Snacktime with Squishy – Interview with Pixar’s Peter Sohn #MonstersUEvent

I attended the Monster’s University Freshman Orientation in April. Travel expenses and accommodations were covered by Disney/Pixar but no monetary compensation was received. All opinions are my own. Photos were provided by Pixar.

Peter Sohn, the heart and voice behind Scott “Squishy” Squibbles in the brand new movie Monsters University, swears that he was asked to do the voice of Squishy because he looked the part, as the round-ish nerdy guy upstairs. I’m convinced that Sohn got the job because he is brilliant at doing voices. Did you know that he also played the voice of Emile in Ratatouille? Oddly enough, Emile is the rat who loves to eat…and is also quite round. Luckily, Sohn is quite jovial about the whole chubby guy profiling, even starting off our interview joking about the fact that he walked into the room carrying a large sandwich.

Peter Sohn: “It’s really interesting ’cause working here at Pixar and then doing voices, it’s like it’s kinda this give and take with all the other productions here ’cause it’s so familiar. When in such a family, you want to do whatever you can for each other. So if someone’s just like…hey, could you quickly come down for ten minutes and just scream into the microphone about, you know, your mom?”

Apparently, he was called over to do some rough “scratch” recording for Squishy’s voice…and it just stuck. He was the perfect Squishy.

Did Peter Sohn inspire Squishy’s character or vice versa?

“I think it’s the back and forth,” said Sohn. “I’m not sure. In the beginning there was a Squishy but then he evolved to be a guy with a hat and– and chubby. And so maybe it wasn’t a stretch. Maybe that’s– that’s what he looks like. Oh, that guy looks like that. Let’s put him in there. But it was an evolution for sure.”

I thought it was hilarious to hear Sohn talk about how his family reacts when they hear him in movies. While Peter doesn’t have a problem watching movies that he’s done voice work for, his brother said, “All I can hear is you. I can’t see anything else. The movie’s ruined because of that.”

Spoken like a true brother.

Sohn describes Squishy’s character and what he likes about him

“I like that he’s so sincere about kind of naïve things. There’s a scene in there where Mike and Sulley want to throw a party. And he’s like ‘This is great! Grab some couch cushions ’cause we’re gonna build a fort!’ You know, I totally connect with that type of guy ’cause that’s how I grew up with my cousins. We didn’t have the Internet. So the world was so out there.”

Sohn continued, “It was that naïve sincerity that I really really liked about him. I totally understand it and connect with it as well. It’s not a stretch. Seriously, it’s not a stretch at all what that character is.”

When asked if he had a favorite character in Monsters University, Sohn responded, “I love Art. There are a lot of really funny scenes with him. I’m a big Muppet fan too. And he embodies like the Muppet feel. But you can’t imagine how if it was a real Muppet, how you would work that type of shape.

And I love Ms. Squibbles. I thought she was really, really funny and heartwarming.”

What does Peter Sohn do when he’s not doing voice?

“I started here as a character designer on Finding Nemo in 2000. And then I moved into story and on to production. Since then, I’ve been in animation. So I’ve been in many departments. But currently I’m co-directing, The Good Dinosaur with Bob Peterson, that’s coming out in 2014. It’s gonna be great. But I’ve been all over the place here. I really love that this place allows you to just move around into what you’re interested in and what you want to learn about. You know, Pixar’s great about that,” said Sohn.

On telling stories visually

“I come from a Korean family. And they don’t speak English very well,” Peter explained. “My mother always took me to these movies that were all English. She didn’t understand anything that was going on unless it was told visually pretty well. So most of the movies for me from my childhood were going with her. And then she said in Korean like what did– what did the character say?

“And I’d have to translate it in the middle of an audience. And what affected me most was the movies that I didn’t have to translate very much were the ones that were told visually very well. And a lot of them were these Disney animated movies. And some of the great directors can tell stories visually without you having to understand what people are saying. And I had understood if it as an epiphany around that time of 15 or 16 of wanting to get into animation because of that fact.”

Read the rest of my sneak peek posts about Monsters University:

Monsters University is in theaters now! Don’t miss it!
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About Lolli

Lolli has written 3740 post in this blog.

I became a mom in 1996, and in 2005 I had my fifth. Yes, 5 kids. In 2007, this blog was born (my 6th baby that will never grow up) and I've been sharing recipes, photography tricks, parenting tips, and everything in between. (Formerly Better in Bulk)