Interview with Pixar Animator Jim Capobianco | The Irish Film & Television Network

In 2008 Jim received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for ‘Ratatouille’. He went on to write and direct the short film, ‘Your Friend The Rat’, found on the ‘Ratatouille’ DVD, winning the 2008 ASIFA-Hollywood Annie Award for short film. A graduate of the California Institute of the Arts, Jim started in the story department at Walt Disney Feature Animation on ‘The Lion King’. After five years at Disney, he relocated to Pixar Animation Studios where he was influential on the stories of many of Pixar’s films of the past 14 years. Jim directed the critically acclaimed end titles for Pixar's 2008 release ‘Wall•E’, contributed story material to ‘UP!’ and in 2009 Jim finished the animated short ‘Leonardo’, his first independent film.

IFTN - What were your favourite cartoons growing up?

Jim Capobianco - I loved all the Warner Brothers cartoons. In America we had the Rankin and Bass Christmas specials, ‘Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer’. I loved watching those. They are all stop motion. I liked the Disney stuff as well, like the films but it was harder to see those, they didn’t really play them. They would have these blocks of Warner Bros stuff so I saw a lot of those but I think I would watch everything, even the junkie stuff like ‘The Flintstones’, and ‘Honk Kong Phooey’.

Jim's short film Leonardo

IFTN - How did you get into animation?

Jim Capobianco - I would draw a lot and then that just evolved into doing animation. I lucked out in high school where one of my teachers offered an animation assignment and I decided I want to do a hand animated film. The teacher, who didn’t know how to teach that basically gave me a book and said ‘ok just go ahead and do it’. I worked really hard in the class, I did the rest of the year and then the second year I took the class again, it was the advanced part of his class, basically a graphic arts class where he did things like t-shirt design and all that stuff, but there was animation. So for two years I basically had my own animation course in school, so I think that pretty much set the stage for me.

IFTN - If you had to give someone getting into animation one piece of advice what would it be?

Jim Capobianco - I would say if it’s something that you want to do and have got to do it, then don’t give up and keep trying. If you want to work at Pixar or the big studios just keep at it and keep developing your craft on your own. There are so many resources today to develop a career in animation and it also seems like it is a career now that is being accepted. When I wanted to do it everybody was like, ‘You want to do what??? Can you make a living at that?’ At that time too it was right before the resurgence of animation with Roger Rabbit and all that hadn’t quite happened yet.

IFTN - So you have been a writer, animator and director, which of these roles is your favourite in the process?

Jim Capobianco - They all had their own special things about them, skill sets and places you can really push yourself with. But I think, for me, directing really has been the most fun. It is the scariest because it’s all your decisions and what you decide to do and it is kind of your neck on the line. I think working with a team of artists and trying to inspire them to do their best work is a very rewarding experience and just getting to work with such talented people who see through this concept you’ve come up with and then they make it better than you could have ever dreamed of. It’s just a tremendous, tremendous thing.

IFTN - What animation that you have worked on is your favourite story and why?

Jim Capobianco - I guess ‘Ratatouille’. I think because when you do these things it’s more about the process of doing it, than the film itself. You can enjoy the film to some extent but you can’t watch it without remembering all that went into making it so I think if you had asked me this when I was working on ‘Ratatouille’ I probably would not pick ‘Ratatouille’, but now in retrospect the whole evolution of where its gone and what it went through was definitely a big learning experience for me. I like the way it came and how it has really been embraced, by Europe especially in a big way

Jim Capobianoc

IFTN - What is your favourite memory from the making of Ratatouille?

Jim Capobianco - I have good memories of writing it, just getting to write. I think working with the story team too was great and making ‘Your Friend The Rat’ out of it as well, that kind of evolved to it.

IFTN - One thing that is commented on a lot is the amount of attention to detail that went into Ratatouille, was that something that you were very conscious of? How much research went into it?

Jim Capobianco - A tonne of research goes into it. With ‘Ratatouille’ we went to Paris and we studied French kitchens because they are different than American kitchens. We studied rats and what they are all about and that’s kind of how ‘Your Friend The Rat’ evolved from that research.

To animate Paris itself, we researched things like the catacombs under Paris and stuff that we were like, ‘maybe we’ll use it, we don’t know’ and this was early stages. So we just gathered up as much information as we could because I think with research you kind of ingest it all and, as you work on the ideas, things just kind of percolate out that you have been exposed to. You learn from it and you filter it into the story, sometimes it is conscious, sometimes it is not conscious. It makes the stories richer and it makes a certain reality. Even if you are trying to realistically depict Paris, it is a vision of Paris that we would like it to be and so it’s still a caricatured vision but if you base it in reality people believe it’s real and that only comes from doing a tonne of research.

IFTN - If you could be any character from any of the films you’ve been involved in, who would it be and why?

Jim Capobianco - Woody. He’s got this problem you know, where he just has to be the centre of attention a bit, but he’s got such a good heart about him. He wants to keep everyone together and do what is right, to make people happy and make his Andy happy so maybe Woody I guess.

IFTN- Pixar are releasing new animated feature ‘Brave’ early next year which is set in medieval Scotland, would you ever consider doing a feature set in Ireland?

Jim Capobianco - Oh ya, I think if the right idea came along I don’t see why it wouldn’t happen.

IFTN - What are you currently working on?

Jim Capobianco - I am currently working with Pete Docter on his next feature film [Monster’s University]. He directed ‘Up!’ and ‘Monster Inc.’, which is fun for me because Pete and I go way back to school. We were classmates so I like working very closely with him and we have known each other for a very long time. It is his next film which comes out sometime in the far future.

Jim’s visit to Ireland is being sponsored by Enterprise Ireland, Animation Ireland and the Irish Film Board.

	Free Industry Newsletter

Subscribe to IFTN's industry newsletter - it's free and e-mailed directly to your inbox every week. Click here to sign up.