The storyline surrounding Lou features a bully named J.J., who tends to have Sid-like qualities as he snatches toys and tosses them aside - it is then when Lou decides to create a bit of playful high jinks to teach this bully a lesson. Mullins explained that the purpose of Lou's existence is for him to give things back and setting up the storyline with a bully felt complete. As most Pixar films are created from a personal experience or storyline, Mullins noted that the idea for Lou came from moving a lot during his childhood and feeling out of place.
“You either feel invisible because you don’t know the other kids or you’re embarrassed and you want to be invisible. I thought it’d be really cool to have a character who could hide in plain sight,” says Mullins
The first-time director has been working in the animation department within the studio for many years (with his first Pixar credit being Monsters, Inc.), taking on roles ranging from animator, directing animator and supervising animator across many of our favorite films. During the development of Lou, Mullins father passed away influencing the end result of the film with a sweet personal touch. Growing up, Mullins tended to veer towards skateboarding with his dad admiring football, however, different the two would come together with their love of movies. In Lou's Lost & Found box, you'll see both a football and skateboard, as Mullins explains, “The football ended up becoming a device for J.J. to annoy the kids at the beginning of the film and then connect to the kids later.”
“That’s what I like about Lou: True happiness comes from giving,” the director says. “He gets J.J. to understand that and through that, what J.J. wants really is to be accepted by the other kids.”
Lou will be released alongside Cars 3 on June 16, 2017. Be sure to share your thoughts on the new details — leave a comment below or chat all about Lou with other fans in the Pixar Post Forum.
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