Bubbles has a friend Rachel who works for Dreamworks. She invited us by for a visit. It was amazingly kind of her. When she first planned to have us come, she anticipated a major meeting on Friday which would be done by our Monday visit. The meeting got bumped to Monday. She fit us in anyway.
She treated us to an incredible meal (Dreamworks has top chefs handling food services on their campus, and the food is amazing). Spawn was her normal "selective" self and opted for a hot dog from the outdoor grill. She didn't finish the bun and while the adults chatted, she worked to attract a blue jay and pigeon to the crumbs she was tossing down. She succeeded brilliantly.
We then got a tour of the campus. Rachel showed us storyboards from movies, an incredible conference room where the executives can preview movies in 3D and a communications room where you can hold a meeting with two more locations as though the people were in the same facility with you (they had one going at the time, and it was cool). Ellie was more impressed with the picture of a dragon outside the room. She was pretty sure it was the Green Death from the "How to Train your Dragon" books.
We found out Dreamworks has a couple of physicians present on Campus, so you can visit one if you're not feeling well at work.
The tour culminated with a visit to Nico Marlet. If you're not into the art of Dreamworks films, you might not know the name. He designed all the creatures for several of the films using his unique style. Nico is the most pleasant, unassuming and completely humble fellow you'll ever meet. He was quite content to show Spawn page after page of original art for the How to Train your Dragon movies and Kung Fu Panda movies. (Each full page of character drawings takes him about a day.) Poor Rachel had to get on to another meeting or I think Nico would have just shared art work with us all afternoon and he'd have had our rapt attention. The man's art is incredible. We have some ideas about what's coming in How to Train your Dragon 2 based on the art, but Rachel mentioned no one has seen those drawings yet. From that I took that we probably shouldn't share details on the internet. I may be wrong, but after such a treat, I'll play it safe here. The new dragons look amazing. We also saw the original Baby Po drawings for Kung Fu Panda 2. Adorable!
What amazes me beyond Nico's art is how the modelers are able to transfer the drawings with such fidelity to the original art to the screen. Hiccup, the dragons, Po, and every other character and creature looks on screen exactly as he/she/it appears in Nico's drawings. It's incredible.
Nico also did a poster for Spawn's cousin Mason last year, who had cancer at the time. Mason's 5 now and doing great. Nico asked us to say hello to Mason and wish him well. It was very thoughtful of him.
We hustled back to the main building after the visit leaving Rachel with only 20 minutes until her meeting. She brought us some gifts from her office despite the time crunch. Spawn got new dragon figurines and a water bottle along with a notebook. Bubbles and I got some very comfy Shreck hats. Spawn had made Rachel a drawing of a Nightmare, but next time we'll have to plan a more thoughtful gift.
Then we hit the road. The drive was fairly uneventful, though if you're planning a trip in the near future that includes highway 99 Northbound near Chowchilla, detour some other way. They closed a lane and that part wasn't so awesome.
We made it home around 9:00 PM with some fantastic memories from this trip. The visit with Rachel was the perfect way to finish it off!
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