If you head out to see Pixar’s Inside Out this weekend, you might notice a nice thank you to Saturday Night Live and Lorne Michaels in the credits. According to Slash Film, there’s a reason for this that doesn’t solely have to do with Amy Poehler and Bill Hader’s presence in the film (kinda). It turns out that director Pete Docter and the folks at Pixar got a special invite to the 30 Rock studio to watch how SNL comes together during a normal week in order to apply it to the film. Slash Film notes that Bill Hader mentioned the visit during a press conference for the film:
They didn’t tell me about the movie. [They said] “There is a scene in the movie that deals with a live television element. We’d like to come to SNL.” And I said, “Come to SNL.” And they hung out at SNL for a week for reference of that sequence and so they let me come and hang out at Pixar as a thank you.
Docter and producer Jonas Rivera explained their meeting in an interview with Slash Film, saying that they were looking for the “sense of spontaneity” involved in putting the live show together. SNL provided the perfect look and obviously wouldn’t have happened without Lorne Michaels’ approval:
Going to Saturday Night Live, I think, really helped fuel that. Where you see they sit down with a blank slate on, you know, Monday or whatever and then Saturday night there’s a show…And so we were really inspired at how fast they go, how quick, that rapport they have. And we were trying to [figure out] “How do we infuse that? What’s animation’s version of that?”
The full interview should be released on Slash Film, so definitely check that out if you’re interested in behind-the-scenes tidbits on what goes into making these Pixar films. I think it’s a nice little nod to SNL in its 40th year on the air and how far it extends in pop culture. The show might be hit and miss (with a good bit of the latter), but it is still an interesting process during the season.
(Via Slash Film)
