The beautiful stories behind ‘Lava’, a short film from Pixar

‘ Lava ‘was built thanks to the sensitivity and creativity of James Ford Murphy, and behind it we find several stories that inspired him to make this project. Culture, personal stories and love.

James Ford Murphy he is the director of beautiful short film projected next to ‘ Inside Out‘. Thus, during the premiere of the film directed by also beautiful Pete Docter, Ronaldo Del Carmen you opened curtain ‘Lava‘. What we saw on the big screen was as cute as great cheesy and creating an atmosphere of love, hope, expect and reward. And it is the same director who has told the story behind ‘Lava’ and the two volcanoes protagonists of his short. Uku Lele

As we know, making a movie is nothing for a moment, let alone landing just an idea, but projects that are woven slowly They are taking even years and inspiration, as well as great sensitivity. So, ‘Lava’ contains several stories, all as nice as the same animated short. First, James Ford Murphy is a big fan and visiting the islands of Hawaii. said in an interview during their honeymoon in 1989 felt a great attraction to landscapes and Hawaiian culture; then in 2011 he returned from vacation and learned about the existence of an underwater volcano called Lo ‘ IHI.

So when it came time to present the project to accompany ‘Inside Out’, as it is good practice for Pixar, could present a ‘Lava’ as the choice to make. Before this, the sister of James Ford Murphy married at age 43 and says that when he saw her at the altar had an epiphany about what they do all humans, wait … wait for love comes, it is correct to do so time> but take many years. Then joined what he felt for his sister and the love he had for the culture of Hawaii. Together these inspirations gave him the perfect material to present as a possible project, which, as we know, was approved.

Iz, a Hawaiian star that shines for the world

James Ford Murphy he soon encounter the enchanting music of Israel “IZ” Kamakawiwo’ole, is that this musician born on the island of Oahu in 1959 is an icon in Hawaii. Iz is a great exponent of Hawaiian music, which also became known to the world thanks to his collaboration with producer Jon de Mello. Iz he published 11 albums with their original group called: The Makaha Sons of Niihau, and blunted solo career in which he made at least 6 albums among them ‘Facing Future ”, which gave him international fame.

The unique voice of Iz, with the characteristic sweetness of timbre and velvety performances brought him to the hearts of many people in the world and, of course, the same Hawaii. Iz participated with their songs in different films like ‘Finding Forrester’ Gus Van Sant, ‘Meet Joe Black’ by Martin Brest, ‘You’ve Got Mail’ by Nora Ephron, ’50 First Dates’ by Peter Segal and in the well animated “Madagascar”; also participated with their music in ‘Glee’, ‘Hawaii Five-0’ and ‘ER’.

It was in this last television series that James Ford Murphy heard Iz, specifically version East ‘Over the Rainbow’ famous song of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. So James took another step in the construction of his short because he decided to make a song on ukulele, which he wrote and theme that we see in his film. Iz died in 2007, however, remains a star on the island, his funeral, which was to pour the ashes to his beloved sea, they attended at least 10,000 people. On the issue of ‘Lava’ is inspired by music and nature is very significant.

All Hawaii

However, the short film is not only inspired by the culture and exponents Hawaiian, but It took years of analysis and studies, observations and travel (to suffer!) to the islands. James explains that he wanted to focus the visual between traditional animation of the 50s, as well as documentaries own National Geographic. With this in mind, scenes of lovely volcano singing and waiting his chance to love, they are designed as if they were typical of a helicopter aerial shots, the speed at which it zooms in and out are close to those that can be traveling get in that class of ships. Another thing is that the clouds, colors, animals, vegetation and itself the topography of both enamored islands were studied afond and inspired by real places.

So for Uku, Murphy made an amalgam between the nuances of the voice of the interpreter of the song ‘Lava’ Torres Kuana Kahele, the Actor Jackie Gleason and the character of the favorite cartoon bulldog director ‘ Feed the Kitty ‘. Of course that is also based on the gentle expression of Israel Kamakawiwo’ole. For Lele, particularly its dark hair, it is based on Kilauea, the most active volcano of the five and make the island one of the most active on Earth. In addition, the cascade that ultimately unites both volcanoes is inspired by Papalaua Falls, bellísmas! Lele’s voice was given by another Hawaiian artist Napua Greig.

Homage

As we can see, the short film is inspired by very significant aspects of Hawaii in the metaphor of knowing wait to love, even when they spend many years (in Lava thousands of years). The beauty of building a new landscape couple looks promising ridiculously corny but very cute, and very true, I would add. Here the complete song.

https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210755976&color=ff550

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