Pixar Showcases 25 Years of Animation

At MoCA, plastered above the life size effigies of Mike and Sully from the blockbuster hit Monsters, Inc is a quote from Peter Docter, a Pixar director, animator and writer: “Animation is real life with the volume turned up.” This line sums up the 25 Years of Animation exhibition put on by the studio that has brought moviegoers instant classics like WALL-E and Finding Nemo. As fun as their animated movies can be, turns out Pixar puts on a pretty good museum exhibition as well.

From the moment you step inside you are taken on a revealing journey of how Pixar’s talented stable of artists and technicians create the worlds their characters inhabit. Every inch of a Pixar world is designed from scratch, making the behind-the-scenes glimpses even more intriguing.

The studio, which had its genesis in 1979 as part of the Computer Division of LucasFilm, has come a long way. Acquired by Steve Jobs in 1986, then The Walt Disney Company in 2006, Pixar has won 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes and three Grammy Awards, among many other accolades. Toy Story (1995) was the studio’s first feature film generated entirely by computer, which completely changed the face of the animation industry.

The exhibition commemorates the studio’s 25th anniversary by examining the conception and creation of their hugely successful catalogue of popular films. It’s not the what here, but the why and, more importantly, the how.

The theme across the exhibition is the symbiotic relationship between traditional animation and digital media technology, as curator Elyse Klaidman, head of Pixar University, explains. Character, story and world are the three elements that go into creating Pixar films, and these core components are illustrated through a series of sketches, paintings, hand drawings, clay sculptures, storyboards, digital models, short films and multi-media pieces designed to draw the viewer into the world of Pixar.

“The exhibit really shows you behind the scenes,” says Zhou Zhicong, Deputy Director of MoCA. “The whole exhibition tells the backstage story of the Pixar films from colouring and shading to design concepts, the lighting of the animation films and the whole process of how they came about.”

Plotting the transformation from script to screen, the exhibition gets into the nitty gritty of animation. Toy Story 3’s Lotso showcases the design process of ‘fur grooming’, an intricate method involving individual strands of fur that are created and tested to gauge how they would react in a specified environment. The minutiae of the project are as mind-boggling for adults as it is for children, which is why Zhou recommends the exhibition for the whole family.

“We hope that kids will bring their grandparents and parents will bring their kids to see the exhibit, as it is educational as well entertaining,” Zhou says. “It is one of the most important art exhibitions of this year and fits in with this year’s MoCA’s Shanghai Animamix Biennial III.”

Tickets: RMB 70 on weekdays, RMB 100 weekends. Until 30 October. MoCA, 231 Nanjing Xi Lu, near People’s Park. Tel: 6327 9900. Web: www.mocashanghai.org