Does this shark look familiar? Yup, it's Bruce from Finding Nemo. Last month Bubba bought tickets for a Pixar charity event. Pixar is Bubba's dream place of employment...you practically have to have your doctorate to even be considered to work there with the exception of working at the cafe or the clean up crew. The speakers mentioned over and over that it's "that kind of company". No shit.
This event raises money for the Cartoon Museum in San Francisco. This is the second time we attended and it was OK. It wasn't the same as last year due to a combination of things. For instance, nothing will top the feeling of being a Pixar virgin. Last year we were so excited to be on such exclusive grounds in Emeryville for the first time. The entire campus is gated. Anyone who wants to get past security must be on their guest list. It was like we were entering this secret society. It made you feel special. If you want to shell $150 a ticket you can feel special too! It was amazing walking into the building for the first time. I've seen footage of the place on TV but it's nothing compared to what it's actually like being there. Everything was just so cool looking...Pixar characters everywhere. Even the restroom entrances were themed wtih Toy Story characters. There was a picture of Woody for the men and Jessie (or was it Bo Peep?) for the women. They were promoting The Incredibles at the time so they had a huge set up of all main characters (including the giant spider robot thing) by the main entrance. Bubba wanted to take pictures of EVERYTHING but there were rules given upon entry. We were only permitted to take pictures downstairs in the lobby area and some parts upstairs. There was security everywhere to enforce that.
While standing in line to check in I noticed two people who looked really familiar standing in front of us. If you're a reality show geek like I am then you've watched the pioneer show of reality shows and you'll know who I'm talking about. Judd and Pam from Real World San Francisco stood less than 2 feet in front of me! Made total sense that they were there too since Judd is an amazing cartoonist. I've had RWSF sightings before (Mohammed and his girlfriend were shopping at a Great Mall music store flipping through CDs right next to me) but I guess because Judd was a big personality on the show I was more giddy about the sighting. Bubba had no clue who they were since he's not a tv show watcher (especially reality tv). I whispered to him telling who they were and he repeated everything I said LOUDLY because he couldn't hear what I was saying. D'oh! Not sure if they heard but I was embarassed nonetheless. I'm so fucking shy in front of strangers that I didn't have enough nerve to say hello to them. Someone other than me did know who they were and introduced himself to them...Judd and Pam looked awkward. I figured it was a good call on my part to leave them alone. They attended this year's event also and I was still excited to see them. I'm such a nerd.
While waiting for the speaker presentation we were allowed to roam around the guest approved areas. They also had an impressive spread of hors d'oeuvres. The display of cheese, crackers, fruit, phyllo stuffed chicken and beef not only looked good but tasted good too. I'm not an avid wine drinker, but even I enjoyed the choices of wine. I think it was this event when I discovered that my wine of choice are cabernets.
When they were finally ready for the presentation we got in line to go into their screening room. They collected all our cell phones and cameras before going in. We even got body searched with a scanner. They mean business. For more details about the presentation you can check out this dude's recollection because I can't remember what happened over a year ago. It was all so cool. The people at Pixar are amazing and appreciate them even more now. After the presentation they had even more food! They had a bunch of itty bitty desserts...tarts, cakes, eclaires...YUM!
This year's presentation wasn't as exciting as the year before. They didn't have a full feature movie coming out for awhile so they had nothing new to show us except for a cute animation short called One Man Band that was Oscar Nominated this year. Again...amazing work.
Not sure if we'll go again next year...maybe the year after. What we should really do is visit the Cartoon Museum. We are members for shelling out money for those tickets. It would be cool to check out and I'm surprised we haven't gone since we find ourselves in the City all the time.
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