Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Pixar Grants Dying Kid's Last Wish to See "Up" - Boing Boing

Pixar Grants Dying Kid's Last Wish to See "Up"

Posted by Xeni Jardin, June 19, 2009 8:18 AM | permalink
Pixar flew an employee with a DVD of the animated feature film "Up" (which is only in theaters right now) to the home of a terminally ill child for a private viewing. The girl passed away soon after fulfilling this last wish.
colby_med.jpgColby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing - a movie. From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film. After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.
Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up' (thanks Virgilio Corrado)
posted in: FeaturedKidsmovies
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#1 posted by samu, June 19, 2009 8:27 AM

"At the time of her death, her stomach was about 94 inches around, swollen with fluids the cancer wouldn’t let her body properly digest. The rest of her body probably weighed about 45 pounds... Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed..."

Not. Fucking. Fair.

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#2 posted by Paul, June 19, 2009 8:39 AM

This is one of those awful/heart-warming stories where you don't know whether to smile or cry.

@samu - agreed, that is just such a horrible thing for a kid (or anyone for that matter) to go through.

And well-done Pixar for sorting it out so damn fast.

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Excuse my ignorance, but is there a reason why she wasn't given something for the pain? I can't even begin to imagine what kind of pain she was in. (I cried like the dickens when I had a kidney stone.) Was she just in so much pain that even pain killers wouldn't work? Or would pain killers knock her out so she couldn't remain conscious during the movie? To me it seems wrong to let anyone be in that much pain if there is something that can be done about it. Kudos to Pixar for doing something like this.

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Who are the jerk-a-zoids that didn't get her a wheelchair when she asked for it? How crappy is that?

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#5 posted by Paul, June 19, 2009 8:50 AM

@boinkology

It's not uncommon for people to be in so much pain that any sufficient dose of painkillers would be fatal, or would essentially knock them out.

In fact this is the area where the law gets a little vague. It is a kind of open secret that doctors will give terminally ill patients in massive pain, doses of morphine sufficiently large that will shorten the patient's life, but also manage the pain.

I think it's called the double effect defence. So long as the primary purpose was to relieve suffering, no-one prosecutes. I'm sure there are doctors on BB who can give a better explanation.

Pain management is a lot harder than many people realise. There are levels of pain that even the strongest medication has trouble mitigating. I don't ever want to be in that situation. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for a 10 year-old.

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#6 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 8:50 AM

I think it's classy that Pixar declined to comment or name anyone involved. This would have been a great opportunity to shout "We done good!"

Of course, this is generating publicity that is even more positive than had they commented...

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#7 posted by Paul, June 19, 2009 8:54 AM

@brett

Agreed, it's a shame the hospice company couldn't have shown the same kind of effort that the guys from Pixar did.

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A very sad story. At least she's out of pain now and went with some kind of happiness in her last hours.

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#10 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 8:58 AM

@boinkology

Her mother wrote on June 10th on her Caring Bridge journal that she's sick from her new medicine, Methadone. That would probably indicate that she had been given morphine or a similar opiate.

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#11 posted by Tavie, June 19, 2009 9:01 AM

@2 - I cried. But well done, Pixar.

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#12 posted by Church, June 19, 2009 9:07 AM

I'm trying to imagine what it was like to be the Pixar guy who flew out there. I don't know if I could have done it.

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This is the 3rd gut wrenching news I've read/heard in the past 12 hours and I'm not even looking at news... friend of a friend's suicide, friend of a friend loses an infant to some genetic disease and now this..... count your blessings is the message here.

I've got 3 healthy kids. That's blessing #1, #2, and #3 right there.

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Now I'm tearing up at my desk on a Friday afternoon, thanks a freaking lot Boing Boing.

My girlfriend and I were on the fence on whether to go see Up tonight or not. We're definitely going now . . . though God, I'll be thinking about this the entire time.

PIXAR, you seriously rock. Whoever you flew out there needs the week off for making it through that. Probably got drunk as h*ll at the hotel bar.

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"Who are the jerk-a-zoids that didn't get her a wheelchair when she asked for it?"

The problem with the hospices is that a lot of them are volunteer, most are overworked. The last thing the US thinks about are those dying.

It would be nice to help everyone, and I know some people that work in these settings that TRY to do just this -- until they burn out themselves and can't do it anymore.

If you find this a horrible thing, please sign up to volunteer at one of these facilities. Give a realistic amount of hours you can do it and don't do any more...and make certain that you show up when you say you will regardless of the pain you might be going through doing so. Might be one of the most rewarding things you've ever done.

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That's the saddest thing I've heard in a while, but good on Pixar for doing what they did!

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#17 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 9:21 AM

This is the sort of thing that makes me a believer in pixar. A lot of slimey disenheartening shit happens day to day in the business world- i'm glad at least one corporate entity did something cool.

even if it was probably primarily about the value of the PR.

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My favorite little detail...Pixar has no comment on the whole thing.

Seems like a perfect place for a press release touting something like this...and probably deservedly so. But with true Pixar class, they just let the act speak for itself. Bravo.

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#19 posted by Snig, June 19, 2009 9:32 AM

@boinkology
What Paul said, also her cancer apparently shut down systems that metabolize medications, so any more meds may have had additional potency that might have been immediately fatal. She may well have been on as much pain meds as her body could stand. Cancer pain sucks.

Saw "Up" yesterday, it was excellent, appreciated by kids and adults. It also deals with flavors of loss in positive ways, but it wasn't at all a sad film. Good on Mom for outflanking the automated telephone system and good on Pixar.

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#20 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 9:33 AM

@11 Best friends wife gave birth to a beautiful son today. The circle continues. Hope that helps a little :-))

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#21 posted by daryll, June 19, 2009 9:38 AM


I can see the tabloid headline now:

Pixar kills girl with cancer by screening "Up"

Of course, it was great that Pixar did it. It's nice that they could spend the time and effort to do it. More corporations should think that way.

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Wow, I completely wasn't expecting to tear up over an article featured on BoingBoing. This tale doesn't just tug at the heartstrings, it rips them out.

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#23 posted by Pixel, June 19, 2009 9:44 AM

Flew someone out there to screen the movie for her, gave her free toys & poster and didn't comment on it or issue a press release tooting their own horn.

Pixar, you are a class act.

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#24 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 9:55 AM

The people at Pixar ar high-class all the way. I had the pleasure of meeting with them and collaborating on some business, and this can-do, no-nonsense approach permeates their entire organization. I love the company even more for what they did for this girl, and will remember it forever.

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Dammit, I didn't cry until I got to the part about how Pixar gave her an adventure book of her own. (If you've seen the movie, you'll understand why that just shattered my heart into little pieces.)

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#26 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 10:09 AM

I welled up reading that. What a sweet, heart-wrenching story.

Gotta keep my composure. At work. Keep manly, emotionless shell....*sniff sniff*

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I wasn't sure I was going to see this movie, but now I have to. And I agree that not commenting on it is part of the class act that is Pixar.

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@ Caroline

I know! I just saw "Up" Wednesday night, and when I got to that line in the article...

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Ugh. I just read that while holding my 16 month old little girl. She wants back down. I'm not letting go.

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I'm a pediatrician at UCSF in San Francisco and have become a big fan of the Pixar crew. Every time they have a new movie come out, they play it on the children's ward TV channel right around the day it is released (and sometimes before.) The animators also come to the ward and draw characters for the hospitalized kids as well. Pretty cool dudes... plus they make pretty good movies to boot.

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You know?
Usually I shun Pixar movies. They are not bad, neither the kind of thing I am into, or at least not good enough to go to the Theater and stand a bunch of kids throwing popcorn. But this makes me want to go to the movies tonight and buy a ticket for Up.

I just wish this kind of things would be more common.

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I love Pixar. They rock hard and produce some of the best movies coming out of the entertainment industry.

I think Pixar didnt release a press report simply because they would be flooded by calls from parents of sick kids.

Then again I'm a cynic with ice in my veins.

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OMG, you guys are killing me here. I would love/hate to be that employee, knowing what a difference he made in her life, yet knowing how soon after he left, that she did too. :(

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dammit... crying....

what a beautiful little girl. and what a beautiful thing pixar did. thank you, pixar, for restoring my faith in humanity for a while longer.

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Patients sometimes reduce their pain meds for a brief time so that they can focus on something. We had a patient who would go off her morphine for a couple of hours every week so that she could watch Seinfeld with a clear head.

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The adventure book. Oh God, I'm crying now. (If you saw the movie, you'd know why) They did it without even making a press release showing their compassion. That's amazing. It's good to see such a big company do the right thing just because it's the right thing to do.

At least her last few hours were happy. The sad part is she dies less than a day after getting this last wish fulfilled.

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#41 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 12:43 PM

Makes me proud to be an American. I will go and see up now.

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#42 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 12:45 PM

I think that what Pixar did was wonderfull. Regardless of the other stuff going on, Pixar mad her happy and now she is in a better place.

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#43 posted by Muse, June 19, 2009 1:18 PM

This is really touching. It brought tears to my eyes.

I lost my wife (age 31) to cancer last year and near the end, the pain medications made her really incoherent and sleepy. It was a huge effort to remain conscious. She chose to go off of them so she could remain as coherent as possible. I have a feeling that this little girl might have made the same choice so she would be awake for her last few hours on earth.

When I saw UP in the theater, the themes of love and loss and hopes for the future really hit home. The movie deals with these issues deftly with real depth and feeling.

I give huge credit to Pixar for acting quickly and granting her wish. They weren't just helping one dying girl. Her family can feel comforted that she got her final wish fulfilled. When you lose someone so young, the weight of unrealized dreams weighs heavily on the people who loved her. This experience may have lightened that burden.

Thank you Pixar!

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It's official: Pixar leads the film industry not just in the quality of their work but in genuine class.

My wife and I are still psyching ourselves up to see this movie. I'm sure it's a wonderful film, but I also know that it has a lot of sad stuff that is bound to hit home with us right now.

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One of the comments at the OC register page for this story indicated that the people who did this did not necessarily have official authorization.

If true, I wouldn't say this reflects poorly on Pixar. Just the opposite -- the corporate culture at Pixar must be such that people somewhere in the middle or lower have values and initiative to make something like this happen fast.

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First of all, cudos to Pixar! .. wow .. not afraid of pirating or a lost ticket and no rape of a PR option ..

and then .. icy veins and sarcasm and constant internet doubt ... how do we know the story is true? what a cute picture of a slender caucasian girl with possible latino or asian mix .. what if the pic was of a fat boy of ethnicity not that high in profile??? coincident?

But then again .. I trust in Pixar and I'd love to work for a place that is so no BS, where you can make your dreams come true (by telling compelling stories) and you can make many others dreams come true ...

I just watched UP last night and this story made me tear up .. again ...

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#48 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 2:21 PM

Oh, man. I never expected to cry reading a Boing Boing article. Very touching.

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Add my kudos to Pixar for doing this, but their silence may be attributable to something other than humility...

If this became common knowledge (that is, Pixar will send a representative to screen movies to sick/dying children), they'd be overwhelmed with requests. Clearly they wouldn't be able to accommodate all of them, but they'd look like a jerk if they ignored even one.

So, how do they help without putting themselves in an impossible position later? Do what they did, but keep quiet about it.

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#50 posted by ma_ten, June 19, 2009 2:43 PM

Made me cry, too. First time in ages... Is it, because she looks so happy in the picture? I don't know if I can watch Up now, without thinking about this, though...

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I've right now got a bad case of poison ivy. One of my eyes is swollen up so I can't see through it. This puts that in complete perspective. I feel so sorry for this little girl and her family. And seriously, good for Pixar for doing this.

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For the "I hate kids" crowd -- I haven't seen this movie yet, but I know that lots of screens will be showing it late at night, and in 3D.

I'm totally looking forward to seeing what Pixar does with 3D -- probably won't be QUITE as impressive as Coraline, but we shall see!

Modern 3D, using the "RealD" system (or Disney's brand of it), is superb. Very few people "get headaches," and it's actually perceived as better quality than normal projection.

(You can read all the details in the various reference webpages, but the simple explanation is that they use the same resolution as the flat movie, but flash the projector bulb four times as often -- twice for the left eye, then twice for the right. This all but eliminates any perception of flicker.)

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#53 posted by Anonymous, June 19, 2009 3:53 PM

I still don't have any interest in seeing the movie, but I might just buy an extra ticket to Up the next time I'm at the theater to watch somthing else. Kudos to whoever at Pixar made the decision.

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#54 posted by tp1024, June 19, 2009 4:27 PM

So, exactly what kind of message is that?

I'm sorry to spoil the party and yes, you may call me heartless on that one.

But this kind of story keeps triggering the same part of my brain that usually warns me of the kind of contradictions, that were most likely produced by either PR or propaganda in order to pry my eyes away from something extremely ugly and making everyone cry foul when you point it out.

So, there is a movie out there. It is finished, tens of millions of dollars were spend on making a movie, instead of handing out - say - antimalarial drugs or mosquito nets that could have prevented at least 1000 no less painful no less tragic but much less reported deaths of people.

Yet, to legally see it outside of the theater, you quite literally have to be dieing to see it.

And this is what I hate the movie industry for, and that includes Pixar.

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