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Pixar opens studio in Vancouver, BC—and lets the world know about it.

Computer-generated kids’ film favourites star in a movie about their new digs in Canada’s ‘Left Coast’ City of Glass.

by Suzanne Morphet 25 June 2010

The folks at Pixar Animation Studios know a good thing when they see it. The creators of Woody the cowboy (“Toy Story”), Nemo the fish (“Finding Nemo”) and other memorable computer-generated kids’ film characters are so excited about opening a studio in Vancouver, BC, they’ve made a mini-movie about it. 

Check it out on YouTube and you’ll see WALL-E zipping through Vancouver’s Gastown and past its historic steam clock, while Lightning McQueen, the rookie race car (“Cars”), zooms around flower-filled Stanley Park.

Look up and laugh as a house buoyed by balloons (a nod to “Up”) floats through the city’s downtown and brushes past iconic Hotel Georgia. I imagine Carl, the retired balloon salesman, wondering why the hotel is wrapped in an enormous Canadian flag. (It’s our Olympic pride, Carl.)

Remember the bobbing, quacking seagulls from “Finding Nemo”?  Now they’re chattering about Vancouver’s stunning skyline from their perch on a rock in tony Coal Harbour. Can’t blame them. The sails of Canada Place are pretty impressive.

My favourite moment is when Woody surveys our totem poles in Stanley Park and goes gaga. Buzz Lightyear is equally amazed by some very big trees! Near the end of the three-and-a-half minute video, robots EVE and WALL-E (from “WALL-E”) enjoy a west coast sunset at English Bay. Beautiful.

I can think of more places Pixar characters can check out. Imagine Sulley and his “Monsters, Inc.” friends looking for our local monster—Sasquatch—at Harrison Hot Springs.

The possibilities here are almost endless.

www.hellobc.com

video:
Gastown: From Old to Hip in Vancouver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkPnhkDJnWg

Vancouver's Chinatown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRybmpBWcVY

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Usage guidelines

We welcome you to use these story ideas as inspiration for your own stories about Canada. The CTC owns all rights worldwide. (Our images are also royalty-free and available for editorial print, broadcast and electronic use.) If you choose to reproduce these texts for editorial use only, please include the author's byline and "courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission." If you cut, edit or modify the text in any way, please include this note: "The text has been modified from the original." Thank you.

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Photo credit : Victoria Island, Northwest Territories © NWTT/Terry Parker - Background Image