LOS ANGELES — “I love going to work,” remarked Filipino-American Chris Chua, 29, who works as an animator at Pixar Animation Studios in Emeryville, California.
 Chris, who is one of the animators at Disney/Pixar’s latest movie, Wall-E explained in an exclusive interview at the Pixar Animation Studios. “I always look forward to coming to work because the people that I work with here are just so passionate about everything.” He stressed, “It’s great working here at Pixar. I’ve been working here only for five months and I can tell you already that everyday, no matter how stressed out I am or how tired I am, I always look forward to coming to work.”

When we interviewed the boyish-looking animator who was born in Manila, Chris casually rattles off things about his career that he unintentionally makes it appear so easy. “I went to California Institute of the Arts in Valencia for college, joined Dreamworks, transferred to Pixar and then got assigned to do my first Pixar movie which is ‘Wall-E,’” he said. “Work” for Chris at Pixar Animation Studios means doing what he passionately loves doing which is being an animator, donning casual clothes everyday, using a bike, a scooter or rollerblades around the office, and during his “free time” hopefully take some enrichment courses at Pixar University to enhance one’s lifestyle while working.

Chris, who joined the Pixar team last November, was a fix animator for Pixar’s Wall-E.  Wall-E, which is the latest film from Academy Award-winning writer-director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo), is about a robot named Wall-E who is left on earth as the last robot to clean up the piles of trash that mankind has left behind. It is a very timely and relevant movie since people are now thinking of ways of how to save the earth by recycling and other means.

Chris, who has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2-D Animation from Cal Arts, explained the look of Wall-E which is unlike other Pixar movies. It can be dark or monochromatic at times and has almost no dialogue in some scenes that can be an animator’s nightmare or dream. He said, “I wouldn’t consider it dark. Some animations are bleak and have a doomsday feel to it. I think for Wall-E, there are moments when it is definitely not bleak and there are moments when it is very colorful and entertaining. For me, it is totally a dream job and project to work on because as an animator you are taught that pantomime comes first. All the great scenes are when you turn off that volume and you know exactly what is going on even without sounds coming from the characters’ mouths. It is instantly readable – as animators, they love that. They take center stage. We do not have to deal with any voices. Just the fact that these emotions can come from this little robot with simple eyes is you can do so much with so little and it’s so entertaining to do it.”

As a fix animator in Wall-E, Chris takes shots from the films that have already been animated and polishes them up for final use.
“Well my main job is to assist the animator. “Chris, who moved to the U.S. at the age of 10, revealed that he is the only artist in the family. He disclosed, “My dad, William, is a banker and my mom, Juliet, was a secretary.” Both his parents, though, were also born in the Philippines. “My dad is Chinese and my mom is half Filipino,” he said.

Early on as a kid, Chris did a lot of cartoon characters or comic book characters. He shared, “I did a lot of Disney characters.” Then added, “But sometimes, I would make up my own characters and make my own comic books with my notebooks. My parents were always very supportive. My dad brought home a lot of paper for drawing all the time.”

Asked if it was hard for him as a Filipino-Chinese to break into Hollywood, Chris replied, “I think in this profession, especially animation, it’s not so much about race. There is no real race barrier. It is just about how much work you put in especially here at Pixar. If you look around, there are so many diverse cultures and people and they do not really look at that. Race was never a barrier for me.”

Prior to joining Pixar, Chris worked as an animator at DreamWorks Animation. After moving to the Bay Area, he spent a short stint at LucasArts. Wall-E is his first Pixar movie. “I actually moved up here a year ago because my wife, Joy, got a job here and had family here so we decided to make a move. I was from Glendale before,” he said.

Chris recently got promoted to animator on Pixar’s latest film, Up which will be directed by Pete Docter (Monster’s Inc.) and is due out next May. He and his wife, Joy, also recently moved from Emeryville to North Berkeley where they just bought a house.

Asked how it was working with director Andrew Stanton, Chris said, “Andrew is very distinctive and he knows what he wants. He may feel things out a couple of times as he will see it and say ok that’s not what I want, let us do this. But a lot of times, he has a good eye for filmmaking and detail. It almost feels like a live-action film just the way the camera moves.”

  E-mail the writer at jrnepales@yahoo.com.