You've heard of Dark Side of the Rainbow? Now there's Another Brick in the Wall·E. So sorry about the quality of the video.
posted by litterateur on Jul 22, 2009 - 72 comments

Dying of vascular cancer, all this girl wanted to do was to see Up!
posted by Heliochrome85 on Jun 18, 2009 - 132 comments

Pixar has released ten feature films thus far, and none of them have had a female main character. This has not gone unnoticed. In fact, it has been the subject of commentary for years. But when Linda Holmes at NPR weighs in on the subject (with thoughtful comments), some of the counter-blogs get downright nasty.
posted by hippybear on Jun 14, 2009 - 647 comments

The real world location behind “Up’s” Paradise Falls. But could that house really fly?
posted by Artw on Jun 2, 2009 - 54 comments

People have been trying to make the appearance of three-dimensional movement almost as far back as the first movie cameras. The very first efforts used stereoscopy (more pre-vious-ly), which wasn't functional for theater-settings. In 1915, the first public test of 3D film was deemed unsuccessful, as images presented with green/red lenses detracted from the plot, but that didn't stop people from trying to make 3D films. Polarized glasses are another inexpensive method of simulated 3D, while shutterglasses are a more costly method. Up to 1998 or so, there were approximately 187 3D movies made, not counting porn, cartoons and shorts (which bring the 1998 total to 263). 2009 is supposedly the year that 3D movies really take off, as it has been reported that 3D films are expected to gross over $1bn (£700m) at the box office next year, a five-fold increase on their $200m haul in 2008. There are some really big titles coming, including the "3D drug trip" that is Avatar, and all of the announced future Pixar releases will get the Digital Disney 3-D treatment. But 3D isn't limited to the big screen and big companies. The next format war could be over 3D TV. And now the independent production company MeniThings has released the feature-length movie, Battle for Terra. [via mefi projects, and a bit more on the movie after the jump] [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on May 8, 2009 - 56 comments

DadHacker (previously on Mefi) ponders how the world of Pixar's Cars came about: "They turned on us, and were very thorough." Jake Parker asks a more biomechanical question and sketches the nightmarish result: "Where does the flesh end and the machine begin?"
posted by We had a deal, Kyle on Mar 6, 2009 - 42 comments

According to the majority of critics who have seen it so far, Frank Miller horrifically butchered Will Eisner's legendary comic The Spirit with his upcoming Sin City-esque film adaptation opening next week. In order to make the pain about a thousand times worse, here's an in-depth story about how there was almost a chance two decades earlier for Brad Bird, director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, to have done an animated version with the help of future founder of Pixar John Lasseter.
posted by XQUZYPHYR on Dec 19, 2008 - 76 comments

Wall-E in bento box lunch form. But wait, there's more! [more inside]
posted by chunking express on Dec 8, 2008 - 51 comments

Luxo Jr. goes blind. (SLYT). [more inside]
posted by cjorgensen on Nov 17, 2008 - 18 comments

BURN-E is a short film by Pixar Animation Studios based on a character who was briefly seen in the movie WALL-E. It takes place concurrently with the movie during the sequence when WALL-E and EVE fly around the Axiom starliner, and enter through a door, locking a welder robot outside of the ship.
posted by Effigy2000 on Nov 13, 2008 - 97 comments

Behind Pixar’s string of hit movies, says the studio’s president, is a peer-driven process for solving problems. How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity (alternate print link for those having trouble with the first link), by the co-founder of Pixar and the president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios Ed Catmull. [more inside]
posted by netbros on Sep 1, 2008 - 24 comments

Calvin and Jobs.
via Dark Roasted Blend, by way of Gizmodo.
posted by JHarris on Aug 7, 2008 - 43 comments

While the latest Pixar/Disney animated film, Wall-E (teasers, trailers and clips) debuted as the No. 1 movie this past weekend and has been met with critical acclaim, including a 97% "Fresh Rating" at RottenTomatoes and a 93% ranking by critics and 90% by viewers at MetaCritic, the film has outraged the radical right. "[M]y kids were bombarded with leftist propaganda about the evils of mankind..." "...I will do my part to avoid future environmental armageddon by boycotting any and all WALL-E merchandise and I hope others join my crusade." "I agree that the Malthusian fear mongering was annoying."^* [more inside]
posted by ericb on Jul 1, 2008 - 252 comments

1982-2007 Pixar's papers on computer graphics
posted by brundlefly on Jan 25, 2008 - 21 comments

Visual in jokes from Pixar Animation.
posted by oneirodynia on Dec 11, 2007 - 39 comments

Sometimes called "The Ed Wood of Animation", director Sam Singer had an interesting career. He was responsible for some of the most godawful cartoons ever produced, and through his work on 1975's Tubby the Tuba, was present at the birth of Pixar. [more inside]
posted by maryh on Nov 16, 2007 - 43 comments

Buy n Large. (flash) "Because at Buy n Large, we want you to leave your life to us." [more inside]
posted by dersins on Sep 27, 2007 - 13 comments

With the French embrace of Pixar's Ratatouille, one of the movie's locations has become an unlikely tourist attraction. "Destruction des Animaux Nuisibles" reads the sign above the door of Aurouze, where the bodies of rats 80 years dead hang suspended by iron traps in the storefront window. Meanwhile, American scientists tickle rodents to record thier tiny gales of laughter. Viva la difference!
posted by maryh on Aug 20, 2007 - 18 comments

In 1983, John Lassetter and Chris Wedge created some test footage that integrated CGI and traditional animation [YouTube] for Disney. The work it was based on? Where The Wild Things Are. The movie was never made and Lassetter left to start Pixar, which redefined how animated movies were created. Curious to see the shorts that led to Toy Story and its followers? Pixar's put all their short films online.
posted by beaucoupkevin on Dec 13, 2006 - 20 comments

Disney eats crow. Disney, whose former CEO Michael Eisner rejected the idea of Disney being hired to market Pixar's movies, who insisted on owning their sequel rights, and who apparently hoped Finding Nemo would flop so that he could get better negotiating terms with Pixar, is now in talks for buying Pixar outright for approximately $6.7 billion in stock. Steve Jobs gets his revenge... again. How much revenge? 50.1% of $6.7 billion dollars, apparently.
posted by insomnia_lj on Jan 19, 2006 - 51 comments

Joe Ranft, co-writer of Toy Story, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and many other animated films, and head of story at Pixar Animation Studios, died yesterday at age 45 when the car he was riding failed to negotiate an oceanside road in Mendocino County, California.
posted by cerebus19 on Aug 17, 2005 - 36 comments

Pixar has the name recognition, but plenty of other folks do some mighty fine animation. Thanks to Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt the Animation Show aims to bring them to your town. A celebratory selection of shorts inside.
posted by sciurus on Apr 10, 2005 - 19 comments

WHO IS BOB PARR? Critics, bloggers and other commentators have, usually off-handedly, linked The Incredibles to Ayn Rand. Well, it turns out the Objectivists are taking the comparison quite seriously. Yet the more exact, direct forebear of "if everybody's special, then nobody is" is clearly... Gilbert & Sullivan, no?
posted by soyjoy on Nov 28, 2004 - 39 comments

What do Pixar artists do on their day off? Ronnie Delcarmen is a story artist, story supervisor, character designer and an illustrator who works for the Incredible Company. His sketchy art style and fluid lines renders a beauty of itself. He has a weblog that discusses his groovey comic book, Paper Biscuit as well as give updates to his life as an artist.
posted by Hands of Manos on Nov 27, 2004 - 12 comments

Pixar Dumps Disney: "It is impossible to know how bad this is for Disney." On the other hand: Disney can begin creating sequels to all of Pixar's films, something it could not do under its current arrangement and is almost certain to exploit. On the third hand: One film executive suggested that Mr. Jobs could now be considered a candidate to run Disney if indeed Mr. Eisner ever left.
posted by alms on Jan 29, 2004 - 26 comments

The Incredibles is what you get when you give Iron Giant director Brad Bird the keys to the Pixar machine.
posted by coudal on Jun 5, 2003 - 25 comments

Pixar's newest kid flick good enough for adults, Finding Nemo was proceeded by a "classic" Pixar short, KnickKnack. The weird thing is that they felt compelled to change 2 characters (the "bathing beauty" and the mermaid) from a ridiculously geometric, cartoony bosomy shape to flat chested. What gives here? This reminds me of the changes Spielberg made in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and of course, the regrettable Greedo shooting incident in Lucas' Star Wars: A New Hope. My question is: When is it right to change an existing work, for whatever reason?
posted by jpburns on Jun 1, 2003 - 30 comments

A Q & A session with two guys who work at that aspiring animator's Mecca - Pixar. One of them, Victor Navone is famous in his own right for the great short "Alien Song".
posted by GriffX on Jul 10, 2002 - 3 comments

It's the plot, stupid. USA Today runs their usual insightful commentary about the upcoming release of Lilo and Stitch. It obsesses over the absence of CGI graphics pointing to Atlantis as evidence for the failure of traditional animation to draw box office. Funny me, I thought that Atlantis bombed because of a plot better left in 50s serial format, a cast of sterotypes rather than characters, and no sense of humor beyind dirty French jokes repeated over and over again. And is huge success of Pixar due to their pioneering animation, or their brilliant comic talent? What causes FX myopia anyway? Granted I can understand why fanboys obsess over the wrong things in a movie. Do the studios set it up by trying to hype each new summer release as the next big technical development (while the artistic development gets trumped by Waking Life and Insomnia?)
posted by KirkJobSluder on Jun 18, 2002 - 7 comments

Pixar iMac ads in the Luxo Jr style ... inevitable really.
posted by MintSauce on Feb 20, 2002 - 17 comments

Great article on "Shrek" & computer animation by Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com. I don't deny that the form has possibilities, but I've been getting really impatient waiting for the day the guys at the Pixar/Dreamworks sweatshops realize that the really exciting moments in art only come when you leave some gaps for the viewers to close themselves.
posted by misterzoo on May 18, 2001 - 15 comments