Ronnie Del Carmen, who hails from Cavite City, is truly an inspiration and the epitome of Pinoy pride. His latest work, the Disney/Pixar film “Inside Out“, had such a successful run in local theaters. Last month, Ronnie had a brief stopover in the Philippines as part of the Southeast Asian promotion tour of the movie, which he co-directed. With his growing popularity in his home country, many are curious about him and his success story. To feed everyone’s curiosity, here are some tidbits about Ronnie del Carmen.
10 Things About Inside Out’s Ronnie Del Carmen You Might Not Know
10. Ronaldo “Ronnie” G. del Carmen is a “Tomasian”. He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and his course was Bachelor in Fine Arts major in Advertising. He belongs to Batch 1985 of the oldest university in the Philippines.
9. Due to his family’s financial hardships, Del Carmen stopped schooling after completing high school. So, when he enrolled at UST five years after his high school graduation, his batchmates had already completed their college courses. He said he was one of the oldest students in UST back then.
8. While still in high school, Del Carmen landed a job as a painter on the set of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 film “Apocalypse Now,” which was filmed on location in the Philippines.
7. He married his college sweetheart, Tess, with whom he has two children (Geron and Geo).
6. The now 55-year-old Del Carmen was just turning 30 years old when he left for the US to pursue his dream of working in films.
5. He made his directorial debut with the animated short film Dug’s Special Mission (2009), which accompanied Up on its DVD and Blu-ray release.
4. Del Carmen joined Pixar Animation Studios in 2000 and has been a member of the story team on a number of the studio’s feature films, including the Academy Award®-winning features “Finding Nemo,” “Ratatouille” and “Up” (as story supervisor). He was responsible for the really touching opening of the 2009 Oscar Best Animated Film “Up”.
3. He is part of the growing number of Pixnoys in Hollywood. Pixnoy is the term they coined for Filipinos working at Pixar. They are a tight bunch and oftentimes get together for merienda (snacks), videoke sessions and charity events to support their kababayans (fellow Filipinos) who need help, such as typhoon victims.
2. Del Carmen is very proud of his roots. In his social media accounts, particularly Twitter, he often posts of stuffs that remind him of the Philippines of pictures of his vacation in his home country.
1. When asked which among the five emotions (joy, anger, sadness, disgust and fear) featured in his latest film Inside Out is the main emotion in his life Del Carmen says it is ‘Sadness’, also his favorite emotion. He says there is no reason to avoid sadness: “Sadness is a useful emotion. It is actually empathy and it helps in my job and in expressing creativity”.
