Politicians, journalists, and movie-industry insiders gathered this morning (April 20) in Gastown for the official launch of Pixar Animation Studio’s new Vancouver offices.

Representatives of the 25-year-old, California-based computer-animation company told the crowd that Pixar Canada will be producing short-format films, which will feature characters like Toy Story’s Buzz Lightyear and Woody, and the clownfish Nemo from Finding Nemo.

Pixar Canada’s general manager, Amir Nasrabadi, spoke of Vancouver’s “high quality” talent pool, its geographical advantage (being in the same time zone as California), and the tax breaks offered to the industry as reasons why Vancouver was chosen as the location of the first Pixar studio outside of the U.S.

Nasrabadi downplayed the struggles the company might face with the Canadian dollar having reached parity in recent weeks. He said Pixar is hoping to expand its Canadian studio space from 7,000 square feet to between 20,000 and 25,000 square feet at some point.

“I’m not concerned about it,” Nasrabadi said in response to a question about the strengthening Canadian dollar. “We have a very long-term approach and are very methodical, so fluctuations in foreign currencies, while they can be significant, will not alter our plans.”

The studio also put a call out to the creative talent in the city, as it is hiring for a variety of positions, including animators, modellers, visual-effects artists, and software programmers.

Recent grads excited about new job prospects in this field might be happy to know that Darwyn Peachey, Pixar Canada’s chief technical officer, is looking forward to having them.

“We feel that one of the strongest ways of getting new talent at Pixar is bringing people in from school and raising them up in studio to become great artists,” Peachey said.

Premier Gordon Campbell and Mayor Gregor Robertson both attended the launch and each accepted a plaque from Pixar for their support of the company’s expansion into Canada.