***Disclosure: I was not compensated or paid in any way for this post. I solely was provided travel, hotel, and the opportunity to meet with the filmmakers of this film by Disney. I am sharing this for the benefit of my readers. All opinions are my own. Photos Courtesy of Disney***
Hey All!
On my recent trip to Pixar, I had the amazing opportunity to interview Peter Sohn. He’s worked at Pixar Animation Studios for about 11 years and is the voice of one of my New favorite characters Squishy (the chubby little guy with the hat and a bunch of eyes) in the new movie Monsters University. He was so fun to chat with and he does an fantastic job with this character.
Here is a little of what he said about getting the role of Squishy.
Iāve played, um, Emile in Ratatouille here. And it was like youāre chubby, you eat funny food, and youāre kinda nerdy too. So why donāt you play this guy? Iām like okay.Ā So why donāt you give this a shot? I did the recording was done a while ago. Iāve been on other projects since. I actually work in the story department. And so Iām pitching stuff. And as youāre pitching stuff you do voices. But this was a straight on kinda casting call for the thing where they wanted me specifically. So it was just Dan and Cory saying come on down and do the scratch voice for it. And do you know what the scratch voices are? Itās just like a temporary fake voice just to put something in there just to feel out how the storyās going to work.
The voice of Squishy actually started with a scratch voice of fake dialogue and then it became permanent. That’s how great he is being this character. It’s fantastic that they let their artists experiment as voice actors in their films.
Itās really interesting working here at Pixar and then doing voices, itās just like this give and take with all the other productions here. Itās so familiar now. When you’re in such a family, you want to do whatever you can for each other. If someoneās just like “hey, could you quickly come down for ten minutes and just scream into the microphone about your mom?” You say Yeah, sure and go down and scream Mom then get back to work. Itās this give and take thatās really fantastic here because they have a studio that they allow this kind of creed of freedom of, yeah, you can do this.
What does he do when he’s not doing voice?
Iām currently co-directing, The Good Dinosaur with Bob Peterson and thatās coming out in 2014. Itās gonna be great. But Iāve been all over the place here. Itās been amazing to work here as that this place allows you to just move around into what youāre interested in and what you want to learn about. You know, Pixarās great about that.
When you see Peter and his mannerisms in real life you can’t help but wonder if he inspired the character of Squishy or vice versa. Here is what Peter had to say:
I think itās the back and forth. Iām not sure exactly. In the beginning there was a squishy but then evolved to be a guy with a hat who is chubby. So maybe it wasnāt a stretch. Maybe they thought thatās what he looks like. Letās put him in there. It was an evolution for sure.
Peter went on to describe his Character Squishy and what he likes about him.
I like that heās so sincere and kind of naĆÆve about things. You know thereās a scene in there where Mike and Sully want to throw a party. And heās like this is great. Grab some couch cushions ’cause weāre gonna build a fort. I totally connect with that type of guy because thatās how I grew up with my cousins. WeĀ didnāt have the Internet. So the world was like out there. For us it was just like Oh my God. You have the one piece of Lego like whatever that is that you can just nerd out for a while.
I couldn’t agree more. Squishy is such a loveable and adorable character that you will instantly fall in love with the second you see MONSTERS UNIVERSITY in theaters now! I’m #TeamSquishy all the way!
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Comments
That’s so cool! I loved this character in the movie.
He is the cutest character!
I absolutely love the Squishy character! It was so fun meeting the man behind the voice.
My daughter is going to Monsters U with her church youth group Monday. She is pretty excited!
We loved Squishy. My son’s favorite character by far. š
We love Squishy!