I've always thought there was something magical about the Pixar Studio's compound located in the San Francisco Bay Area, but getting to see these cool pictures of the inside just confirmed my wildest fantasies about how awesome it is. Imagine working at a place loaded with giant cartoon characters, free food, pool tables, video games and more.
http://topcultured.com/a-look-inside-pixar-studios-20-pics/
I've visited Pixar a few times and the folks there are definitely the cream of the crop in their respective fields, but I have seen other places that require similar amounts of dedication to their jobs, only without all the perqs. The sad fact is, genius is what's expected of these people, and the company does what it can to allow that to continue. But it's not a situation that everyone thrives in, regardless of the glowing press it gets.
Oh, did you know that each year Pixar has a car show on the grounds? You can find photosets of past shows on Flickr.
Tell me your "days" estimate is including modelling and rigging time?
As for it being tedious, it depends on how much you love it, I've forgotten to eat and sleep when I get really into a piece of animation, tweaking and fixing it. Most animators I know find the rigging and modelling to be kind of tedious because they can't wait to get animating. And the principles of animation should almost be coming second nature to you if you've been animating for long enough. If you had a very simple rig, you could have a very basic but solid walk (as in very little emotion) in less than an hour.
(I'm studying for my BA in animation at the moment)
I don't think anyone understands how tedious and tiresome 3d animation is or modeling is unless they do it themselves. A quick 15 second walk cycle could take you days, especially once you start getting into the world of the 12 principles of animation.
I wouldn't mind being one of their modellers, but man oh man, how animation is tedious.