Pixar in Paris

January 27, 2014

Despite Paris's apparent lack of 21st-century-ness, the 25th anniversary Pixar exhibition was displayed here, at the Musée Ludique on the piers of the Seine. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the exhibition. 

The neighborhood felt like somewhere in Brooklyn rather than Paris, with all of the industrial buildings. 

Ratatouille was fortunately well-received here.

It was also a major highlight of the exhibition, with the whole Ratatouille section saved for last. 

The concept art and the story boards were incredible.

I found the perfect school to transfer to.

The exhibition was surprisingly huge. The first room contained Toy Story concept art, character design, computer program clips (so much math...x and y charts), and 3D resin models in the center of the room. Woody and Buzz drastically evolved from a creepy cowboy and an adorably tiny spaceman. Overall, it was astounding to see the amount of design and drawings that are never seen, but go into creating these words and these films. Some of the framed work looked like it was ripped straight from sketchbooks or doodled on the back of a printout during a meeting. Even though animation is not "high art," each drawing has an incredible amount of character and movement that tells stories just from the lines. 

Every Pixar film had a wall or an entire room at this exhibition. Since the exhibition was in France, the movie titles were displayed in French. This was quite amusing. Translation is a nuanced and varied, which always seems to turn out interestingly. Here, Mike's (Monster's Inc.) name is Bob. A Bug's Life is 1001 Pattes (Paws/Legs); The Incredibles is Les Indestructibles; Brave is Rebelle; Finding Nemo is Le Monde de Nemo. 

At the end of the exhibition, there was a dark room. It contained a slightly insane, over-the-top, amazing zoetrope made by Studio Ghibli of the Toy Story gang. Cheerful Toy Story music and sound effects played as the marvelous, 5-tiered zoetrope wildly spun in a blur of colors. On each level, a different character from the movie slightly changed positions as the zoetrope spun around. When the strobe lights flashed, the aliens up front waved; the ones behind them were catapulted by Wheezy the penguin and flipped through the air; Woody's arms and legs flailed as he rode Bullseye around; Jessie lassoed; and tiny green army men parachuted down from the center like a fountain spout. I watched it four or five times because it was so mind-blowing. Each toy was carefully stretched or squashed to make their movements look flawlessly smooth. 

In short, it was awesome. The end.