It's no surprise that the folks at Pixar have gotten really into Scotland recently.
"Brave" out is in theaters Friday, and director Mark Andrews revealed one way he's helped the creative geniuses on his team get in touch with their inner Scotsman: instituting Kilt Friday.
"I have been wearing my kilt for every party or event that Pixar has since I got out to Pixar 12 years ago," Andrews, who has Scottish ancestry, told Bloomberg. "So I was already doing it because I’m very proud of my Scottish heritage.
"Every once in a while I’d come into work with it on. When they asked me to jump on Brave and take over directing, some of the animators had already started wearing kilts. So I said fine, every Friday is Kilt Friday, get in the spirit. A lot more people bought kilts, and we were all wearing them. It’s just one of those great morale boosters to show your commitment to the project, the pride that you’re working on this. It started spilling over to other departments. They wouldn’t wear kilts, but on Fridays they’d come in with tartan ties or tartan plaid shirt." This latest nugget of quirky Pixar tradition comes as no surprise, since office culture at Pixar is hardly typical.
The studios, designed by Steve Jobs, are in an enormous airplane hangar filled with enormous models of characters, ping pong and pool tables, and of course the studios themselves. Unbelievably creative employees come together to make a culture that helps inspire what goes into the movies themselves.
"There’s always goofy things that everybody does at Pixar—games that we play to keep the morale up, parties and things," Andrews said "But they’re different per project; they’re themed for the movie you’re working on. Like for Monsters University, which is coming out next year, everybody had to bring in their college picture. So now they have this wall of what they all looked like in college, which is funny as hell."
