TORONTO -- Two brothers from Iowa took their love of Pixar’s “Toy Story 3” to new heights, re-creating the entire film shot-for-shot in stop-motion animation.
Morgan and Mason McGrew began “Toy Story 3 IRL” eight years ago when they were just teenagers. The brothers told CTV News Channel that they’ve always been interested in filmmaking and after watching “Toy Story 3,” it became “an instant classic.”
“We always thought we’d want to tell stories in a visual medium,” said Mason. “The Pixar films have always been important to us. We were so amazed by ‘Toy Story 3’ and we wanted to make something like that.”
The film was a labour of love for the siblings who didn’t even keep track of costs associated with the project.
“We didn’t want it to be about that. It was more the passion around it,” Morgan said.
“Toy Story 3 IRL” was produced entirely by the McGrew brothers through the painstaking process of stop-motion. To Morgan, that meant analyzing sections of the movie frame-by-frame and long days of shooting.
“Setting up the sets would sometimes take three to four hours,” he said. “When we got into shooting, that’d sometimes take eight to nine hours.”
As for how they brought the characters to life, Mason said they made modifications to the characters by putting metal wires in the toys.
“We’d move them frame-by-frame, taking one picture at a time and when you play it, you get the illusion of movement in life,” said Mason.
“Toy Story 3 IRL” has garnered two million views on YouTube since its premiere on Jan. 25.
As for copyright issues, the brothers said they got the OK from Disney.
