By Emmanuel Gundran
Pixar has become one of the most famous animation studios in the film industry. They have created some of Disney’s biggest hits such as Toy Story (Lasseter 1995), Finding Nemo (Stanton and Unkrich 2003), and The Incredibles (Bird 2004) with noticeable improvements in their animation style with each successive film they create. Looking at the history of Pixar, one can track how far Pixar has come with capturing human expression and visually humanizing even the most everyday objects.
From 1979 to 1989, the fledgling digital animation company Pixar would evolve from the computer division of Lucasfilm and prove it can stand on its own. In 1984, when Pixar made their first short called The Adventures of André and Wally B (1984), they were still the “LucasFilm Computer Graphics Project.” For the time during which it was made, the short demonstrated, in the Pixar website’s own words, “ground-breaking technology such as complex flexible characters, hand-painted textures, and motion blur.” (Pixar 2016) It created a narrative using animation technology that no other film studio was using at the time. However, compared to what Pixar would make in later years, this was only the beginning. The characters from André and Wally B (1984) were put together using very simple shapes and movements and the film was incredibly short, being roughly two minutes long. Then, in 1986, Steve Jobs purchased Lucasfilm’s Computer Division and establishes it as an independent company called “Pixar.”
From 1979 to 1989, the fledgling digital animation company Pixar would evolve from the computer division of Lucasfilm and prove it can stand on its own. In 1984, when Pixar made their first short called The Adventures of André and Wally B (1984), they were still the “LucasFilm Computer Graphics Project.” For the time during which it was made, the short demonstrated, in the Pixar website’s own words, “ground-breaking technology such as complex flexible characters, hand-painted textures, and motion blur.” (Pixar 2016) It created a narrative using animation technology that no other film studio was using at the time. However, compared to what Pixar would make in later years, this was only the beginning. The characters from André and Wally B (1984) were put together using very simple shapes and movements and the film was incredibly short, being roughly two minutes long. Then, in 1986, Steve Jobs purchased Lucasfilm’s Computer Division and establishes it as an independent company called “Pixar.”
The Adventures of André and Wally B (1984) was Pixar's first major animation as a part of LucasFilm's computer division.
A few years later, in 1991, Pixar makes a deal with Disney “to make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie” (Pixar 2016). The film that came out of this deal was Toy Story (1995), which made history as the first computer generated feature film. During a time when films such as Jurassic Park (Spielberg 1993) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Cameron 1991) used computer-generated images to create creatures and objects impossible to make on a set, Pixar used them to create the entire visual element of a film. Toy Story (1995) accurately reflects human emotion more than Pixar’s previous shorts. Though the human characters themselves are neither the focus of Pixar’s early films nor very visually appealing, Toy Story (1995) channels their humanity through the toys who make up most of the characters. Each toy from the film is expressive and unique, with each one based on real-life toys such as piggy banks and toy soldiers that are used as the base for their personalities.
Toy Story (1995) was Pixar's first feature-length animated film, and made history as the first 3D animated film.
| As of the last four years, Pixar has advanced in huge ways technologically. Take Brave (Chapman and Andrews 2012), for example, which demonstrates a vast improvement in animation through realistic hair on humans and animals and expressive, uniquely designed human characters. These two aspects of the film’s animation have grown from previous Pixar films. In Monster’s, Inc. (Docter, Silverman, and Unkrich 2001), Pixar brought one of the film’s main characters, Sully, to life by individually animating each hair on his body. Similarly, the bears in Brave (2012) have fur coats composed of individually animated hairs that are detailed to the extent that they respond realistically to being soaked in water. The Incredibles (Bird 2004) was the first Pixar film to make humans the main characters and give them a wider range of facial expressions and body types. Brave (2012) continues this trend with its uniquely designed human characters, ranging from the large, imposing, and boisterous King Fergus to the youthful, scrappy, and confident Merida. Since Brave (2012), With their films such as Inside Out (Docter 2015), Finding Dory (Stanton and MacClane 2016), and the upcoming film Coco (Unkrich 2017), Pixar continues to prove itself the pioneer of animated feature films in the modern film industry. |  The Incredibles (Bird 2005) was debuted humans as the main characters, and each were given unique, expressive designs. |
Brave (Chapman and Andrews 2012) is a recent example of Pixar's technological advances
Works Cited:
“The Pixar Timeline 1979 to Present.” Pixar, 2016, http://www.pixar.com/about/Our-Story. Accessed 4 Oct 2016.
“The Pixar Timeline 1979 to Present.” Pixar, 2016, http://www.pixar.com/about/Our-Story. Accessed 4 Oct 2016.
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