Thank you to Disney and ABC Studios for inviting us to attend this experience.
What happens when you take 25 bloggers to the Pixar Animation Studios campus for the first time ever? They lose their minds! Well, in a good way.
As part of our #Cars3Event experience a few weeks ago, we had the privilege of touring the Pixar Animation Studios campus not once, but twice. What a dream come true! We learned so much during our tour, but there were 5 things that really stuck with me.
5 Fun Facts About The Pixar Animation Studios Campus
The buildings are named after the boroughs of New York City. When Steve Jobs created the plans for the campus, he wanted it to have the essence of NYC, one of his favorite cities. There is a building named after every borough. There’s even a New Jersey building, but it’s located outside the gates and no one ever goes over there. As a Jersey girl, this made me laugh out loud.
The Steve Jobs building is built like a brain. The right side of the building houses the creative departments, while the left side houses the technical departments. When they meet in the middle to have lunch, there is a magical commingling of minds. We got to see it first-hand. This was genius idea. Steve wanted to have the departments excel in their own areas, and use the middle of the building as a place to connect with people outside of their departments.
The artwork changes with each new release. Since Cars 3 is the newest scheduled release for Disney Pixar, all of the artwork in the Steve Jobs building has a Cars 3 theme to it. There’s even a beautiful design on the driveway of the entrance to the campus! After a film is released, the artwork changes to the next film to be released by the studio. How cool!
The Pixar ball leaves the campus every year. The Pixar ball and lamp, one of the most recognized logos on the planet, both come to life right in front of the Steve Jobs building. Since many people love to take pictures (and touch), the Pixar ball, its sent away to get repainted once a year. It takes about two weeks for it to be shipped, repainted, then shipped back.
The Pixar lamp lights up at night. OK, this might have been the coolest things I saw on the campus. As we left campus during our first day there, we walked out to see the Pixar lamp illuminating over the Pixar ball. As a Disney movie nerd, this brought a little tear to my eye. It felt like I was in the opening sequence of every Disney Pixar movie EVER.
Bonus fun fact: Rainbow Unicorn lives there. OK, THIS might be the coolest thing I saw at the Pixar campus. I tried to take a picture with her, but she wasn’t having it.
There was so much more we experienced at the campus, especially in regards to the release of Cars 3, but I’ll share that in a future post. We can’t wait for the release of Cars 3 on June 16th, 2017! Are you as excited as we are? Comment below!
EXCLUSIVE: Brand new Cars 3 trailer
Way to represent Jersey! Great post, Amiyrah! And it was so much fun meeting you out at Pixar!
Thanks, Andrew! I enjoyed spending time with you. Hope we get to do it again soon!