A Nona You Can’t Help But Love

Director Louis Gonzales talks about remarkable grandmas, wrestling and animation.

One of the wonderful aspects of Pixar’s SparkShorts program is how often it allows the creators to reach back to their own life history for inspiration. The program’s 10th short, Nona, which premiered on Disney+ last month, is another outstanding example of the initiative’s uncanny ability to tap into the directors’ special talents and experiences. Inspired by some of the people in writer-director Louis Gonzales’ life, Nona centers on a one-of-a-kind grandmother who is caught between keeping an eye on her mischievous granddaughter and watching her favorite wrestling match on TV! “When the Spark opportunity came along, they asked me if I had a story that I was burning to tell,” recalls Gonzalez. “Well, I had a hundred stories I was burning to tell, but I had these two central characters that I wanted to explore because this grandma character was so fascinating to me, and having this granddaughter in the mix was a fun thing to bring in a little bit of the old world with the new.”

After taking several side steps, Gonzales and the short’s producer Courtney Casper Kent decided to really zero in on the characters. “They always say, ‘write what you know,’ so I started looking at my own family for inspiration about how they move, how they talk, how they gesture,” Gonzales recalls. “Before I knew it, I had most of my own grandma Pearl in there, my daughter, my nieces. You have to bring yourself into the project, because that’s how you’re going to find a story that works on various levels.” Gonzales wanted the central grandmother figure in the short to be a supervisor or the manager of her apartment building. “She’s very good with her hands and she likes to fix things,” he explains. “So, already I have a grandma that I kind of like, because she’s not like typical grandmas I see on TV. She’s more like the grandmas I know. I also had this granddaughter character who is really quiet and sweet, but as soon as you turn your back, she’s a big ball of energy.”

The main character reminds Gonzales of his own grandmother. “She had this big personality. I loved her to death. I was really kind of afraid of her when I was young because I was a shy kid. But here’s the important part: she loved wrestling! We really bonded when she was like, ‘You love wrestling? I love wrestling, too.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I have the coolest grandma!’”

The animation veteran, who has worked on many TV shows and movies as a layout and storyboard artist, including Monsters, Inc., Brave and Incredibles 2, says as a kid growing up in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley he loved four things: comics, cartoons, wrestling and drawing. “That love for drawing never stopped,” he says.

Gonzales then set out to do what he loved as a living. He says, “I didn’t have the greatest grades, so I didn’t make it into these colleges that train for animation. Instead, I met a guy who worked at Disney and he said, ‘Hey, I’ll help you put a portfo-

lio together.’ I did, and I got a job at Warner Bros. Feature Animation. Funny thing was, in that same year, I also got married, bought my first house and had my first child. Two beautiful things happening at once. Right?” Then, he got a call from Pixar. Gonzales recalls, “They said, ‘Hey, you know, we’d love for you to come in and interview.’ So, I went up and interviewed. Surprisingly, it worked out great and they hired me. And I’m ‘Nona kicked my butt and told me, “Hey, why aren’t you doing more?” there now, working So, now I have a lot of stories in my head ... It’s time to move!’ on my career. My career is blossoming, — Writer-director Louis Gonzales and so is my family. I moved up here with two sons and added a daughter to the mix as well!” The passionate artist says Nona gave a whole new push to his career. “It gave me something to really love again. I was at a point in my career where I didn’t feel like I was moving up. I had chosen not to pursue my own career for my kids, and now my kids were off pursuing their own careers, and I was thinking, ‘Hey, can I still do this?’ Nona proved to me that I could. As a matter of fact, not only did it prove that to me, it also kicked my butt and told me, ‘Hey, why aren’t you doing more?’ So, now I have a lot of stories in my head. I have a lot percolating in my head! It’s time to move!” ◆

Nona is currently streaming on Disney+.