Pixar’s 10th feature film, “Up,” tells the story of 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, who heads off on a journey by tying thousands of balloons to his house. Little does he know, a curious 8-year-old is going to be his accidental companion for the trip.

Pete Docter directed “Up,” his second directorial effort after 2001’s “Monsters, Inc.” The Daily’s Dusty Somers participated in a conference call with Docter.

How did the concept for the film arise?

I’m not an extrovert, so by the end of any given day, I just want to crawl under my desk and rock quietly in a corner or something, so the idea of getting away from it all is really appealing. We were thinking of tropical islands and stories like that. And I think I just drew this picture of a house floating with balloons, and something about that just seemed very evocative.

Did you find directing to be easier the second time around?

Well, I was hoping it would be, but it didn’t end up that way. “Monsters, Inc.” was more difficult – physically, emotionally, personally demanding and taxing. There was a point where you start to think, “I’m going to die.” Which sounds weird. You’re working on cartoons – happy, fun Pixar la la land – but you come to a place where you start to think of yourself as a failure if you don’t get this done. These things are so personal to us, you begin to identify with the film, and if the film is failing, I am.

So, the second time around, I knew that was part of the road that happens with every film. It’s no reflection on me, necessarily, and knowing that helped a lot. I didn’t take it as personally. It was definitely just as demanding, though.

Even though the characters aren’t related, is the idea of a grandfather and grandson relationship important here?

Yes, I think so. There are things that we set up in both characters – holes in their lives – that the other character can fulfill. It’s even beyond the grandfather and grandson relationship, which is sort of an archetypal relationship that you don’t see a lot of.

Are your films meant to be escapist, and is that something important in a time of recession like this?

As a filmmaker, and even as a filmgoer, what I want is yes, escapism, but on some fundamental level, [I want] an emotional truth and a reality that resonates with my own life. So even though we’re watching a film about toys or monsters or fish or whatever, there’s something about them and the way they’re acting that speaks to my experience. Something we work really hard on at Pixar is finding the foundational thematic elements that relate to all of us in the audience. That’s not easy to come by, but I think it’s pretty fundamental to what we do.

-Dusty Somers is a journalism junior.