By far the saddest, most moving, story this blogger has ever posted on:
Colby, a 10-year-old California girl dying of cancer, too sick to leave her home, got her wish of seeing Up last Wednesday in a rather extraordinary way.
After receiving "frantic" calls from determined family friends, Pixar flew an employee to the girl's home in Huntington Beach (about 415 miles from San Francisco/Emeryville) on a day's notice with a copy of the film on DVD (and a bag full of Up stuff) so she and her family could watch it. Afterwards, the disc was returned with the employee responsible for its safekeeping. Colby died about seven hours later.
Reportedly, "Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved". This could suggest that the Pixarian who visited the family —whose "eyes were just welled up"— might be more well-known than the studio wants to let on.
Read the full story at The Orange County Register.
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Update: This story is understandably receiving a lot of attention —worldwide, in fact.
At last count, at least 198 news/media outlets had picked up the OC Register story, according to Google News, foremost among them the Associated Press (AP). Specifically online, it made the homepage of major social news websites like Digg and Reddit, and has been emailed countless times by individuals.
Even the normally snide commenters at blogs like The Consumerist and Gizmodo have been moved by the tragedy and, like others, are giving Pixar kudos for its gracious, 'classy', 'human', handling of things.
(Updated June 19)
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Oh wow. That just ...leaves me speechless.
I just shed a few tears. Pixar deserves its fame for more than its movie quality, clearly.
"This could suggest that the Pixarian who visited the family —whose "eyes were just welled up"— might be more well-known than the studio wants to let on."
That is exactly what I was thinking. I wonder who...
Either way, this was an incredible thing to do. It's gestures like this that maintain my faith in humanity.
That's a heartbreaker, Mike. :(
And actually.... when I was working at a hotel a few years ago, a lady mentioned to me that her brother in law worked for Pixar. She said that her mother had really, truly wanted to see Ratatouille and was dying in a hospital just like that story there. Pixar allowed her brother in law to borrow a DVD of the picture and she was able to watch it before she passed on.
What a wonderful company. I'm digging the lack of corporate greed, even though both stories make me well up. :|
The only thing I can say to this is I'm saddened that she couldn't actually see the movie. Too much of the film's impact came from the visuals.
Then again, from the film's audio, her mother's descriptions, and her own imagination, this may have been ever better for her.
And that last line of the article: absolutely perfect.
That is so amazing! Would DreamWorks do something like that? Maybe. Would a dying person even want to watch one of their films as their last act on Earth? Probably not. (Not to say DreamWorks isn't a good animation company.)
But this truly is a touching story. I hope to God that it isn't fabricated, but the chances of that are about 0.0000001%
Just goes to show you what type oh people run Pixar!!
Awesome people!!
:)
that's incredible :')
This is the Pixar touch!!!!
Wow. That's all I can say.
Truly an amazing thing Pixar did. More respect to Pixar for granting this kind of request, and I hope this inspires others...about good will and helping others.
An amazing story and further evidence of how even the largest company can stay true to the heart.
This made my heart melt. What an amazing gesture on Pixar's part. In the day and age of doom and gloom regarding big corporations, this shows the humanity in atleast one company.
If all of them could contribute like this.
This gave me goosebumps and moist eyes...wow...thank you for sharing this!
a perfect example of how simple joys are the greatest gifts.
I must admit I've read & reread this story several times throughout the day. This is a great reminder of what's really imprortant in life... and I have to say Pixar makes me think maybe there are still companies out there that haven't traded their values for profits.... Very inspiring on so many levels!
This one made me cry, Thank you so much for blessing this young girl with her wish. My heart is truly moved. I will definetly support this movie and I intend to tell everyone I know to support this movie.
You know, I got to hand it to you folks. You take a great story like this one let some moron uses it to take a jab at Dreamworks? Are you kidding me? I love Pixar movies. I really do. I own them all. But your infantile hatred for a rival animation company is beyond belief. The number of comments on this blog against Dreamworks is silly but this takes the cake. A little girl is dead and all Jordon can think of is how to insult Dreamworks. Let that sink in. A little girl is dead and the first thing Jordan thinks of is "Hummm, how can I spin this against Dreamworks?" Really? Seriously? Disgusting, folks. Really disgusting.
You guys at PixarAMAZING!!!!!
What a wonderful thing to do for Colby!!!! May God Bless everyone at Pixar. :)
Poor girl. :'( That was so nice of the Pixar people.
It is so sad and moving! I'm glad she got her wish before passing....I'm tearing up here... :'(
awww! How very very sweet! Go Pixar, what an amazing thing to do.
I hugged all of my family today more times than I've ever hugged them before. Some of those hugs were for Colby and her family.
I'm a big lug of a guy who hardly ever cries, but this story had me in tears. Rest in peace little angel.
Thanks Pixar.
You wouldn't get this from Dreamworks would you Alec
I don't know if you've seen this already, but someone on Youtube wrote a song about the story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpbCtxY7Fq0
Awww...poor kid. Glad she got her wish.
Like most of the comments said it's both moving and so very sad, you can't help but tear up! :'(
Whoa. Poor girl. I don't know what to say. Like "zacharykirton" I am speechless.
Some of my friends at my job, seeing Up's popularity, decided to go and see it. I went with them, and though they didn't cry, I could tell they loved it more then WALL-E. Both Up and WALL-E deserve an equal amount of attention, and WALL-E deserved far more box office money then it got. It really needed a 600 or 700 M run. Hopefully Up can do that instead--maybe beat Finding Nemo and... dare I say it... Shrek 2.
Sad news: we were expecting No. 3 for Up. But instead, it has gotten 6.1 M (estimated) at #4--behind The Proposal, Year One, and the Hangover--none of which are good movies. In fact, no movies are coming out that are good till Transformers 2.
Jeff Katzenberg?? Is that you?!
Anonymous #8: If you're talking to me, I am not Jeff K. :-)
Absolutely wonderful of them.
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