DS: What’s the future of shorts at Pixar? Do you see things continuing as they are now? Is there anything new or appreciably different in your upcoming plans?

KR: Well, we’re working right now figuring out which one’s going to be the 2013 short film.   There are two that are both going to go in front of John. One is very different from anything we’ve ever done. One is a little more traditional.  You might see another compilation of Pixar shorts.

DS: Have you ever heard any criticism and if so, how have you reacted, regarding Pixar’s tremendous success with shorts, the Academy Awards, and it’s so stacked against everyone else.

KR: We get it.  When you have Michael Ciacchino doing the score and you have Skywalker doing the sound, we get it, we’re a big one. 

DS: Yah, the 800 pound gorilla.

KR: I always joke that there is someone in Prague with 2 pieces of glass and some sand who makes films for what we spend on a wrap party.

DS: And it takes them 6 years to complete it.

KR: Exactly.  We get it. We understand.  That’s why we don’t put them in competition because it’s not fair. We do it for the art of the short film and to give directors a chance to have an outlet for their creativity. 

The clock maker could've stepped right out of 101 Dalmatians.

DS: Do you guys get a chance to see your work, to see the audience reactions to your films at a festival like this?  The Pixar or Disney logo comes on the screen and everyone wakes up. They know something special is coming.

DW: The only other festival that I went to is the Hiroshima festival and their reaction was a bit different than other people’s reactions. They were a little more sedate. I haven’t had the film shown as much as you guys have [looks at Kevin and Teddy].

KR: Annecy was great.

TN: Yah it was. The paper airplanes and everything.

DS: Had you been there before?

KR: Yah, I was there for Partly Cloudy. I think it showed the first time outside.

DS: You mean on the lawn, on the big screen beside the lake? 

KR: Yah and then they showed it in the big theatre.

DS: I’m sure people went nuts.

Teddy Newton had no idea that mixing hand-drawn with CG would be so difficult.

KR: There was this one woman, who was very French, and while everyone was saying “Wow, great!” she said to me, “Has your mother seen Day & Night?” 

TN: Yah, she was really upset about the girls in bikinis. [everyone laughs] She just kept on it, [in a heavy French accent] “Hez your mozair seen zis?  Hez your mozair seen zis?”  I didn’t understand what she was after.

DW: So you have to go to church to say “Hail Marys?”

DS: She was taking you to task?

KR: Yah, I don’t think she took it to be an homage to the old style cartoons.

DW: With the wolf whistle.

DS: From a very personal sense, is there a point during the production, where you say to yourself, “Yah, I did good on this?”

TN: You know, it’s funny.  When it was actually done I was not convinced it was done.  You never really feel you’re finished. 

KR: You’d still be working on it if you could.