Famous Family Members

As you know, "UP" comes out on May 29. As part of the marketing, the Movie Surfers from the Disney Channel did some promo clips about it. For one of them, they wanted to see how kids would react to a talking dog (because there is a talking dog in Up - but not your everyday, run of the mill, animated talking dog - he's way cooler). Anyway, Mia was one of dozens of kids who got to meet a real life dog that could talk. It's really quick, but you can see her on the Disney Channel during a random commercial break. An easier way is to go to the Movie Surfer's website HERE. Click on the link called "Blaine learns the mind of Dug". You will see Mia at about 1:26. I suggest you watch the whole clip, but if you are only interested in Mia, here she is. Oh yeah, Val, Xander and I are there for a second too.


About a week ago, there were a bunch of people from the press at Pixar for a screening. They also got to take a ride in a chair hanging from helium balloons. Here are some pictures I took.






One of the marketing things they're doing is advertising on this huge dirigible that flies all over the bay area. A dirigible is not a blimp - it has an inner frame that gives it it's shape. A blimp is basically a giant helium balloon. This picture was taken by a pilot friend of one of my coworkers.



On Sunday we had dinner with a family from church. They have a Model T Ford that still works. The kids and I got to ride around town in it.



One last thing, do you remember this?

It's the Academy Award that Wall-e won. Well, I just found out that Pajama Gladiator won a student Academy Award! Only 2 other BYU shorts have won that award, so this is super huge! And to answer everybodys questions: The award goes to the Director, Glenn Harmon (and it's about time he gets recognized for his awesome work!). We don't know which place we won (1st, 2nd, 3rd), that will be revealed at the awards ceremony in June. The trophy is not a golden Oscar statuette, it is usually a nice, heavy block thing with a medallion on it featuring a carving of the Oscar. One other interesting thing is that the other 2 winners are the same 2 films that won the student Emmy with us! That's weird! Oh - and that means that one of them is "Kites", also a BYU short! I'm happy for the Kites folks, but I hope we beat them this time (they beat us in the Emmys)