PROFILE: Bobby Alcid Rubio
Continuing our profiles for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we take a look at Pixar story artist and Float director Bobby Alcid Rubio.
Rubio is a San Diego native who went to the California Institute of the Arts in the early 1990s.
He began his career at Disney as an inbetweener for Flit in Pocahontas in 1995. He continued to work on such projects as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, Tarzan, Fantasia 2000, The Emperor's New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Treasure Planet and Home on the Range.
In 2009, he was hired as a story artist at Pixar with his first project being Up. Since then, he has worked on Brave, Monsters University, Inside Out, The Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4.
Aside from his work at Pixar, he also provides cover art for Marvel Comics!
In 2019, at the launch of Disney+, Pixar released his short Float. Float is part of the SparkShorts program which gives women and people of color more opportunities in animation. “Diversity and Inclusion are at the heart of SparkShorts”, says Lindsey Collins, VP of Development at Pixar Animation Studio.
Float is a story about embracing differences no matter how scary they might feel. Rubio based the story on his own life and relationship with his son who is on the autism spectrum. The short also earns the distinction of having the first Filipino American family in a Disney or Pixar animation.
Telling San Diego Magazine, Rubio said, "I find myself in an interesting position. Pixar has a worldwide reach, and I get to showcase my artwork. I’m more than willing to talk to the majority about the underrepresented, whether it’s being Filipino American or being a special-needs family, if it helps remind others like me that we aren’t alone."
A great sentiment indeed.