The other day, I was extremely lucky to get the opportunity to interview both Bob Peterson and Kim Collins, ahead of the release of the upcoming Disney+ Original Series Dug Days
About the Filmmakers
Bob Peterson – Director
Bob Peterson began his career at Pixar when he was hired by Roger Gould in 1994 as an animator for commercials. It was from there where he became an animator, working on Toy Story. From then on, Bob became a story artist, producing storyboards for films including A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc where he also provided the voice for the character Roz.
He was the co-director and co-writer for Up, where he also provided the voice for the characters Dug and Alpha. His work as a writer on Up and Finding Nemo earned him nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for his work on Disney+ Original Forky Asks A Question too
Kim Collins – Producer
Kim Collins joined Pixar Animation Studios in June 2000. She has worked in production management on several projects, including the Academy Award®-winning features The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, Brave and Toy Story 4. Prior to Pixar, Collins worked at Disney Animation on The Lion King in an administrative role. She also worked as a production office coordinator in television and feature films that were shot in San Francisco.
‘Dug Days’ Interview
I absolutely loved ‘Dug Days’.
BP – Thank you.
‘Up’ was one of my favourite ones (films), so it was great to see a continuation. First of all, how excited were you both when you received obviously the green light to go ahead with this project?
BP – I was a kid in a candy store. I mean, you know, I had pitched it, but I wasn’t sure if we’d go forward. And I just felt like it was a family reunion. I got to get back together with all these characters that I love. So I’m very excited.
KC – For me, it was just amazing. I just, I too, love the characters I worked on up, and it was just so exciting that we were able to just do something different with them. You know, and it’s done them in a different sort of way than just a straight-up film sequel.
BP – Yeah. Push them forward a little bit.
KC – Yeah.
Obviously, you touched upon it in the presentation, but how much of a benefit would you say to having Disney+ as a platform, for obviously more material and content from Pixar?
Well, I think it’s been great, I mean, the nice thing is – it’s a platform to do more of an extended set of shorts. In the old days, we would do one short and that be it – and so for ‘Forky Asks A Question’ and for this one, we can do multiple, which I think is really fun. That’s one thing. And it also gives us the license to do very comfortable characters that, you know, alongside other series, which are original content – and so that’s really great to watch that at Pixar. See, all that develop.
Would you say you hope to see more of ‘Dug Days’ and maybe even ‘Forky Asks A Question’ in the future?
BP – Of course, I always like to continue it on. We shall see. You know, at the moment I’m thinking about ‘Dug Days’, and possible new scripts and things like that, but we’ll see if we go forward. I would love to see that.
KC – Me, too.
Also, sort of still on the topic, but off the topic, with Disney+ obviously, you’ve had quite a big involvement in ‘Monsters At Work’. What was that like stepping back into the shoes of Roz/Roze?
BP (in the voice of Roz) – Roz and Roze?
BP – It was great fun! I also got to consult with those guys a little bit. You know, me and Kelsey (Mann) had worked on Monsters and Monsters University. We worked with them a little bit on content. But Roz is fun, too. Man, I am so lucky I get to play a dog and I get to play a Curmudgeon Slug, like it doesn’t get any better than that. So, man, I had a ball, it was fun.
No, it’s definitely a lot of fun and great to see a continuation with the same characters we all know and love. But no, it is great. Lastly, what was the best thing about working through the pandemic at home, would you say that brought a lot of things out of yourself if that makes sense?
BP – Well, I’ll go first. I didn’t have to commute. I commute an hour each way to work, and so I had two hours to myself. But the more important thing is, I like sort of people bringing their family into it, like you have a kid in one hand while you’re in a video review, cats climbing all over you, and we all got to sort of bring that shared experience of our families face to face with each other. And that was really lovely
KC – For me, I liked how, sort of – I don’t even know how to best say it, but like the Pixar spirit, how it sort of pivoted. You know, we are a collaborative studio, and we are used to making these films and everyone bringing ideas, and we’re all in rooms together and reviews together and running into each other. And that was all taken away. All we had were all these little boxes on a screen. And we found a way to still come together, bring that creative spirit in spite of that, and just find a new way to still do it and move it forward. That, I think, was an amazing thing that we discovered from working through the pandemic.
Awesome. Thank you both so much. It’s been an honour.
Video Interview
For those of you curious to see my on-screen debut, interviewing Bob and Kim, the video can be seen below:
Dug Days begins streaming on Disney+ on September 1. Check out a trailer below:
