Written by Steve ‘Frosty’ Weintraub

With “Wall-e” arriving on DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, it’s finally time to write about my trip to the cheeriest place on Earth….Pixar.

While I’ve visited many amazing places while working for Collider, Pixar was always my dream trip. After all, they’ve made some of my favorite films over the last decade and getting to see where all the magic happens….it’s one of those times where I didn’t know where work stopped and vacation began.

But let me back up a second.

The reason I was invited – along with a lot of other domestic and international journalists – was to help promote the “Wall-e” home video release. Since we all arrived pretty late at night, the actual Pixar adventure started early the following day.

When we arrived at the Emeryville campus, we immediately got to tour the lobby and explore the inside and outside of the facilities. As we walked through the indoor portion, we came to an area called the Render Farm…and as you might imagine, it’s where the movies are rendered. They actually have a pretty funny sign outside the door that says “render farm open 24 hours”. Maybe you had to be there.

We also got to see why everyone is so happy at Pixar as they have a pool, gym, a massage area, an amazing food court and tons of other recreational activities on the campus. While I don’t know how often they get to use all the perks of the job, it looked amazing and it also proved that nerds win in the end…

From there we walked around upstairs and got to see tons of preliminary and concept artwork. If you’re a fan of Pixar…you can imagine how amazing it would be to see how “Wall-e” came together and what some of the early concept drawings looked like.

Another really cool thing I saw was a massive Luxo Jr. lamp that was outside the front doors of the building. But while trying to explain what something was like that looked like…how about I use video to show what Pixar was like on the inside and how big the lamp was…

So while I didn’t shoot any of the video you’re about to see, the good folks at Pixar provided me with a bunch of behind the scenes footage from their campus and I cut it to under 2 minutes. The video shows the lobby area, the inside and outside of the buildings, and the video shows the coolest thing I saw while there….some amazing “Wall-e” posters that were made just to hang in the lobby.

If you’re a fan of limited edition Disney stuff, these “Wall-e” posters will make you crazy. That’s because they aren’t for sale. And they’re awesome. Imagine old 1950’s posters that have been mixed with Wall-e and sci-fi. Watch this video to see what I mean:

Besides doing everything I’ve already mentioned, we got to conduct interviews with director Andrew Stanton, “Wall-e” producers Jim Morris and Lindsey Collins, and we got to see an amazing presentation by Ben Burtt where he showed us how he made the sounds of “Wall-e” and so much more. If you haven’t watched the Ben Burtt video….click here immediately and take a look.

Overall, I had an amazing time visiting the Pixar campus and left feeling like I’d been on the field in “Field of Dreams”. I know that might sound a bit far fetched…but Pixar has made nothing but great movies and “Wall-e” might be the best one yet.

And like I said in the intros to the interviews….

While I promote a lot of movies on Collider, “Wall-e” is one of those films that’s so good that you really have to see it. I know you hear that all the time….but this one is another level of awesome. Seriously. One of the best films this year. Go buy it tomorrow when it gets released on home video…

Finally, a big thank you to everyone that made this trip happen. It was a great experience. I just wish they sold the "Wall-e" posters that hung on the walls....