Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue - The Art of the Story

Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue is a new adventure-comedy about a dynamic crew of elite firefighting aircraft devoted to protecting historic Piston Peak National Park from raging wildfire. In this Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue - The Art of the Story inside peak, we are going to talk a little about the inspiration behind the storyboards of Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue!

I attended the Planes: Fire and Rescue event in Los Angeles last month as part of an all-expenses paid press event.

While at the Disneytoon Studios, I watched a special screening of Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue and met with many of the creative forces behind the film, including the Head of Story, Art Hernandez and the lead story artist, Lawrence Gong. Art and Lawrence taught us to draw one of the main characters from the film, Dipper!

You would seriously not believe how much work goes into making a Disney animated film - they average four to five years in production time before they ever hit the theaters!

Art told us that there are at least 30,000 to 35,000 drawings created during the making of an animated film, and Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue was no different!

Art Hernandez began his career with Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1996 as an "in-betweener" on Fantasia/2000 and has been a character designer and story artist for Disneytoon Studios since 2004.

Lawrence was introduced to us by Art as the lead story artist - he is one of the best in the business and people clamor over having him work on their films!

After seeing Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue, I can see why. His work is amazing!

While talking with Art and Lawrence, we watched slide shows about the progress of developing the characters in Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue and developing the scenes as well. They don't just draw it all out at once, you know!

Each scene and each character takes time and many revisions before they are finalized for inclusion in the movie. Once the story artists have everything they want, then they begin to flesh out the scenes and create the final versions.

Art walked us through drawing our very own version of Dipper, one of the main characters in Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue - she was voiced by Julie Bowen and you can read about my interview with her in the coming weeks!

I thought that there would be NO WAY I would be able to draw her, as I am a terrible artist!

With Art's guidance, I think I did a pretty good job!

Dipper didn't come out quite like she appears in the movie, but the resemblance is great enough that I was proud of my work!

About Disney's Planes: Fire and Rescue

When world-famous air racer Dusty Crophopper learns that his engine is damaged and he may never race again, he must shift gears and is launched into the world of aerial firefighting. “It’s a movie about second chances,” says director Bobs Gannaway (“Secret of the Wings”).

“Each character was something else before finding their current roles, and Dusty is a crop duster-turned-racer who can’t race any more. When we learned that historically, the very first air attack teams were crop dusters, it was clear that the plane was telling us where the story was going.”

Dusty joins forces with veteran fire-and-rescue helicopter Blade Ranger and his courageous team, including spirited air tanker Dipper, heavy-lift helicopter Windlifter, ex-military transport Cabbie and a lively bunch of brave all-terrain vehicles known as The Smokejumpers.

Together, the fearless team battles a massive wildfire and Dusty learns what it takes to become a true hero.