The interactive exhibition 'The Science of Pixar' explains in Madrid the detailed process to create an animated feature film

ENEKO RUIZ JIMENEZ

El Pais Newspaper -Madrid - 03 JUN 2024 -

Pixar began its story to many raised eyebrows and distrust at every drawing board. Its founder, John Lasseter, was an old acquaintance of the Disney office and had studied at the same university as several animators who were already making a name for themselves there: Tim Burton, John Musker , Ron Clements (directors of The Little Mermaid ), Henry Selick ... He himself had worked on Tod and Toby and other productions, but he wanted to go one step further. He saw digital animation as the future. The leap into that world, however, sounded alien to the cartoonists: rigging , rendering... the dictionary seemed more like engineering. Today that language is already part of the daily life of any animator.

This process that sounds so complicated is what the exhibition tries to explain. The science of Pixar , at CaixaForum in Madrid (until September 8 of this year). The visitor can try working on each step first-hand, and become an animator with interactive models, lighting games, figures and screens. From shaping the faces of the characters to deforming them towards an alternative version. The visitor will discover that any decision, every pixel, counts. So much so that, the exhibition says, at Pixar they individually animated 202 teeth for Bruce from Finding Nemo or that for Ratatouille they created 270 foods by computer. Pixar's influence was so great that this, so laborious and expensive, became the norm for any animation company. The occasions on which the studio has completely reinvented drawing are numerous. After his time, cartoons became animated films. Before the premiere of Inside Out 2 , this is just one example of how he revolutionized Hollywood.

Toy Story and the throne of digital

With 28 films behind him, it seems easy to assume that a film made entirely by digital animation was going to succeed. At Christmas 1995 , no one expected it to happen this way . And even less so if it came from an unknown studio built in the bowels of George Lucas's special effects company. Disney, which distributed it, had in fact delayed the project several times, and refused to accept that the future would be computer-based (the test runs were disastrous). Something that became undeniable when the reception of Toy Story was witnessed . The wickers were the same as always, but everything else was different. It was published that it had been filmed with 300 processors and 800,000 computing hours. After the adventures of Woody and Buzz, the virtual creation of characters was going to stop being a resource used occasionally, or in cheaper short films, and become the main technique for making feature films for the next three decades. It exceeded any type of expectations. So much so that, until now (although there currently seems to be a leap in the opposite direction), two-dimensional animation has almost disappeared from major Hollywood animated productions.

Toy Story 2 and the sequels

 

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Disney released sequels to Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King , among others. Always direct to video and without the level of animation required for a blockbuster. The second parts were something that animators fled from, one of the most original spaces in Hollywood. The great directors never made sequels. Toy Story 2 changed everything, for better and for worse, because not only was it released in theaters, but some critics even considered it to be better than the original . The soul was still there, there was a reason to do it and, cinematically, it captured one of the best moments in animation: the reconstruction of Woody. It would be the first sequel of many (not all good). With it, the jumping lamp company also became its own icon that surpassed its films. The best example is not only the merchandising , but the dozens of exhibitions that attract children and parents thirsty to know every detail of its magic. This film also holds the record for animation created in one week of production: five minutes and 42 seconds. In case there were any doubts, it is hard and slow work.

Ratatouille 's nostalgic regression

 

Each hair of the Rataouille rats undergoes enormous modeling work. That work evolved how any realistic character is built. But Pixar's eighth film stood out for a decisive moment that made us wonder if these works were for children . Towards its end, the food critic Anton Ego experienced a regression to his childhood that led him to feel everything that the delicacy that Remy had made him meant. A flashback built in each zoom and camera movement, between shadows, colors and changing textures. A technical and sentimental feat that made the villain of the film understood in a short sequence. Because bad guys are something the studio was never very interested in.

The seven saddest minutes of Up

 

Pete Docter is the current president of Pixar, after John Lasseter left the company accused by the Me Too movement of overstepping his employees. His work at the head of the company has been highly criticized, but there is something impeccable in his career as a director: one of the saddest beginnings in the history of cinema, the sequence of about seven minutes that narrates life, marriage and mourning from Carl from Up . Only with music and animation. A short film that is an emotional feat.

The incredible superheroes

 

Although it may seem strange, it can be said that Pixar was one of the companies that put superheroes on the cinematic map. It was done in 2004 by Brad Bird, another of Lasseter's graduate students, in what for many continues to be one of the key works of the subgenre. The Incredibles drank a lot from Marvel before the company flooded everything. After all, this family was not too different from that of The Fantastic Four . Bird, after failing to succeed in live-action cinema with experiments like Tomorrowland , has returned to animation with his friend Lasseter in Skydance . Because Pixar has also given great filmmakers.

The jump to Disney+

 

It has been one of the decisions that has most transformed Pixar, one of the most controversial and which some attribute to the end of the company as we knew it. In the middle of the pandemic, and with theaters closed, Disney thought that the best thing for Pixar films was to send them to streaming . Speaking in retrospect is easier than then, but it was soon seen that Luca , Red and Soul were not only going to lose money at the box office, but that releasing them directly at home was going to make those works be seen as minor films, despite have exploited the originality of their proposals much more than other recent projects. The reality today is that Pixar has just fired 175 workers from its studio, 14%, that Lightyear and Elemental did not work as they should, and that the future holds new sequels. It is not his best moment, and the decision not to wait for the theaters was the trigger. In any case, Pixar also has the right to suffer ups and downs , as Disney has had throughout its history. In 2025, it will be 30 years since he released his first feature film, and the milestones are still greater than the failures. Citing the great philosophy of the bottom of the sea: you have to keep swimming.