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Researching Disney’s Planes Fire and Rescue

Lolli — Fri, 07 Nov 2014 20:23:36 +0000

When I was out in Los Angeles in September, I had the chance to visit DisneyToon Studios and interview PLANES: FIRE AND RESCUE’s Paul Gerard (director, creative development) & Jeff Howard (co-writer). Travel and accommodations were covered by Disney, but all thoughts and opinions are always my own.

Truth in Materials

I loved Planes Fire and Rescue as an entertaining, heart-felt, family-friendly movie when I watched it with my family for the first time, but it wasn’t until I sat down with Paul Gerard, Director, creative development, and Jeff Howard, co-writer, that I truly appreciated what a fantastic movie it really was. The team at Disney didn’t just set about to write a cute story that kids would enjoy. They did their research.

Jeff Howard: “Do your research! It has an exclamation point. And it’s a command. This is a mandatory thing.”

Paul Gerard: “John Lassiter, our executive producer, believes in this idea, Truth in Materials, which is that we can find not only character and story, but the grounding of our movie in our research. (In the Planes movies…) airplanes talk and have eyeballs, so everything else around that should be as grounded in reality as possible.”

Jeff: “Right. So we went out and talked to dozens of aerial firefighters and ground crew and smoke jumpers and air traffic controllers, and visited several national parks to try to get all of the details of the movie right.”

Paul: “And one of our biggest resources was the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.”

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Better than new

Jeff: “One of the things that was interesting to us when we went out and visited Hemet-Ryan (Airport) was that all of our aircraft had a previous life. The S2, which is their main tanker, used to a sub-hunting aircraft. The Huey goes back to Vietnam. The OB10 Bronco was a reconnaissance airplane. So, this whole theme of second chances started to sort of gel in our heads, that all of the aircraft are really on their second lives.

They had a lot of repurposed equipment and stuff like that. It’s a lot of hand-me-down things. Even their display cases. They had these display cases where they had their t-shirts and coffee mugs and stuff that were just display cases from a video game store. So this whole idea of “Better than new” started to creep into our minds.”

Paul: “Their personnel, though, were anything but hand-me-downs. Their personnel are the best of the best. They are all well-trained firefighters, as well as amazing pilots. In fact, this gentleman over here (pointing to a picture) here’s Travis, and this guy sitting next to Jeff actually was the pilot of Marine One which was the president’s helicopter, and before he came to Cal Fire.”

Perfecting their “Pilot-ese”

Jeff: “We talked to them about their terminology, their tactics, how they identify the different parts of the fire. They sort of diagramed, ‘Here’s what the airspace looks like, and who is at what altitude, and when they’re clearing people in and what the different parts of the fire are, and how they maneuver in this crowded airspace, who coordinates everything.’ Ironically, it’s Travis in the smallest aircraft they have. He fits into it, somehow, and that’s all reflected in the commands that Blade gives to Dusty.

So, we would ask Travis, ‘Okay, if you’re gonna tell somebody, Drop it a little bit more over there,, how do you say that in pilot-ese? What would you say?’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, I’d say, Come left one wingspan on your next drop.‘ So I’d say, ‘Okay, that’s easy for me as a writer. I can just put that straight into the script.’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, but what if somebody gets it dead on, and it’s the perfect drop, and no adjustments necessary,’ and he just sort of paused. And the other pilots around the table were just sort of looking at their shoes, and he’s like, ‘There’s no such term for that.’

He had nothing in his vocabulary for good job. There was always something he could correct and give feedback on, and that’s a little bit reflected in Blade’s personality. Blade’s personality was sort of amalgam of a number of different people we met, and things from our own imagination, but that part of Travis definitely went into him.”

Always on the job

Paul: “The other thing that amazed us was how often they go out and fight fires. Guess how many fires Cal Fire fights in one year? About 5,600.”

Jeff: “(That’s just in California. It’s actually 50,000 nationwide.”

Paul: “Yeah. That’s just California, and this year is actually a banner year for fires. They were on track, last time we talked to them, for like, 6,500 this year. But the public only hears about the big fires, which actually became a line in the movie, when we were talking — first presenting our pitch to the different directors here. One of our directors is like, ‘Well, isn’t that convenient? He arrives at the Air Attack Base, and they happen to be going out on a fire?’ And the reality is that’s the way it is.”

Jeff: “We did our research. And it would actually be weird if they weren’t going out on a fire when they got there.”

Paul: “And, in fact, when we arrived down at Hemet with our board artists, this is exactly what happened.”

Jeff: “They were like, ‘Can you get out of our plane, we need to use it.”

Paul: “Yeah. They had to load up immediately. All of our board artists came over to the side. And they fired up the engines. They let us listen on the headphones to all of the chatter between the pilots and the actual ground crew, and between the fire boss and the pilots coming in.”

Jeff: “So, that became a line, and went straight into the movie. That you know, we almost had Dusty ask the very question that our other director asked when he gets there, and they get an alarm, and Dusty says, ‘Really, there’s a fire already?’ and Dipper answers back, ‘Yeah, you guys only hear about the big ones,’ which is literally what they told us. We’re like, that’s a great detail, we gotta put that straight into the story.”

Creating Piston Peak National Park

Paul: “Our big location for most of the movie is Piston Peak National Park, which is really an amalgamation of all of the big national parks in the country — we decided to visit two of the most famous in the United States, Yellowstone and Yosemite, which were amazing. Our fuselage is really inspired by the Old Faithful Inn, which is at Yellowstone.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but I’d recommend it, highly. They let us go all of the way up into the rooftop of the Old Faithful Inn, which was actually enclosed, since they’d had an earthquake in 1959. And we got to crawl up into the crow’s nest, which they said was just a little bit dangerous. It’s unstable, since the earthquake, but they let us go.”

Jeff: “And they even let us up onto the roof to see the sprinkler systems. So, you know, in the movie the lodge has this whole sprinkler system that Cad activates, and the sprinkler system at Yellowstone actually saved the lodge in 1988, when they had had a huge forest fire. I think they’d only put in the sprinkler system the year before. And it would have been destroyed, if not for the roof sprinklers.

Scuba Diver in a tree

Jeff: “So I guess you guys saw the CL415, which is one of the inspirations for Dipper, and there were a couple of other aircraft that went into her design. The Grummin Goose. She’s actually closer to the size of a Grummin Goose, ’cause the CL415 is quite a bit bigger than what she actually is, compared to Dusty. Also, the PBY Catalina, which is a gorgeous aircraft, if you’ve ever seen that.

I don’t know if you remember the movie Always, with Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter. The opening shot of that is a PBY Catalina scooping off. Scooping off the lake.”

When we had the chance to see the aircraft up close, we saw the scoops at the bottom that take in the water. They are VERY tiny openings, especially considering how much water they can scoop up in such a short amount of time.

Jeff: “Have you ever heard the old urban legend of finding a scuba diver in a tree? I read that someplace. It was this old urban legend. They found a scuba diver in a tree. How did it get there? Oh. It was a scooper thing. And then we went there, (we realized) that’s complete nonsense.”

Because the scoopers are only that big, you know, but it can scoop up 1,600 gallons in 12 seconds…” but they are still way too small to scoop up a scuba diver.”

Smoke Jumping

Paul: “We also got to go up to Redding, up near Sacramento, where once a year, they have a joint training mission with the Cal Fire, as well as the — the US Forestry Department.

They get together, and they actually practice smoke jumping, and it was a great chance for us to see a lot of the smoke jumpers. And while we were there, we actually noticed that how they stored their chutes — we’d already designed their barracks, and it didn’t have a high ceiling, and then when we saw it, we realized….They have to hang up their parachutes inside and detangle them and then repack them on these large tables. And so we had to redesign all of the barracks where our smoke jumpers lived.

And we also got to watch them do their jump practice. And they always do a flyover. It was one of those things we discovered. And we showed it to the smoke jumpers. We just had them jumping out of Cabbie. It was like, ‘Let’s go,’ and they would jump out of Cabbie, and the smoke jumpers saw the film and were like, ‘You know, we look first. I don’t know if you guys want to add that, but we don’t actually just arbitrarily jump out of the plane. We actually throw some streamers down and pick a safe landing spot.’ So we actually included them actually picking a safe spot for them to land.”

Jeff: “And we also got to watch the tankers do their practice drops. They let us strap GoPro cameras to the aircraft and the smoke jumpers.” That footage went straight into the movie.

It’s actually a very technically complex movie, because fire is very hard to animate, and water is hard to animate, and then showing water putting out the fire is even more complicated to get those two, and I think there’s more fire FX in this movie than any movie, ever, done by anyone, I want to say.”

Which comes first? The chicken or the egg?

OK, maybe we weren’t talking about chickens and eggs, but we did discuss which aspect of movie making comes first – the research or the story.

In true National Park style, our post-interview snacks were roasted marshmallows and s’mores!

Jeff: “Little bit of both. It’s more of the latter. Basically, the impetus for it was…you know we started it when the first Planes movie was only a year into development and production, so it was still going to be three years before Planes came out, but we thought it was coming together pretty well, and we said, ‘Let’s start working on a follow-up, ’cause we think this is gonna be pretty successful,’ and Bobs started looking into the different arenas of aviation. What could we do? We could do this sort of a story and…

He started looking into aerial firefighting, which is something that hasn’t been shown a lot in movies, and when he first started investigating it, this is where the research sort of led us into what the story was gonna be, because he discovered that the first aerial firefighters were crop-dusting aircraft, and that the type of planes that Dusty is modeled after are also used for firefighting. They put pontoons on them. They let them scoop off the water. Exactly what happens to Dusty in the movie. And we said, well, this is a natural extension for what Dusty’s next adventure is gonna be. It was a great ‘in.’

Somehow, he has to go do that, and he gets modified to it like these aircraft actually are. And then we went out and started talking to the people who actually do it, and we would get little tidbits…and the idea of second chances. The first version of the story was not about second chances, necessarily, when we went into it. And then, once we started learning more from the research, we said, ‘You know, what’s really interesting about this world, is that all of these aircraft used to do something else, and what if you had a story…

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Bobs came in one day, and said, ‘What if Dusty can’t race anymore. It’s not a choice. What if it’s like an injured athlete story? You’re at the top of your game, the top of your sport, you break your leg. What are you gonna do with your life?’ And so we started thinking of it in those terms, but it was sort of born out of seeing that these other aircraft had second chances as well. So, they sort of both feed each other. Sometimes you will go in with a story idea by the things you discover. Sometimes you go into this story idea and you realize, ‘Oh, no, it’s actually this,’ which would be much cooler of a story to tell, and you shift over to that.

So, they sort of feed each other. It’s not something where we went out and spent three months on research and then come back and write. It was like, let’s go out — we had sort of a nugget of an idea, let’s go learn some stuff. Then, let’s come back and write some stuff.

Once you have the story together, in terms of a script or, a treatment of a script, then you start doing the storyboards, which is just the black-and-white drawings, and you edit it together into a story reel where you can watch the whole thing with a temporary voice and sound FX and music and everything to see if it works, and you go through that, four, five, or six or even more times, and at the same time, the guys are doing designs. And building things in CG. And then only when that is nailed down, then you go ahead and say, ‘Okay. Now we’re gonna really start animating it,’ and that part, just the animating takes a year or more by itself.”

We’re glad that they spent the time – to do the research, the animation, and story developing – because it turned out just right! If you haven’t seen Planes: Fire and Rescue yet, my family and I recommend it for family-friendly fun for all ages.

Connect with Planes Fire and Rescue:

Stay connected with the latest news and information about Disney’s “PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE”:

Disney Planes on Facebook: Facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Follow Planes on Twitter: @DisneyPictures
Check out our Website and Mobile Site: Disney.com/planes-fire-and-rescue
Visit Disneymoviesanywhere.com and download the DMA App
Get Planes Fire and Rescue on Blu-ray and DVD

Check out my other PLANES posts (including interviews, activity pages and printables, movie reviews, and more).

PLANES Fire and Rescue on Blu-ray + Bonus Content

Lolli — Tue, 04 Nov 2014 18:42:40 +0000

I was sent an early review copy of Disney’s Planes Fire and Rescue before my recent Disney press trip to Los Angeles. Travel and accommodations and movie were covered by Disney but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Images are courtesy of Disney.

Disney’s Planes Fire and Rescue is finally available to own on Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download! I never had the chance to see Planes Fire and Rescue in the theaters, so the first time I saw it, I was snuggled on the couch, surrounded by my husband and kids in September. I have to tell you – Planes Fire and Rescue exceeded all of my expectations. I hate to admit it (as a Disney-loving, family-friendly mom) that I was underwhelmed by the original Planes movie. It was cute and had a good message, but it didn’t WOW me.

Planes Fire and Rescue, on the other hand? It hooked me from the beginning. While it is still kid-friendly, the story was more engaging for me. It was fun and exciting, and full of even more breathtaking vistas and vibrant colors. I loved the message of second chances – and finding joy and fulfillment in different and new places.

Disney’s Planes are back in the high-flying comedy adventure “PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE,” landing on Disney Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD, Disney Movies Anywhere, DVD and On-Demand platforms today. In this heart-pumping, laugh-filled follow-up to last year’s smash hit “PLANES,” world famous racer Dusty Crophopper joins an elite fire and rescue unit and learns what it takes to be a true hero. Featuring non-stop action, memorable characters and never-before-seen bonus features, “PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE” is this fall’s must-own animated family film!

“PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE” is fueled by a star-studded voice cast that includes Dane Cook (“Planes”) as Dusty, Julie Bowen (“Modern Family”) as Dipper, Ed Harris (“Gravity”) as Blade Ranger, Captain Dale Dye (“Saving Private Ryan”) as Cabbie, Cedric the Entertainer (“Ice Age”) as Leadbottom, Erik Estrada (“CHiPs”) as Nick “Loopin” Lopez, Brad Garrett (“Everybody Loves Raymond”) as Chug, Teri Hatcher (“Desperate Housewives”) as Dottie, John Michael Higgins (“Pitch Perfect”) as Cad, Hal Holbrook (“Into the Wild”) as Mayday, Stacy Keach (“Planes”) as Skipper, Regina King (“Ray”) as Dynamite, Anne Meara (“Night at the Museum) as Winnie, Jerry Stiller (“The King of Queens”) as Harvey and Wes Studi (“Avatar”) as Windlifter. It was directed by Roberts Gannaway (“Secret of the Wings”) and produced by Ferrell Barron (“The Fox and the Hound 2”).

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Bonus Features:

Blu-ray Combo Pack, Digital HD/SD & Disney Movies Anywhere

Exclusive Animated Short – “Vitaminamulch: Air Spectacular”

from Disney Video

“Welcome to Piston Peak!” – This mock-umentary promotional piece shows off all the highlights of the acclaimed Piston Peak National Park and its aerial firefighting team.

from Disney Video

“CHoPs” TV Promo – An in-world TV promo with announce.
Air Attack: Firefighters From The Sky – This high-energy, music-driven behind-the-scenes piece takes an inside look at the real smoke jumpers and firefighters who attack wildfires from the air as Director Roberts Gannaway and Producer Ferrell Barron take us through their journey in making the film.
Spencer Lee Music Video “Still I Fly”
Deleted Scenes with Filmmaker Introductions:
- “Honkers”
- “Dusty’s Dream No More”
Animated Shorts:
- “Dipper”
- “Smokejumpers”

*Digital bonus offerings will vary per retailer

DVD

Spencer Lee Music Video “Still I Fly”

Exclusive Disney Movies Anywhere Discover Content:

Animated Shorts:
- “Blade Ranger”
- “Piston Peak”

Connect with Planes Fire and Rescue:

Stay connected with the latest news and information about Disney’s “PLANES: FIRE & RESCUE”:

Disney Planes on Facebook: Facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Follow Planes on Twitter: @DisneyPictures
Check out our Website and Mobile Site: Disney.com/planes-fire-and-rescue
Visit Disneymoviesanywhere.com and download the DMA App
Get Planes Fire and Rescue on Blu-ray and DVD

Check out my other PLANES posts (including interviews, activity pages and printables, movie reviews, and more).

Planes Fire and Rescue – Director and Producer Interview

Lolli — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 14:36:39 +0000

During my recent Disney press trip, I had the opportunity to visit DisneyToon Studios to chat with Bobs Gannaway, Director, and Ferrell Barron, Producer, of Disney’s Planes Fire and Rescue. Travel and accommodations were covered by Disney but all thoughts and opinions are my own. Live images were taken by me at DisneyToon Studios (except for the photo of me) and screen shots of the film are courtesy of Disney.

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Its a passion, not a job

Disney’s PLANES, released in August 2013, was an instant hit with young kids and parents alike, so it just seemed natural when Planes Fire and Rescue came to theaters barely a year later.

Bobs Gannaway and Ferrell Barron, director and producer of Planes Fire and Rescue, started our interview with pointing out that animated movies like this are a huge commitment and preparation starts years before anyone ever hears about the movie. Bobs Gannaway said, “You know, it’s five years of your life to make. Even though this came out a year later (after Planes), still, we didn’t make it in a year.”

Bobs went on to talk about working in on a long term project like this, “They can’t feel like assignments, because they are something that you basically pour yourself into. So (John Lasseter) waits for his filmmakers to be inspired by something, and to go out there, and research it, and meet the people, ride in the vehicles, and come back and tell him and everyone on the team what you’ve discovered that was cool… Because it’s a huge commitment, and it has to be a passion, not an assignment.“

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Planes Fire and Rescue: Paying tribute to firefighters

I was impressed that after the field research that the Planes Fire and Rescue team did to prepare for the movie, they were left with the desire to make the movie a tribute to firefighters around the world. The real firefighters who were the movie’s inspiration and consultants ended up having a profound impact on the movie makers.

Producer Ferrell Barron said, “(We wanted) to pay tribute to the firefighters around the world. We’re focusing on wildfire air attack, but it’s really about all firefighters. I mean, it was really important for us, after we’d met them, they became more than just consultants. They really became our friends — I still stay in touch with (several of them). I mean, they really became our friends. And so it was important for us to do right by them, because of all that research, bringing that truth and accuracy to our filmmaking, so that all firefighters really are honored.

In Planes Fire and Rescue, there is a wall of fame that actually mentions real Cal Fire airplanes, with the actual aircraft numbers that went down. Ferrell said, “It’s such an honor that we could honor those brave men and woman that actually lost their lives. The public’s not gonna know that, but they (the firefighters) saw it…”

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

Bobs continued, “Someone picked up on that. This aircraft here is one that actually crashed in Cal Fire, and so, we don’t say that in the movie, but that’s the number of the plane that crashed. And when we showed the movie to Cal Fire, they said, ‘that’s a lovely thing to do.’

The Planes Fire and Rescue team worked closely with a team of firefighters at Cal Fire throughout the filmmaking process to make sure that all of the details were correct, down to little things that the characters said.

Bobs talked about working with Travis Alexander, one of their main Cal Fire consultants. “All of the radio chatter, what they would say, ‘split load,’ and things like that. And then when Travis saw the footage, he changed it. He goes, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize that those were 110 feet high. That would be different load levels. Let’s change it from four to six.’ Things like that. So, nobody really will know that, but it’ll feel right. All of those details add up to it feeling real. And then what they’re saying is accurate. And the flight is accurate. And all those things. All help you nest and kind of settle into the film. The world and the characters all feel real to you.”

Making an animated movie

Because making an feature-length animated film is so different from making a live-action movie, we asked Bobs Gannaway and Ferrell Barron to describe the process, from animation to deciding which scenes and story lines to keep and which to cut.

Bobs began, “That’s what’s so great — and hard — about the animation process. It’s very different than a live-action (film) where you’ve written a script and you go out and you shoot, and you have lots of coverage, and then it’s made kind of in editorial. And then maybe you do re-shoots and things like that. In a live action movie, it gets turned around fairly quickly, and by that I mean a year and a half. These take five plus years to make. So, what we do is, we write a script, and then we do boards and temp dialogue and temp music, and then put it together in the editorial, and then we watch it.”

He continued, “We all get notes, and then we tear down and rebuild it, and tear down and rebuild it. It’s a constant. So the movie you’re seeing is like, the eighth or ninth version of the film. During that time, the two years or two and a half or three years, or however long you’re doing that, you start to sort of figure out, ‘We don’t need that,’ or ‘This needs to move along quickly,’ or ‘There’s a pace issue.'”

I could relate to the need to have different sets of eyes look at the footage and weigh in on the story. Sometimes I need the same thing done for my writing.

Bobs continued talking, “There was a scene in the movie that was in for the longest time, where Blade has crashed. And Dusty’s flying around, and he calls for help, and then we had this very lovely scene where Windlifter was carrying Blade back to base. And Dusty’s flying alongside, and we’re playing a temp music in there, something like, A River Once Stood. And everybody was like, ‘Oh. This is so emotional, and wonderful, and oh, I’m just feeling so much,’ and then finally, John Lasseter said, ‘Yeah. That’s great, and everything, but there’s something bugging me about it.’ And we sat there, looked at it for a while. And he goes, ‘Oh, I know what it is. He’s still alive. Ambulances don’t go slow. They go fast. You know? Funerals go slow. He’s not dead.’ So we’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, they should be like, we gotta get him back, and on the base, and then Maru is doing triage right there in the moment.’ So, that scene was in there for two years before we realized that it was completely and utterly wrong, and the characters were not reacting in this scene.”

Planes Fire and Rescue @Disney

“We had fallen so in love with the emotion,” Bobs said. “We had blinders on to this emotion, we didn’t look at it relative to what would happen in real life. But, what happened was, that little moment where they’re bringing Blade back, we gave to after Dusty crashes where we’re not sure whether Dusty is alive or not. So we still got to have that moment. We just gave it to a different character.”

How voice over actors enhance the script

Ferrell talked about the importance of having high caliber actors doing voice over. He said that high caliber actors will bring more to the character than what the script may provide.

Planes Fire and Rescue © Disney

Ferrell said, “Bobs is really good about having the script being a starting point. But, if you’re the character, if you feel like you’re gonna say something else, say what you feel like you’re gonna say. And, most of the time, a lot of it went in the movie, stuff that they may have just ad-libbed. And Bobs liked it better. And that’s what we keep.”

Of course, that comment prompted someone to ask if they had a favorite ad lib line from the movie. Bobs said, “‘Yeah, they’re real,’ was an ad lib.”

Ferrell continued his thought, “Julie Bowen (said that), when her pontoons go down. ‘Yeah, they’re real.’ And that’s Julie Bowen. She’s such a great comedic actress. And she’s great at improv, and she was perfect for that role, because she she brought so much more to the table. That’s one of the funniest lines in the movie, right? So, thank goodness we had her.”

I’m grateful that they had EVERYONE, because everything worked so well together – from the details that only a few people will notice and appreciate to the perfectly cast voice actors who made their characters come alive. It’s amazing how much detail and time go into an animated movie!

Me with Teresa from Making It All Work at DisneyToon Studios

Can’t wait to see Planes Fire and Rescue? You’re in luck – Planes Fire and Rescue will be available on Blu-Ray/DVD and Digital November 4!

Love Planes? Be sure to check out my Planes Activity Sheets here, here, and here.

National Fire Prevention Week: Van Nuys Air Tanker Base #FireAndRescue

Lolli — Sun, 05 Oct 2014 16:00:20 +0000

In honor of National Fire Prevention Week (October 5 – October 11, 2014), the #DisneyInHomeEvent and #FireAndRescue bloggers visited the Van Nuys air tanker base and met with the Assistant Fire Chief, Steve Martin, along with several members of the crew. This event was part of the #VeryBadDayEvent press trip with Disney. Travel and accommodations were covered, and lots of cool opportunities like this one were offered, but all opinions are my own.

This helicopter (the Firehawk) can hold 1000 gallons of water

In 1911, on the 40th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire, the Fire Marshals Association of North America sponsored the first National Fire Prevention Day as a way to keep the public informed about the importance of fire prevention. In 1925, President Calvin Coolidge officially proclaimed that the week (Sunday through Saturday) in which October 9 falls would be National Fire Prevention Week.

Meeting the real people and planes behind Planes: Fire and Rescue

Assistant Fire Chief Steve Martin was so kind to meet with us to talk about a few things – what the LA County Fire Department does, specifically with their air operations unit, as well as the LA Country Fire Department’s involvement in the making of Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue. Honestly, hearing him talk about how much Disney relied on real aerial fire fighters to create a realistic and technically accurate story was fascinating to me!

Assistant Fire Chief Steve Martin of the LA County Fire Department

“I’ve got to give props to the Disney people. They do their homework.” –Steve Martin

Chief Martin began by introducing us to the two Super Scoopers (can you see the resemblance between this real super scoopers and Dipper?) and explained that “they come from the province of Québec. They always come here in September and they generally can go, depending on when the rains come, through middle of November but we’ve had them as long as into January. Last year we had big fires in January so they were here until February.”

One of the Super Scoopers on lease from Quebec. These Super Scoopers can scoop up 1600 gallons in 12 seconds through tiny holes at the bottom of the tank.

About 3+ years ago, when Disney began making plans for Planes: Fire and Rescue, they contacted the pilots and fire fighters at the LA County Fire Department.

Martin said, “They came out and they met our folks just like you did today…came here to the facility. They met some of the pilots and the maintenance crew. They walked around the aircraft. They had them fire it up. They listened to the sound of it. They watched it fly. I think some of them even took a flight in it. They really, really did their homework.”

A few weeks later, they called Martin back and said they’d missed a few things and asked to stop by again. They continued to stop by and send the fire fighters questions as they worked on the script.

Steve Martin said, “They would send me a script and they’d highlight, Is this the proper word? Is this what terminology you would use? Is this what you would you say in this case? And a lot of times they would scratch something out and I’d say no, no we don’t talk like that. I guess that’s what the definition of someone being a technical advisor is.”

Me with a Firehawk pilot

I loved how Martin related his experience helping the Disney writers get the language and terminology down to all of the previous Disney movies he’d seen, “If I look back and I think when my son was young and I’d go to Disney movies and it was something that I did’t know a lot about, it sure sounded like it was correct. But in this case here when it was about the aircraft and it was about flying, it was about the fire department, it was about rescues, we knew the language that we speak. And they took every single one of those things that I said and put it in the script and changed the script.”

He said that after Planes: Fire and Rescue came out, his email exploded with messages from his fire fighting friends. The one thing that everyone said to him was that the movie was very technically correct.

“Anybody in the fire service who knows from the political overtones of it to the vernacular they used during the flying or rescues or hoists, whatever it was they did, they took all those changes that we put down and gave them and did not embellish on it. Put it exactly like it was. So again, that made me feel good because the last thing I want to do is have something out there that my boss goes, Hey, did you tell them to say that? And you know I wouldn’t be an assistant chief anymore.”

The Air Crane can hold a massive 2600 gallons of water

Windlifter from Planes: Fire and Rescue is based on the Air Crane

Assistant Chief Martin told us that they get their two super scoopers on “loan” from Canada. Every year, a crew comes down from Quebec with the two super scoopers and stay from about August through January (more if the fire season extends). He explained that the need for fast-acting aerial fire fighters like this is greater now because of all of the homes that have been built in the hills and into the mountains surrounding the LA area. It’s important for them to jump on fires – even small fires – quickly because of the danger of fires spreading quickly.

Martin said, “So when you have a small fire, because every fire starts basically small, but when we talk 100,000s of acres that runs across Malibu to the ocean or thousands of homes in the way this is what we need right here (pointing to the aircraft). And like I said [Planes: Fire and Rescue] might’ve been a cartoon but if that’s what you saw, they are very, very realistic as far as what they do, how they talk and what they did.”

One of the Canadian pilots talked to us about the Super Scooper, called Water Bombers in Canada

Inside a super scooper aircraft – there is a ton of space, but it’s not too fancy inside!

Fire Prevention Week

In LA County, and I’m sure many areas across the nation, they use National Fire Prevention Week to highlight and raise awareness of the programs and things that the do year-round. Captain Scott Miller stepped in at this point to speak about fire prevention, from home fire prevention to the things that they do with schools and county fairs. He gave us his top tips for staying safe:

Recognize what the danger is.
Get away from the danger – either shut the doors/windows or get outside, whatever is going to get you away from the fire.
Always have 2 exits.
Call 911. Don’t hesitate.

The fire fighters gave us training on how to properly put out small fires. For larger fires…call the experts! (pictured here: Laura and Jesica from our group)

The fire fighters at the Van Nuys tanker base gave us some personal training on putting a fire out with a fire extinguisher. They emphasized three main points: only try to put out a fire on your own if it is very small. If it’s not very small, it’s always safer to get out and call 911. The 2nd point was to aim at the base of the fire and put it out from the base, not the flames. And, third, NEVER turn your back on a fire. We went in with partners, and one person always had to keep their eyes on the fire to make sure it didn’t flare up.

To get more information about fire safety and fire prevention, check out LA County Fire Department’s website.

And be sure to get Disney’s Planes: Fire and Rescue on Blu-ray/DVD when it comes out on November 4! I can’t wait to see it again just to notice all of the amazing technical (and technically correct) fire fighting feats!

Connect with Planes: Fire and Rescue

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/DisneyPictures
Website: https://www.disney.com/planes-fire-and-rescue

BONUS: The kids will love these Planes: Fire and Rescue-themed fire safety tips and activities!

Be sure to check out these Planes: Fire and Rescue printable activity sheets, too!

The Ultimate Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE Activity Kit #FireAndRescue

Lolli — Sun, 06 Jul 2014 12:00:42 +0000

Do you have kids that are in LOVE with Disney’s Planes…and super excited to see Planes Fire and Rescue in theaters on July 18?

Enjoy these fun printables for kids from Disney. Just click to download the two full-size PDF files full of fun activities: Planes Fire and Rescue Activity Kit 1 OR Planes Fire and Rescue Activity Kit 2.

Have fun!

Connect with Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE:

Like Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE on Facebook
Follow Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE on Twitter
Visit the website: www.disney.com/Planes

Disney’s PLANES FIRE AND RESCUE flies into theatres everywhere on July 18th!

Disney’s PLANES Activity Sheets for Father’s Day #DisneyPlanes #Printables

Lolli — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:00:24 +0000

What do you have planned for Father’s Day this year? If you’re still looking for some fun activities for this weekend or ANY day of the year, here are some great printables based on Disney’s upcoming movie, PLANES, plus a cute Father’s Day card for the plane lovers in your family.

Do your kids love making paper airplanes? I can’t even count the number of reams of copy paper we’ve used making paper airplanes. These planes are incredible – colorful, easy to make, and an entertaining activity for the kids to do with dads to celebrate Father’s Day (because it’s all about spending time with dad, right?).

To print the Father’s Day card or the activity sheets, click on any of the preview images below. And enjoy!

Like Disney’s PLANES on Facebook: facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Follow Disney’s PLANES on Twitter: @DisneyPictures
Visit the website: Disney.com/Planes

Disney’s PLANES releases in theaters everywhere on August 9th!

Disney PLANES Coloring Pages (Free Download) #DisneyPlanes

Lolli — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:00:27 +0000

Looking for something fun for the kids to do this weekend? Download and print these free Coloring pages for Disney’s upcoming summer movie, Planes!

My 8 year old will go crazy over these (he loves to print coloring pages off the internet for all of his favorite shows.

These free printables include the following adorable coloring pages based on the characters in Planes.

Who is the Planes fan in your house?

About Disney Planes

From above the world of “Cars” comes “Disney’s Planes,” an action-packed 3D animated comedy adventure featuring Dusty (voice of Dane Cook), a plane with dreams of competing as a high-flying air racer. But Dusty’s not exactly built for racing—and he happens to be afraid of heights. So he turns to a seasoned naval aviator who helps Dusty qualify to take the defending champ of the race circuit. Dusty’s courage is put to the ultimate test as he aims to reach heights he never dreamed possible, giving a spellbound world the inspiration to soar.

Disney’s Planes takes off in theaters in 3D on Aug. 9, 2013 in Disney Digital 3D.

Check out this brand new video:

This new spot, “Disney’s PLANES Takes Flight,” features music by the film’s composer, Mark Mancina. Enjoy!

Connect with Planes

Like Disney’s PLANES on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyPlanes
Follow PLANES on Twitter: @DisneyPictures
Visit the website: www.disney.com/Planes

Disney’s PLANES releases in theaters everywhere on August 9th!

No compensation has been received for this post. Press materials provided by Disney.