Pixar animator drawn to Newport school

NEWPORT BEACH ? Jay Ward has made two movies in the time it took many Newport Heights Elementary School students to do ? well, everything.

In the past eight years, the average third-grader at the school has gotten out of diapers, learned to walk, grown a few feet and accumulated a stack of homework papers. In that same time, Ward has completed only two movies, but he’s hardly a slacker. The professional animator is the manager of the art department at Pixar, the studio behind “Toy Story” and other modern classics, and production doesn’t happen overnight.

Fortunately for Newport Heights, Ward is also the uncle of a fourth-grader at the school, and on Friday he gave the student body a rare glimpse behind the scenes of America’s top cartoon factory. Throughout the day, Ward hosted assemblies in the multipurpose room in which he showed film clips and talked about his experiences at the Pixar drawing board.

“We do it frame by frame by frame,” Ward said at one point, noting that while Pixar’s films are eventually made on computers, they also involve months of hand-drawing and large teams of animators.

Over the past decade, Pixar has put out seven elaborate movies: “Toy Story,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story 2,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Finding Nemo,” “The Incredibles” ? and its upcoming release, “Cars,” scheduled to hit theaters Friday.

Ward worked on “Monsters, Inc.” and “Cars.” A Pixar movie takes four to five years to complete, from story development through character sketches through the final cut. During his presentation to the students, Ward often punctuated his comments with film clips showing the making of the latest project.

“Cars,” which features the voices of Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and others, depicts a world in which cars function as people, with jobs and personalities of their own. Wilson portrays Lightning McQueen, a young race car who finds himself stuck in the town of Radiator Springs en route to his championship meet. At one point, Ward screened footage of Wilson and the other actors recording their lines.

As the voice talent demonstrates, Pixar’s movies appeal to audiences of all generations. Before introducing the clip of the actors, Ward asked the students, “You guys know who Owen Wilson is?” The room erupted into cheers, and Ward tossed out another one: “You guys know who Paul Newman is?” A few scattered handclaps.

Toward the end of the assembly, Ward took questions from the audience. One student asked him if he expected Pixar to stay in business for very long.

“Walt Disney [Studios] has been making movies since the 1920s,” Ward replied. “Mickey Mouse was first drawn in the 1920s, and they’re still making movies.”

Afterward, several students said that Ward’s presentation had inspired them as artists. Third-grader Clay Davison, 9, said he would like to draw for Pixar.

“I love the animation part, because you get to have all the ideas,” he said. “Then people can come up to you and say, ‘Have you seen that movie?’”

“I would love to see my work inside a movie,” added sixth-grader Jordan Wendell, 12. “That would be one of my dreams.”dpt.05-pixar-CPhotoInfoG31RKPHM20060605j09pshnc(LA)Jay Ward, of Pixar, takes questions regarding the making of the movie “Cars” at Newport Heights Elementary School on Newport Beach.