Sitting down for an interview with Kori Rae, producer of "Monsters University" — the new animated film from Pixar Animation Studios — I notice a bit of ink poking out from under a sleeve. Rae indulges my curiosity and reveals a pastel-colored "wa" (the chinese character for "harmony") but quickly says "this one is better", and reveals the logo from "The Incredibles" tattooed above her ankle.
Osaka governor Toru Hashimoto would disapprove — his anti-tat campaign began after some schoolchildren were reportedly "scared" by a city employee's tattoos — but Pixar has been charming children, not scaring them, for two decades now, and Rae has been there for the ride, working in the animation department on "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2," before moving to the producing side of things with "Monsters Inc." and "The Incredibles."
Producing is a nebulous job that can involve many things, so I ask Rae — a New Jersey girl who grew up in Florida before relocating to San Francisco — what her duties involve. "Producers at Pixar in general are incredibly involved, both creatively and on the production and budget side. But I see my job as to partner with the director and get their vision on the screen. I know it sounds broad, because it is. But it means making sure that they are surrounded by the right people, that they have the right amount of collaboration with the other directors at the studio. It's basically a ton of creative problem solving.
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