I am working with Disney, Marvel, and Dreamworks as part of this event and they provided the trip in exchange for my coverage. Regardless, all opinions are 100% my own.
Behind the scenes with @Disney PLANES Director Klay Hall and Producer Traci Balthazor-Flynn #disneyplanesbloggers
We had the amazing opportunity to sit down with Klay Hall and Traci Balthazor-Flynn and talk with them about Disney’s PLANES. We learned a lot about how to the movie came about and the “roots” behind it.
Klay starts off by telling us how he grew up in an aviation family. His dad was a pilot in the Navy, and it was his grandfather that taught his dad how to fly. Aviation has been in ‘Hall’ family blood for quite a while and his grandfather and father passes that love onto him at an early age. When he was a “little guy” he was learning a lot about airplanes and even drawing them as his dad would talk about them.
We were even able to take a trip down to his office. Just the walk there was amazing – seeing where everything came together and where the actually made the movie. Klay’s office is amazing and full of so many neat things! It was really a treat to be able to see it. (thanks Klay!)
“In a lot of ways this was like a dream come true for me to be able to do an animated movie about planes” – Klay Hall
Here is a preview of “Klay’s Flight Plan” that is on the Planes DVD that will be available November 19!
This is a very touching and information behind the scenes look at PLANES and Klay Hall’s involvement. We sat down in a Q&A afterwards and here is some of what we learned:
QUESTION : What brought you onto the project, originally?
CH : First of all, it was about four and half years ago, we’ve worked on this for four and a half years. We’re just gonna finish up here, I think in three more weeks. So, I had just finished my previous movie (Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure) with John Lasseter, and I was in that phase of what are we gonna do next? And him and I had become pretty good friends.
But we found out that we a had a common passion about all things sort of mechanical. Trains was a big one, planes, cars, all that kind of stuff, you know. So I was kicking around ideas and originally, I started thinking about a steam engine, really sort of a transcontinental railroad story. But it wasn’t anywhere from the world of cars. It actually was gonna deal with humans and animals and all that kinds of stuff, and I was gonna tell this tale, this story of the railroad.
He’s very excited, you know, we’re both history buffs as well, and it was really coming along and it was shaping up so to speak, as far as stories go, but then out of the blue one day- he likes to tell the story and it’s true, he was flying down in the jet from Pixar to Disney Studios, and an epiphany hit him on the way down. And he landed and he literally called me up, and he’s like, Klay, I know you’re working on the trains thing, and that’s cool and all that, but what do you think about doing one about Planes?
If there’s one thing I love more than trains, it’s planes. Now, he was over here at my aviation, you know, passion and my background. His dad had also served in the Navy, so we had talked about the Navy, and that’s sort of how it got started. He’s like, all right, well, let’s start exploring the idea
Everything out there with in engine that’s mechanical could have a personality. So this was the first opportunity to sort of crack that open and explore. That’s kinda how it all started.
QUESTION : How many people total worked on the Planes project?
TB : We were probably up to six hundred total, when you think about everybody who touched the film.
CH : Four and a half, four and half years; six hundred folks.
QUESTION : How many different research trips did you do?
KLAY: We got to go on quite a few. We got to almost- most of the locations in America. We’re very fortunate. We started in the mid-west which is where we found Propwash Junction and several iconic sort of destinations of the United States that are from that first original trip. Then we went out to New York and spent time in New York City and saw JFK, all that kind of stuff.
And then we headed over to Germany. We were over there for a couple days in Bulgaria which was really nice. Then we headed over to India and we were at the Taj Mahal at sunrise and sunset, so we got to see that which was pretty incredible. You know John Lasseter’s mantra is like boots on the ground to get there and experience the cultures and ethnicities and the colors and the sights and the sounds to hopefully bring that back and pull it into the movie and make it feel real, that you just didn’t make it up or found it on the internet.TRACI: And I think another one that you’ll see in the bonus content on the DVDs, there’s a small piece that incorporates the October Fest.
KLAY: And then we went to several different bases, hundreds of pilots, just that run the gamut from commercial airline pilots to crop dusting pilots, and fighter pilots to civilian pilots, and it goes on and on and on. And then probably the top for both of us was to experience going to an aircraft carrier, landing on the deck, you know, while F-18’s are taking off right off the top. I mean, right off out of the top covering the whole thing, with steam going across the deck, and guys running, and all that stuff.
And just to meet the men and women of the U.S.S. Carl Vinson and have breakfast and dinner and all that kind of stuff, it was pretty, a pretty special moment for us.TB : The stories, I mean, you can’t write that stuff.
Planes comes out on Blu-Ray and DVD on November 19! Get for Thanksgiving or save it for Christmas. Your kids will love it and watch it over and over and over like mine do! lol. Also -be on the lookout for Planes: Fire and Rescue (Planes 2) coming out next July! YAY!
“Disney’s Planes” is an action-packed 3D animated comedy adventure featuring Dusty (voice of Dane Cook), a plane with dreams of competing as a high-flying air racer. But Dusty’s not exactly built for racing—and he happens to be afraid of heights. So he turns to a seasoned naval aviator who helps Dusty qualify to take on the defending champ of the race circuit. Dusty’s courage is put to the ultimate test as he aims to reach heights he never dreamed possible, giving a spellbound world the inspiration to soar.
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Visit the website: www.disney.com/Planes
I am working with Disney, Marvel, and Dreamworks as part of this event and they provided the trip in exchange for my coverage. Regardless, all opinions are 100% my own.
Photo Credits: Disney and myself
Very neat! Sounds like a very neat experience.
How nice you had some time with them to learn more about the movie. Very cool