar Studios for over 18 years. He’s a storyboard artist, a voice over artist, a toy blogger and one of the most prolific (and non-discriminating) toy collectors around.

Jeff met up with us for lunch in the Pixar Studios cafe, and then gave us a tour of the current exhibit on storyboard and concept art comprising all three Toy Story movies. Sergey knew all the animation jargon, and I nodded, mentally filing the terms away for further investigation. After the tour, Jeff did this awesome sketch of his Happy Beaver toy with Sergey’s Moon Fox toy. (A resin Moon Fox is now in Jeff’s collection.)

I remained respectful of Pixar’s privacy regs regarding picture-taking, except for this one lapse when I had to geek out. You know you’d do the same thing. Thanks to Jeff Pidgeon for the toy chat and toy tour!