Are we in the advertising business or MEDIA ARTS? discuss.

The real art of Pixar?

13 07 2006

Art of Pixar @ MOMA NY (and the Science Museum, London)

Two things struck me at the Pixar exhibition.

Firstly, that the show seemed built around the use of ‘old’ technology rather than the new. This was surprising, and charming. A Victorian zoetrope was the centrepiece, with a spinning three-dimensional animation of the Toy Story characters. There was genuine delight on the faces of all those watching – that people could be so beguiled by a concept from the past albeit with a modern and inventive twist – was refreshing to see. Similarly, there was a ‘movie’ of art from different films – essentially a slideshow projected on a panoramic screen – when the ‘easy’ thing to do would be show clips from the films themselves. They let the pictures do the talking, there’s no narrative/ Perhaps our presentations could benefit from a more pictorial or artistic approach?

The other thing was how relentless Pixar are to get things right. There must have been 20 or so ‘pre-volutions’ of the Sully character from Monsters Inc, each one rendered by different artists, then a number of artists riffing on their chosen direction. Sure, their movies live or die by the appeal and inventiveness of these characters, but I loved the way they can harness wildly different talents in the focused pursuit of the end result.