Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up'

[mini]

Kudos to the company, this was a great move on their part.  -mini

Pixar grants girl's dying wish to see 'Up'
Company sent DVD so Huntington Beach girl, 10, could watch it.
By ANNIE BURRIS
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Comments 59 | Recommend 97

HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby 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.

The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins' Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.

The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.

Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.

With her daughter's vigil planned for Friday, Lisa Curtin reflected about how grateful she is that Pixar – and "Up" – were a part of her only child's last day.

"When I watched it, I had really no idea about the content of the theme of the movie," said Curtin, 46. "I just know that word 'Up' and all of the balloons and I swear to you, for me it meant that (Colby) was going to go up. Up to heaven."

Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved.

THE PREVIEWS

Colby was diagnosed with vascular cancer on Dec. 23, 2005 after doctors found a tumor in her liver. 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, family friend Carole Lynch said.

Colby had gone to Newport Elementary School and was known for making others laugh, family friend Terrell Orum said. Colby loved to dance, sing, swim and seemed to have a more mature understanding of the world than other children her age, Orum said.

On April 28, Colby went to see the Dream Works 3-D movie "Monsters Vs. Aliens" but was impressed by the previews to "Up."

"It was from then on, she said, 'I have to see that movie. It is so cool,'" Lynch said.

Colby was a movie fan, Lisa Curtin said, and she latched onto Pixar's movies because she loved animals.

Two days later Colby's health began to worsen. On June 4 her mother asked a hospice company to bring a wheelchair for Colby so she could visit a theater to see "Up." However, the weekend went by and the wheelchair was not delivered, Lisa Curtin said.

By June 9, Colby could no longer be transported to a theater and her family feared she would die without having seen the movie.

At that point, Orum, who desperately wanted Colby to get her last wish, began to cold-call Pixar and Disney to see if someone could help.

Pixar has an automated telephone answering system, Orum said, and unless she had a name of a specific person she wanted to speak to, she could not get through. Orum guessed a name and the computer system transferred her to someone who could help, she said.

Pixar officials listened to Colby's story and agreed to send someone to Colby's house the next day with a DVD of "Up," Orum recalled.

She immediately called Lisa Curtin, who told Colby.

"Do you think you can hang on?" Colby's mother said.

"I'm ready (to die), but I'm going to wait for the movie," the girl replied.

THE MOVIE

At about 12:30 p.m. the Pixar employee came to the Curtins' home with the DVD.

He had a bag of stuffed animals of characters in the movie and a movie poster. He shared some quirky background details of the movie and the group settled in to watch Up.

Colby couldn't see the screen because the pain kept her eyes closed so her mother gave her a play-by-play of the film.

At the end of the film, the mother asked if her daughter enjoyed the movie and Colby nodded yes, Lisa Curtin said.

The employee left after the movie, taking the DVD with him, Lynch said.

"He couldn't have been nicer," said Lynch who watched the movie with the family. "His eyes were just welled up."

After the movie, Colby's dad, Michael Curtin, who is divorced from Lisa Curtin, came to visit.

Colby died with her mom and dad nearby at 9:20 p.m.

Among the Up memorabilia the employee gave Colby was an "adventure book" – a scrap book the main character's wife used to chronicle her journeys.

"I'll have to fill those adventures in for her," Lisa Curtin said.

[RainbowJingles]

Okay...  I'm at work.  Trying not to cry.  Wow.  I read the pluggedinonline.com review of the movie last week, and I can just imagine how appropriate it was to have that as a granted dying wish for a little girl.

[SippinTea]

GO PIXAR!!

I'm sure it won't hurt to have that as one terrific bit of advertising, but even so... it took money and effort to make that happen. And some companies wouldn't have been bothered.

[Sis]

Many of these types of companies do this stuff every day. I wonder how come this time they got all this publicity!  Is it to make everyone want to watch the movie when it comes out? What they used to call a publicity stunt?

It was nice for the girl, but they're going to be ahead in this one no matter how you look at it.

[Niki]

Wow.

[Gingerale]

and on come the waterworks. wow. go Pixar.  *sniffles*

[RainbowJingles]

From what I read on the review, the movie is all about living life to the fullest, and it deals with a man's wife who died, and how he wants to fulfill her wishes.  Something like this is just...  well, if I were Pixar and made a movie with that much HEART, I wouldn't DARE have turned down that request.

[mini]

Many of these types of companies do this stuff every day. I wonder how come this time they got all this publicity!  Is it to make everyone want to watch the movie when it comes out? What they used to call a publicity stunt?

It was nice for the girl, but they're going to be ahead in this one no matter how you look at it.

If it was all for publicity...why this:

Pixar officials declined to comment on the story or name the employees involved.

Sure, they could have done it all for publicity, and declined to comment so it didn't look like they were "tooting their own horn."  But if company's do this all the time, why don't we hear more about it?  I am glad that a company went the extra mile just to make someone happy.

Again, KUDOS! to them.

[SippinTea]

I  have worked for several large corporations, and I don't think ANY of them would do something similar. With the one possible exception of if they thought it would monetarily benefit them in the near future.

I don't see that with Pixar.

[Sis]

I've worked for nonprofit organizations for years. Their main source of income is donated funds or endowments. You'd be surprised how much companies do for people all the time. Maybe the workers down on the floor don't know what the execs do upstairs but they do. I could start naming them but it would be a very long list.

[EricShane]

oh my goodness

that story almost killed me! thats so sad!

[almondjoy]

Whether they did it for the publicity or not, I think it was a wonderful thing they did for that little girl.

*sniff*

[Sis]

Yep. She will have something nice happen to her in the midst of all she's going through.