Pixar In Concert

Photo from London program courtesy of my
friends Santi and Laura

There may not be a Pixar feature film this year, but for us fans there's always ways to get our Pixar fix, whether it be short films like Party Central, Car Toons episodes like The Radiator Springs 500½ or TV shows like Toy Story that Time Forgot. But for me, the most exciting Pixar-related event of 2014 is Pixar In Concert! Music from all 14 Pixar feature films and the 4 composers (Randy Newman, Thomas Newman, Michael Giacchino and Patrick Doyle) is performed by a symphony orchestra while scenes from the corresponding film are displayed on a large screen. These film scores and their composers have won 10 Grammys, 3 Academy Awards and have been nominated for an additional 10 Oscars.

For a long time, I didn't know if this concert series would come to Minnesota. It started with a few performances in California in the summer of 2012. Over time more performances, both domestic and international, were announced. Finally, performances in Minnesota were announced and I bought my tickets! My excitement only grew after my friends Santi and Laura from Spain attended a performance at London's Royal Albert Hall, and kindly sent me a copy of the program plus some other really great items like a copy of the program from the Pixar 25 Years of Animation exhibit that just closed in Madrid.

 Finally the day has arrived!! I attended the Pixar In Concert performance today at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and conducted by Sarah Hicks (who also conducted the original performances at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco). Needless to say, the music was AMAZING! There is something special and extra-moving to hear music live, especially with a full orchestra. I think there must have been a lot of dust in the hall, I had tears in my eyes for most of the performance! I really loved all of it; I thought I could pick out a favorite piece but don't think I can. I can say I really, really enjoyed the pieces from Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, Up and The Incredibles. The pieces for Cars 2, Toy Story 3 and Brave were also wonderful. The last piece of music was from Monsters University, and the upbeat, high energy marching band music was an excellent way to end! They then did an encore performance of "You've Got a Friend in Me" to end the concert.

Yes, that's Pete Docter speaking. Sorry, it's an iPhone picture.

A huge surprise for me was that Pete Docter hosted the performances this weekend here in Minneapolis. Docter is originally from Bloomington, MN and is the creative director of the concert. Pete's parents were also in the audience, which made it even more special. Pete came out a few times during the performance to talk about the films and the music, and had some great stories to share. At one point while talking about The Incredibles and Cars 2, he actually made a FaceTime call to composer Michael Giacchino! Fortunately, Giacchino was at home "washing dishes" and "trying to keep the cat from eating the guinea pig", so he was able to share a couple of stories from both of those films (Giacchino said that during the scoring for Cars 2, director John Lasseter gave the guitarist a model of Finn McMissile and told him that he needed to become that character). I was touched that Pete made the trip to Minnesota, right in the middle of production of Inside Out. To me it's a testament of the importance of music to Pete.

If you're a fan of the music from Pixar's films, or just a fan of movie scores, I strongly recommend seeing this concert. Fortunately there are still quite a few performances scheduled, including ones in Seattle, Paris, Chicago and Denver. Plus, there will be 4 more performances held at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco next month. And as a special treat, the July 17 performance will be hosted by Lee Unkrich, and John Lasseter will host the performance on July 18! There are still plenty of seats available for both of those shows. If you have attended, or are going to attend, a performance, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it - leave a comment below!