Remaining Ideas Over Lunch
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| A place where employees and staff members "can work and play under on roof." |
The success of the Pixar Animation Studios’ first three
films (Toy Story, 1995; a bug’s life, 1998; and Toy Story 2, 1999) led to the decision
to create a new facility, which officially opened in Emeryville, California, on
November 27, 2000.
John Lasseter served as an executive producer on
subsequent films, giving fellow colleagues opportunities to present their
filmmaking chops. Some of these ideas came from a now-famous lunch at Hidden
City Café in Point Richmond, California, in 1994, between Lasseter and Pixar veterans Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and the late Joe Ranft. Stanton and
Docter were the first two animators that Lasseter hired outside of the studio (going
back to 1990). Both served as original story writers for Toy Story, with Docter supervising the animation on that film as well. Stanton
would go on to co-direct a bug’s life
with Lasseter, while Lasseter ultimately chose Docter to direct what would be
the studio’s fourth feature film. (Docter had no prior directing experience then.)
Through Our Closet
Doors
Co-directed by Toy
Story editor Lee Unkrich and Simpsons
writer David Silverman, Monsters, Inc. (2001) brought to
life the age-old child belief that monsters hide in our closets, waiting to come
out and scare us at night. As they had done with toys and bugs, the filmmakers
started with a familiar idea, and then took it to a whole other level, and then
some. As the opening credits roll, for example, audiences are invited in for a
fun and entertaining time. Then the very first sequence starts out scary, with
a monster ready to scare a little boy. Suddenly, that notion twists on itself
and becomes funny, and we soon find out it’s a test that the monster is going
through.
You see, the film tells us that monsters scare children
simply because it's their job to. Furthermore, it's children's screams that
power as an energy source for the monster world, known as Monstropolis, where
monsters of all shapes and sizes and qualities have everyday lives like the
rest of us. In addition, there’s been an energy crisis since kids are reportedly
becoming harder and harder to scare. The irony, though, is that monsters are
actually scared of children. And when a human girl named Boo wanders through
her closet door and into their world, it's up to top scarer James P. “Sulley”
Sullivan (voiced by John Goodman) and his friend Mike Wazowski (voiced by Billy
Crystal) to get her back home. Yet, when they discover a dark, secret plot
within the company that turns out to be more scary and dangerous than all
they’ve worked for (the dark side of desperation, shall we say), they must
choose between doing what is right-but-costly and what is easy-but-self-fulfilling.
Wow. Talk about creative freedom and complexity.
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| Boo, Sulley, and Mike |
The film was not only a breakthrough in CGI (particularly
with the animation Sulley’s fur), though that’s an obvious given. It’s also a
joy in its aforementioned creative storytelling and in its visual comedy, with
several sight gags and homages. Monster street signs read “Stalk” instead of
“Walk,” and the name of the local sushi restaurant is a nod the late
stop-motion animator, Ray Harryhausen. The scare floor is also amazing to see, in
terms of how the doors are operated and linked between the human and monster
worlds (including time zones), and how they’re stored in the door vault (an
entertaining and surprising roller-coaster sequence, if ever there was one). It’s
also interesting that the scare assistants, including Mike, wear helmets like
construction workers.
The main characters are winning and compelling. Mike is a
one-eyed green ball with skinny arms and legs. Sulley is a blue and furry gentle
giant with purple polka-dots. Boo is an adorable 2-year-old girl. Randall is a
conniving, chameleon-like lizard who wants to outrank Sulley as the best
scarer. Celia is a charming receptionist, and Mike’s girlfriend, with snakes
for hair. Roz, a scene stealer, is a snobby office clerk. And company CEO
Waternoose is a grandfather-like crab.
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| Roz was voiced by story supervisor Bob Peterson |
The central message not only concerns the roles of
parental figures, nor just the effects of fear and laughter and friendship
(like Boo’s presence on the monster world), but also in choosing to do what
matters and what is right, even though it’s costly, versus what is easy and for
our own sakes. The same applies to Pixar animators and filmmakers, who cared
about their work and leaving audiences with themes and messages—and not just
cartoony aspects—to inspire and challenge them.
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| Cast of Monsters, Inc. |
What most people probably forget is that this movie came
out less than two months after 9/11, and it was a question of whether audiences
would go and see movies after that day. When the film did come out on November
2 that year, it did attract families, including those of younger children,
because it allowed them to go and see something together for, reportedly, the
first time in weeks. Docter’s commitment to the film shows. The last shot of
the film, for instance, illustrates hope for the future, and hope for what will
happen next. And it’s a message that would carry deeper into their next film.
Trivial facts:
- When John Lasseter was a student at CAL Arts in
the late 1970s, one of the two short films he animated was called
“Nitemare,” about a boy who sees monsters when he turns out the lights at
night.
- Monsters,
Inc. was the last Pixar film to have animated outtakes. (Couldn’t keep
forever, right?)
- “Hidden City Café” is featured at the beginning
of the film, when Mike and Sulley are walking to work.
- Because Mary Gibbs (the voice of Boo) was less
than three years old at the time of her voice recordings, the filmmakers
couldn’t get her to sit still. Instead, they followed her around with a
microphone, which allowed spontaneity to the character’s performance.
- Monsters,
Inc. includes nods to past Pixar films and possible foreshadows to future
ones. (Some of the toys in Boo’s room include a Jessie doll from Toy Story 2, a “Luxo Jr.” ball, and a squeaky Nemo; and the garbage cubes could possibly
foreshadow WALL*E.)
Fish Out of Water
Clownfish Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks) and wife Coral
are ready to start a family, until unexpected tragedy strikes in the form of a
barracuda. Only Marlin and one baby egg survive. Years later, son Nemo is
excited for his first day of school, but Marlin continuously warns his son that
the ocean is not safe. Marlin may be a clownfish, but the irony is he’s often
serious and very much a worry-wart. (At least two characters make a point in
saying, “For a clownfish, he really isn’t that funny.”) From that, angst arises
in Nemo, until he is taken by a sea diver and Marlin sets out on his journey to
find him. Along the way, he meets a forgetful blue tang fish named Dory (voiced
by Ellen DeGeneres), as well as a host of colorful and quirky characters who
illustrate the importance of community, accountability, faith and/or family.
When a parent experiences tragedy, they fear for their
children. The opening scene in Finding Nemo (2003)—which implies
the death of Marlin’s wife and children, save for one, by a barracuda—proved
too intense for some families, yet director Andrew Stanton defended it by stating
that it “works within the rules of nature,” as had been done in such classic
Disney films as Bambi and The Lion King. Furthermore, Stanton
describes the film as a metaphor for life—as if stating, “Yes, there is danger
in the world, but there is also beauty and fun and hope.” And there are scary
moments in the film, to be sure, particularly in the form of sharp-toothed
creatures. Stanton also believed that “there were so many other flavors of what
a Pixar movie could be,” compared with what they had done in the past with
toys, bugs, and monsters. At the same time, there were doubts as to whether the
film would work, and if it would become the studio’s first flop, as many had
speculated.
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| Marlin and Dory encounter jellyfish |
What Nemo
ultimately showcased was a new benchmark in visual and emotional
sophistication. In fact, it set something of a benchmark for Pixar in how to
make a feature film (and in transcending the medium of animation). It takes
emotional resonance to a whole other level by not just allowing audiences to
watch a movie, but also experience it. The breathtaking animation of the ocean,
along with Thomas Newman’s bittersweet (and almost ethereal) score, draws you
in from the first frame. The attention to detail also showcases the enormous
amount of research the animators put in, thanks in part to scuba-diving trips
and visits to Sydney, Australia.
Very funny and unforgettable scenes, some of which
include homages to Jaws and Pinocchio (a scene inside a whale, and
the theme of the prodigal son), have become a part of the cultural zeitgeist in
recent years. The same goes for now-quotable lines (“P. Sherman 42, Wallaby
Way, Sydney” Dory “speaking whale”) and the cast of quirky and colorful
characters, from sting-ray school teachers to vegetarian sharks in AA-style
meetings (“If I am to change this image, I must first change myself”) to an
initiation in a dental fish tank (“Shark Bait, who-ha-ha!”), charade fish,
radical sea turtles (Stanton voices the character Crush), seagulls (“Mine!”) and
pelicans. Interesting enough, this is one of the few Pixar films (let alone, an
animated film) that doesn’t have any real villains—depending on who you count
as such.
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| Company of tank fish (with Nemo, in helmet) |
At its heart, Nemo
is about a father learning to let go of his insecurities, and allowing his son
to experience life and to take risks, as well as believing that his son can do
great things. As Dory truthfully states, “You can’t never let anything happen to him because then
nothing would ever happen to him.” The
same goes for having faith in friends and others, as well as doing things better
with community, accountability and/or fellowship (such as when Dory begs Marlin
not to leave her, or when word spreads from sea to land about Marlin looking
for Nemo, who is amazed to hear all his father has been doing and that he cares).
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| Sea turtle Crush was voiced by director Andrew Stanton |
Trivial facts:
- The animation tests of fur for Monsters, Inc. were similarly used for
the anemone in Finding Nemo.
- The year of its theatrical release, Finding Nemo
eventually out-grossed The Lion King as the most successful animated film in
history, but only just.
- The credits don’t include outtakes, as Pixar’s
three previous films did, yet they’re still fun as characters swim across the
screen.
- According to IMDb, "With over 25 million
likes, Dory is the most liked character on Facebook from any Disney or Pixar
film."
The Little Robot That Lived, and Could
The last of the ideas that Stanton and company discussed
at "Hidden City Café" in 1994 was a story that took place hundreds of years into
the future and centered on a lonely trash-compacting robot left to clean the
earth, one garbage cube at a time. In WALL*E (2008), Earth has become so
polluted and overpopulated with trash (largely thanks to a dominant consumer corporation
aptly named “Buy’n’Large”) that human beings had to leave. Even more, they’ve allowed consumerism and technology to influence the way they think, the way
they act, and even the way they look. (More on that later.)
Following a marvelous backdrop opening of space, complete with “Put
On Your Sunday Clothes” from Hello, Dolly!, we first see
WALL*E (voiced by Star Wars sound
veteran Ben Burtt, with modifications) doing the job he was built for, collecting
earth’s trash and compacting it in the form of cubes amid deserted buildings
and valleys. He is apparently the last robot—let alone, inhabitant— save for a cockroach friend, while other robots like him have apparently shut
down. (His name is an acronym for “Waste Allocation Load Lifter-Earth Class”.) Yet,
he remains vigilant in his duties and even finds and collects various trinkets
and knick-knacks that represent what humanity has left behind. He keeps these
things in a storage area, including a Rubik’s cube, lighters, an iPod, an old
VHS of Hello, Dolly! and a small green plant he finds in a sealed shed. At
the same time, he longs for the kind of affection and companionship he sees in
the film he watches every day (illustrated in the form of holding hands, set to
“It Only Takes a Moment”). And when a ship lands on earth one day and a probe named
EVE emerges, WALL*E is instantly smitten and eventually pursues her out into
space for an “out-of-this-world” adventure.
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| Finding trinkets |
The incredibly photorealistic animation (particularly the
first 40 minutes of the film) is perhaps the best of its kind. And I’m not
talking so much about awestruck images of, say, the sun or the rings of Jupiter
or the Milky Way, although they are all a sight to see. For Finding Nemo, one of the challenges was
animating water. Here, one of the challenges was animating air. In fact, the
subtlety and engineering in that and other small details, from WALL*E’s binocular
eyes to the other meticulous sound effects (e.g., sandstorms, robot quirks,
controls, cockroach chirps) created by Burtt, are amazing. There is also good
physical humor, which is funny and sweet, and works within the physics and laws
of robotics.
In previous Pixar films, we’ve seen creative takes on conventional
types of characters, from toys to bugs to monsters to fish (exclusively in that
order). The robot characters in WALL*E
are no different. They, like our hero, are clearly devoted to their duties when
we first meet them. EVE (voiced by Pixar employee Elissa Knight) is a vegetation
evaluator looking for signs of life on earth. Her sleek design illustrates
something pure, shiny and new, like the shape of an egg. Yet, she can also be
serious with sudden ray blasts. Auto, the “auto pilot” wheel of the Axiom
spaceship, resembles HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey. M-O is a small,
cute cleaning robot devoted to cleaning up “foreign contaminants”.
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| Mary and John are impacted by WALL*E |
Interestingly and ironically, the robot characters and
the earth look more realistic and human than the human characters and interiors
of the main ship themselves (a criticism I initially had with the film). But
maybe that’s the point, in terms of how the human characters resemble giant
babies and have forgotten—or perhaps, never have heard of—real-life. To be
fair, it’s implied that they look like giant babies as a result of microgravity
(enduring “slight bone loss”) while in space. This illustration of what materialism
or “stuff” makes human beings look and think is a strong message, as well as a
controversial and/or environmental one for some. At the same time, it sums up
the idea of the kind of programming that not only human beings have succumbed
to in the film, but that we ourselves apparently and progressively have. It also
illustrates the idea of doing what is easy versus what is right. A scene in the
film mentioning that earth has become too difficult to fix sums it up this way:
“Rather than try to fix this problem, it’ll just be easier for everyone to just
stay in space.”
According to Pixar.com, "As the film evolved [during production], the storytellers probed a more human question: are you just going to follow your programming, or are you going to take a chance." Again, it all goes back to the choice between surviving
(doing what’s easy) and living (doing what’s right), and ultimately remembering
what it means to be human regarding the latter. According to IMDb, Stanton
“claimed that the film’s central theme was that irrational love can defeat
everything, including programming.” This makes WALL*E an affectionate love story, and not just one of Pixar’s most
ambitious films.
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| Auto, the Captain, and EVE |
The relationship between WALL*E and EVE is very effective
and influential, whether through music, or a wonderful “dance” in space, or from
the imagery of holding hands. Early in the film, when EVE finds what she’s
looking for and suddenly shuts down, WALL*E worries yet stays by her side and
watches over her. Later, when EVE sees that same “hidden footage” she
apparently recorded while shut down, she really begins to understand all that
WALL*E did for her, how he took care of her through that time, and all that he
has been doing in general.
Indeed, it’s the character of WALL*E that sells and
influences the emotion arc of the story. The way he’s engineered is one thing. But
the way he acts and responds is endearing and charming. The aforementioned robot
characters also display curiosity and growing change, for better or worse. Even
some of the human characters (particularly John, Mary, and the Captain) are
affected by WALL*E’s presence, and in the smallest gestures and acts of
kindness. John and Mary are amazed at all the sights of the ship (“I didn’t
know we had a pool”) and of space (“So many stars”) they apparently see for the
first time. The Captain takes an interest in learning more about earth and
farming, and after seeing EVE’s recording of earth (and how contradictory it is
to all he has learned about), he eventually decides that he and the rest of
humanity should go back and take care of the home they never knew, and work to
make it what it once was, no matter how consumed it is now. And to think it's all inspired by a robot character who starts out doing what he's built for, and then goes on a journey to do what he's meant for, and inspires others in the process.
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| "It Only Takes a Moment" |
- Pixar started out as a computer division that
spun off from Lucasfilm in 1986. In 2006, Disney bought Pixar. Then in 2012,
Disney bought Lucasfilm. Hence, the film could be seen as a connection between
Disney and Lucasfilm not only in some of its homages to Star Wars (like the Axiom ship’s “hyper-jump,” instead of “light
speed”), but also in the fact that sound designer Ben Burtt worked on both
films.
- WALL*E
was the first Pixar film to include live-action footage (including Fred Willard
as the BnL CEO).
- This may also be the first Pixar-related project to include the name "WALL*E" since the 1984 short "Andre and Wally B."
- Even though WALL*E
is an original sci-fi film that stands on its own, there are arguably several
homages to other films in the genre, including as follows: E.T. (plant WALL*E finds), Blade
Runner (bright, colorful billboards), and Aliens (the giant airlock disposals). Sigourney Weaver even provides
the ship’s computer voice.
- In 2012, the late TIME Magazine film critic
Richard Corliss named this film the best one of the New Millennium so far,
above other critically-acclaimed films as the Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001-2003), Avatar (2009), and The Artist (2011).
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