皮克斯《恐龙当家》的漫长之路

　　Pixar wouldn’t be Pixar if it didn’t continually challenge itself. That’s exactly what the venerable studio is doing by releasing two films in the same calendar year in 2015， the first time they’ve ever attempted such a feat. Following summer’s beloved Inside Out， their attention has now shifted to The Good Dinosaur—a project with great potential from the outset， but one that the world almost didn’t get to see.

　　如果不去不断挑战自我，皮克斯便不称其为皮克斯了。这正是这家受人尊敬的工作室在2015年的所作所为——同一年发行两部电影，这是他们头一遭尝试如此壮举。紧接夏季广受喜爱的《头脑特工队》，他们的注意力已转向《恐龙当家》——一个从一开始就大有潜力的项目，但差一点跟世人擦肩而过。

　　If the title sounds familiar， it’s because The Good Dinosaur has been in the works since 2009. Even for animation， that’s an unusually long gestation period (something director Peter Sohn himself admits upfront). When the project wasn’t quite jelling a few years ago， Sohn， with his experience working as an animator on Finding Nemo， The Incredibles， Up， WALL-E， Brave， and Ratatouille—and as writer and director of the studio’s 2009 short film Partly Cloudy—was tapped to“refocus and simplify” the film. He took over the reins as director in 2013， setting out to give the story a new voice.

　　如果片名听起来很熟悉，那是因为《恐龙之家》早在2009年便开始启动了。即便对动画片来说，这也是非常漫长的酝酿期（导演彼得·索恩本人直认不讳）。几年前当项目还未成形时，索恩凭其担任《海底总动员》、《超人总动员》、《飞屋环游记》、《机器总动员》、《勇敢传说》和《料理鼠王》的动画师——以及皮克斯2009年短片《暴力云与送子鹳》的编剧与导演的经验——被挖掘来“改编和精简”电影。2013年他接棒做导演，开始给故事带来一个新的声音。

　　Sohn specifically credits his work on Pixar veteran Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant with preparing him for The Good Dinosaur. The 1999 hand-drawn animated film， which unfortunately never found much commercial success， won over critics and has an enduring legion of fans to this day. “That experience taught me a lot about priorities. Because that movie didn’t have a lot of money， it was always about trying to do whatever idea is the best. It can come from anywhere—if you’re hungry，you get the work.”

　　索恩尤其感谢皮克斯老将布拉德·伯德的《钢铁巨人》为他着手《恐龙当家》做好了准备。这部1999年的手绘动画片不幸地没什么商业作为，但却赢得了影评人的好评，时至今日还有热情不减的大批粉丝。“那次经历教会我轻重缓急。因为那部电影没有很多资金，总是尝试什么想法最好就怎么去做。它什么都可能——如果你吃不饱，那这活就是你的。”

　　Sohn’s admiration for Pixar is underscored by the fact that “the executives are all filmmakers， and they’ve all been on that journey.” Having the trust and support from producers who felt like family， Sohn says， allowed him and his team to approach the project with confidence and a fresh perspective.

　　索恩愈发欣赏皮克斯，因为“其高管清一色的都是电影工作者，他们都是这条道上的过来人。”拥有如家人一般的制片人的信任与支持，索恩说，这促使他和他的团队有信心和新的视角去完成项目。

　　Andrew Stanton， director of Finding Nemo and WALL-E， impressed upon Sohn the difficulty of developing a story. He said， “Try and fail as fast as you can，”Sohn recalls. “When you follow the what-ifs and they don’t pan out， reinvest your heart into something else and keep going.”

　　《海底总动员》与《机器总动员》导演安德鲁·斯坦顿令索恩对铺陈故事的困难留下了深刻的印象。他说，“尽可能快地反复尝试，”索恩回忆。“如果按一套因果思路走进死胡同，那就改弦易辙，继续尝试别的。”

　　Sohn， who grew up working in his dad’s grocery shop， says family is very important to him， and The Good Dinosaur has evolved around that value. He adds that he’s always loved family-centric movies； he includes the films of David Lean and Steven Spielberg among his influences.

　　从小在父亲杂货店打杂长大的索恩说，家庭对他来说非常重要，《恐龙当家》便是围绕这种价值来展开的。他补充道，他一直热爱以家庭为中心的电影；包括大卫·里恩和史蒂芬·斯皮尔伯格的电影都影响过他。

　　Refusing to let a great concept falter，and working in a place where ambition and creative freedom are both encouraged and practically required， Sohn and his team did what Pixar tends to do best： work minor miracles. By all accounts， it was his and his team’s passionate drive that willed the final product into existence.

　　索恩与其团队绝不让一个极好的概念泡汤，在一个不仅鼓励而且也迫切需要野心和创作自由的工作环境中，他们做到了皮克斯常常最擅长的：创造小奇迹。从各方面来看，正是他与团队饱满的热情成就了最终的作品。

　　The movie’s concept is more than just another family-themed narrative from the animation giant. At its heart The Good Dinosaur is a classic boy-and-his-dog tale—except they’ve turned it on its head. In a reversal ofthe genre， a young and adorably vulnerable Apatosaurus named Arlo is cast in the traditional boy’s role. When he’s separated from his family， he must learn how to navigate the frontier world of the dinosaurs in his trek to reunitewith them. In the process， he encounters a human boy named Spot who has no family but knows how to survive on his own in the wild. Together， their journey begins.

　　这部电影的概念可不仅仅是出自这家动画巨头的又一个家庭主题的故事。《恐龙当家》实质上是一个典型的男孩与狗的故事，但他们将角色调了个头。通过角色颠倒，一只年轻可爱但又脆弱的名为阿乐的迷惑龙扮演传统男孩的角色。当他与家人走散时，他必须在长途跋涉中探索恐龙尚未开拓的疆土，设法与家人团聚。在此过程中，他遇到了一个名为点点的人类男孩，他没有家人却知道如何在荒野中求生。在一起，他们的旅程开始了。

　　Along with the usual one-two punch of heart and humor that we’ve come to know， love， and expect from Pixar projects， the studio has set new benchmarks in animation throughout production. For example， by using United States Geographical Survey data and Google Earth， the art department created digital sets more complex than anything they’d attempted previously. Sets Supervisor David Munier boasts， “You can see as far as 50 miles out in the background of certain scenes.”

　　除了我们已知的接踵而来的心灵撞击和幽默，爱，以及皮克斯项目的期望值，在整个制作过程中工作室创造了动画的新基准。例如，通过使用美国地质调查局数据与谷歌地球，艺术部门创建了比任何以往尝试都更复杂的数字布景。布景主管大卫·米尼耶夸口，“在某些场景的背景中你能放眼看到50英里之外。”

　　Those USGS surveys were based on locations in the northwestern United States， and Sohn and his team spent time in the wilderness themselves to research what would become the setting of the film in an alternative past.(The premise of the film： What if a giant meteor never killed Earth’s dinosaurs？) From braving rapids to hiking，horseback riding， and exploring the vast landscapes of the tranquil Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming， the crew gained a firsthand experience of what Arlo and Spot’s arduous adventure might look and feel like.

　　这些美国地质调查局的调查是基于美国西北部的位置，索恩与其团队在旷野上下足功夫，研究在另类的远古时代，电影的场景会是怎样。（电影假设：如果一颗巨大的流星没能导致地球恐龙的灭绝，那会怎样？）从淌过激流险滩到徒步旅行、骑马，探索位于怀俄明州大提顿国家公园的辽阔大地，剧组收获了阿乐与点点艰巨探险情景的第一手经验。

　　One particular and crucial scene early in the film depicts Arlo caught up in a strong river current. One trick they used to aid the virtual workload was to recycle and relight certain renderings of flowing water. Effects Supervisor Jon Reisch loosely compared the method to one used in Spielberg’s Duel， which featured a car chase spanning far more than the simple mile or two of road they actually used and continually repurposed to shoot on.

　　在电影开头一个特别和关键的场景刻画了阿乐陷入一团迅猛的江流中。为减轻虚拟工作量，他们的一个窍门是重复利用某些流水的渲染效果并加上光效。特效总监乔恩·赖希粗略地比较了用在斯皮尔伯格《飞轮喋血》的方法，有一幕车辆追逐的戏跨越远超实际使用的一、两英里的公路，他们也是反复构建来拍摄。

　　He further explained that“getting water right is really tough”in animation because of the density， physics，motion， lighting， and other elements crucial to providing realism. The footage they screened looked spectacular，though. Reisch went on to note that The Good Dinosaur crushed the studio’s previous record for storage of effects data， taking up a whopping 300 terabytes (over 300，000 gigabytes)， or about 10 times the amount used on Monsters University. “Just the rivers themselves are bigger than the entirety of Cars 2 with all the characters， environments，and effects.”

　　他进一步解释说，在动画中“将水处理好非常困难”，因为密度、物理特性、运动、照明和其他元素对实现逼真效果至关重要。然而他们拍摄的脚本看起来很壮观。赖希接着指出，《恐龙当家》打破了工作室以往效果数据存储量的记录，占用了高达300太字节（300，000千兆字节），大约《怪兽大学》使用量的10倍。“仅仅河流本身就大于《赛车总动员2》所有角色、环境与效果的全部数据。”

　　Pushing new technical boundaries allowed the creators to build a massive set to play in. Virtual location scouting provided a wealth of settings ranging from breathtaking and beautiful to mysterious and dangerous. The result appears to be the widest visual scope yet for Pixar， with the team repeatedly mentioning that only Brave has come anywhere close.

　　开拓新的技术疆界便利创作者建造巨型场景来表现。虚拟场地搜寻提供了丰富的场景，有雄伟与壮丽的，有神秘与危险的。结果似乎得到了对皮克斯而言最广阔的视觉领域，团队反复提及到只有《勇敢传说》才能望其项背。

　　The expansion of the team’s digital playground turned out to be a boon to the storytelling too. “In the past， we would only linger on shots every so often. Here，Peter wanted the scenery to be a character itself，” says Story Supervisor Kelsey Mann. Because the plot revolves around Arlo’s emotional and physical struggles against nature， the marriage of his journey with Pixar’s biggest canvas to date is a match made in heaven.

　　事实证明团队数字阵容的扩编也成了讲好这个故事的福音。“在过去，我们只能停留在每隔一段时间的拍摄方式。在这里，彼得想让布景本身变成一个角色，”故事总监凯尔赛·曼恩说道。因为情节围绕着阿乐跟自然界的情感与身体对抗展开，他的旅程与皮克斯迄今为止最大的布景组合堪称天作之合。

　　Mann and screenwriter Meg LaFauve， both of whom have previous experience on Pixar films， joined the project shortly after Sohn was named director. “We were both fresh eyes coming in，” says LaFauve. Although there was need for an expedited production schedule at that point，both view it as a benefit to the movie’s development. “The fast pace created a lot of camaraderie，” she says.

　　曼恩与编剧梅格·拉法夫以往均有皮克斯电影的经历，在索恩被任命为导演后不久加入了项目。“我们都带着崭新的视角加盟，”拉法夫说道。尽管当时需要加快制作进度，但他们双双认为这有利于电影的良性推进。“快节奏缔造了许多友谊，”她说。

　　Reflecting on some of the broader enhancements they brought to the story， Mann adds， “We were building a mood； a quiet and poetic way to tell the story was a big change.”

　　回顾他们给故事带来的一些更广泛的提升，曼恩补充道，“我们是在打造一种心境：以一种安静而富有诗意的方式讲故事是一次很大的改变。”

　　LaFauve adds， “The immersive feeling is probably the biggest change. It used to be a quest movie， and now it’s a“get home”movie. It became more able to focus on therelationship of these two boys.”

　　拉法夫补充道，“身临其境的感受或许是最大的改变。它曾经是一部探险电影，如今成了一部’回家’的电影。它更专注于两个男孩之间的关系。”

　　“There were a lot of discussions about Arlo and who he is，”LaFauve continues. “We had to layer him up because you can’t just say ’he’s afraid’ or ’he’s incapable.’ That only goes so far. It has to also become about ’what does he want？’ Yes， he wants to get home， but what does he want as a boy？ Part of why he’s going on this journey is to grow up and become that man he wants to become， but it’s also because he’s been wounded， and at this age he can’t find the psychological or emotional way to come to terms with it. So this’dog’comes into his life to help him open his heart again.”

　　“我们对阿乐和他是谁做了大量的讨论，”拉法夫继续道。“我们必须将他分成几个层次，因为你不能仅仅说’他胆小害怕’或’他软弱无能。’这些只能到此为止。电影还必须探讨’他想要什么？’是的，他想要回家，但他作为一个男孩想要什么呢？他开始旅程的一部分原因是要长大，成为他想成为的男人，但也同时因为他受伤了，而在他这个年龄段在心灵和情绪上都无法安然面对。所以这只’狗’闯入了他的生活，帮助他再次打开心扉。”

　　The team’s respect for Peter Sohn was another a recurring theme in our conversations. Discussing the process of storyboarding with a roomful of writers， editors， andanimators， Mann stresses that“when you really love something， you give it your all. It’s a vulnerable state to be in， especially when you’re working in an environmentlike this， because you’re reworking it over and over. It’s hard not to have your heart broken， but you have to put yourself in it to make a great film. Pete allowed that kind of safe environment to bring yourself—every fiber of your being—into what you do. It was a fantastic way to work.”

　　在我们的谈话中，另一个反复提及的话题是：团队敬重彼得·索恩。谈到与满屋子的作家、编辑、动画师讨论故事板的过程，曼恩强调“当你真正热爱某些东西时，你会完全投入。这是置于一种非常脆弱的状态，尤其是你在这样的环境中工作，因为你一遍一遍地反复工作。你很难不伤心沮丧，但你必须全力以赴才能创作出伟大的电影。彼得营造了这种安全的环境，令你——你的每一根神经——全神贯注于工作。这样工作太奇妙了。”

　　Pixar has never shied away from heart， humor， or ambition—the recipe of their undeniably winning formula—and the time and effort it took to achieve those things come across in early footage. With its depth of visual scope and genre twisting， both driven first and foremost by the story， The Good Dinosaur looks to hold up the studio’s revered cinematic reputation while simultaneously introducing us to yet another talented young feature director with the ability to harness a creative vision.Indeed， the long wait for Pixar’s 16th film in 20 years looks to be well worth it.The Good Dinosaur is in theaters November 25， 2015.

　　皮克斯从不回避情感、幽默或梦想——他们无可争辩的成功秘诀配方——而为此所花费的时间与努力也反映在早先的镜头里。《恐龙当家》具备视觉范围的深度，加上角色反转，两者均首要地围绕故事需要展开，看来不仅弘扬了工作室受人尊崇的电影口碑，同时也向我们推出又一位能驾驭创造性构想的才华横溢的年轻导演。的确，皮克斯这部20年来的第16部电影的漫长等待看来是值得的。《恐龙当家》将于2015年11月25日登陆影院。

　　肖恩·罗宾斯