Lamp Life
The Film: Luxo Jr (1986)
The Moment: Though it follows The Adventures Of Andre And Wally B, there’s little argument that this short is the real birth of Pixar’s enduring legacy – and logo.
Think back to the first time you saw it – John Lasseter’s creation of a lamp so child-like, it’s tough to believe it’s animated and not just filmed.
In Their Own Words: “I had done some student films with them, and they were kind of fun, explains Lasseter. "I started working on doing lamps. I modelled one Luxo lamp, and then a friend of mine came over with his baby. And then I went back to working on the lamp, and wondered what the lamp would look like as a baby.
“I scaled different parts of it down: the springs are the same diameter, but they're much shorter. The same with the rods. The shade is small but the bulb is the same size. The reason the bulb is the same size is because that's something you buy at the hardware store; it doesn't grow.”
Leafy Street
The Film: A Bug’s Life (1998)
The Moment: One of the prime examples of Pixar’s attention to the minutest detail – Flick’s trip to the circus through the insect town is impressive for the layers it adds in showing bugs living among everyday trash.
And the fantastic shots of the circus performers, using their natural abilities to put on a show? Genius.
In Their Own Words: “A lot of people get to go out to exotic countries to do their research - we did ours by sticking our heads underneath the planters in front of Pixar," says John Lasseter.
"Our tech guys built what we called a 'bug's camp' so we could see things from the point-of-view of an insect. We noticed everything in the world at that level is translucent - every glass blade, every petal and every leaf. It's like living in a world where you're looking out a stained-glass window."
Claw Worship
The Film: Toy Story (1995)
The Moment: Believing he’s found a rocket to help him soar back to the Gamma Quadrant, Buzz Lightyear finds himself falling into a grab-a-prize machine loaded with small, green, three-eyed alien toys.
What could have been a throwaway joke becomes something wonderful as the aliens' society is revealed – they worship the machine’s claw as a god who picks only those who are worthy. Wonderful.
In Their Own Words: “We had people come in for ‘gag sessions’ to try and come up with fresh ideas,” recalls Lasseter. “Probably the crowning achievement of one of those was this idea that they’d get caught in a crane game.
“We originally had these plastic pizza slices with sunglasses on, and then Gary Trousdale, who did Beauty And The Beast at Disney, said, ‘Buzz will come in there and say, “Who’s your leader?” and they’ll reply, “The claaaaw…”’ and as soon as he said that, we were howling with laughter.
"And we immediately realised that if your life is in this glass case, with that claw, pretty soon you would start worshipping it. It makes sense. People couldn’t believe it, but we loved it.”
To Infinity...
The Film: Toy Story 2 (1999)
The Moment: The Toy Story sequel filmmakers have a little fun with the audience – and spoof several sci-fi movies at once – in an opening that sees Buzz Lightyear playing the hero as he battles Zurg’s robot forces and invades his fortress.
Between the 2001 nod and the fact that the “source of Zurg’s power” is a literal battery, the sequence is just plain thrilling – and then, in a gag worthy of early M Night Shyamalan, Buzz is blasted apart by his nemesis, only to be revealed as a video game character being ineptly controlled by Rex the dinosaur.
In Their Own Words: According to John Lasseter, “We were inspired to do the titles from Superman, plus the fact that a flying logo is the cheesiest thing you can do in computer animation, and those were the first chrome flying logos Pixar ever did.
“We always wanted to start with this idea, because we wanted to take the audience a little off-guard. Everyone’s expecting Toy Story – Andy’s room – and we wanted to start it like the projectionist just put up reel five of Armageddon…”
Under The Sea
The Film: Finding Nemo (2003)
The Moment: The team put a lot of work into creating the astonishing undersea world of Nemo, so they can be forgiven for showing it off.
But what a sequence – as teacher Mr Ray sweeps over the coral reefs and seabed filling the students in on the detail of their world, we get a mesmerising glimpse of the fish society.
In Their Own Words: “That was Andrew Stanton’s idea – to give everyone around Nemo such life, and to have this wacky science teacher who would show him the wonders in a funny way,” says Bob Peterson, who also voiced Mr Ray.
“We just tried to make the reef, in this short little moment, the most beautiful paradise – so Nemo can see what life could be like.”
Mind The Doors
The Film: Monsters, Inc (2001)
The Moment: Chasing down evil chameleon-style villain monstoid Randall, heroes Mike and Sulley find themselves confronted with the hangar-sized chamber where the doors that the scare crew uses to enter our world are kept and collected.
What follows is an Escher-style screwball chase through several dimensions and lots of different destinations in scenes that would bankrupt most live-action productions.
In Their Own Words: “As soon as we came up with the basic concept we knew that all the doors would have to be stored somewhere,” says Pete Docter.
“And we knew we had a great third act because you get this roller-coaster ride combined with a chase around the world.
“You know, it’s kind of like Scooby Doo on steroids, with all the doors running back and forth. But really Lee (Unkrich) and the lab team took it to this whole other level that just makes it really incredible.”
Love At First Megabyte
The Film: Wall-E (2008)
The Moment: It’s meet-extremely-cute for Wall-E and EVE when the excitable little droid shelters his lady crush from a dust storm and she discovers his man-cave of wonders.
Played out with zero dialogue (aside from some ‘bot sounds), it’s like a pristine romantic comedy beat with added animation glory.
In Their Own Words: “We wanted one of the early meetings of Wall-E and EVE to have the feeling of a first date,” explains story chief Jim Reardon.
“He brings her to his place, his truck. He wants her to like him, to like his stuff. We wanted to show that she's intelligent, so we had her solve his Rubik's Cube in two seconds. And we wanted to show that she finally starts warming up to him.
“We had to figure out how our characters could say, ‘I love you’ when neither of them really speaks English. We figured it should be the holding of hands. He sees people do it on the Hello Dolly tape and is yearning to try it with her.”
In Arm's Way
The Film: Toy Story (1995)
The Moment: The sort of audacious, iconic idea rarely seen outside of classic Disney and other, more risk-taking ‘toon houses, we see Buzz Lightyear lose an arm after trying to fly, bringing down the horrible realisation that he really, truly is just a toy.
It’s capped by a perfect moment of surreal comedy as Woody slaps a little sense back into him – with Buzz’s own amputated limb.
In Their Own Words: “Woody slaps Buzz with his own hand,” chuckles Andrew Stanton, “which is inspired from Commando . We heard about this story about the movie where Arnold gets hidden in this shed with this whole army is going to attack him.
"The character cuts off this bad guy’s arm with a machete and Arnold asked the director, ‘How about in the next scene I pick up the guy’s arm and smash him with his own fist?’ And the director said, ‘I think that’s going a little too far…’ But we said, ‘We can do that!’
Dress For Success
The Film: The Incredibles (2004)
The Moment: Notable not only for the impressively James Bond-alike demonstration that Edna Mode gives for the new superhero costumes she’s designed for Bob Parr’s family (they’re bulletproof/stretchy/fire-resistant - and "machine-washable, darling. That's a new feature”) but for E herself.
Voiced by director Brad Bird, she’s the pipsqueak with the massive personality, a force of nature who dominates an already effective scene.
In Their Own Words: “She was my most fun character to write,” recalls Brad Bird.
“Any day that I was writing her, I was one happy camper. The idea was that superheroes always have these flamboyant costumes, and nobody explains who designs them. Every once in a while there would be a half-hearted attempt where they'd show some muscle-bound guy sewing in the basement.
“And I never really bought it that suddenly this guy had an interest in fashion, you know? So I thought if you had a world populated with superheroes like we do, that somebody would be designing this stuff.
“And she couldn't just be a designer, she would also have to be half- scientist, sort of the technical whiz that outfits the hero in an action movie... ‘If you press this, it's a lighter, but it's also a rocket!’”
Totally Tubular, Dude!
The Film: Finding Nemo (2003)
The Moment: Having been introduced to the aquatic world, we’re now granted an audience with one of its most colourful inhabitants – laidback surfer dude turtle Crush – with a voice provided by Andrew Stanton himself - and his son, Squirt.
It’s a joyous, exhilarating rush that helps push the characters along in their journey while also being a visual masterpiece.
In Their Own Words: “We went through several attempts, trying to get the right voice for Crush, and we ended up with some jerk,” laughs Stanton. “We did a test screening and it went really well. I called myself, and I told me I got the role.
“The one fact that I really lie about, ocean-wise, is that real-life turtles are solitary migrators, they don’t tend to travel in groups like this. But it was just too cool and it helped the story along. We don’t address it in the script, but they’re all off to Hawaii to go surf.”
Lightning Lost For Words
The Film: Cars (2006)
The Moment: Cars may get a lot less respect than other Pixar releases, but it has plenty of power to wow.
Take race car Lightning McQueen’s drive out in the country with sexy female lawyer Porsche Sally Carrera – he’s not only bowled over by her, but he realises he’s in a place of great natural beauty. And the scene makes us realise the same thing.
In Their Own Words: “At one point, we weren't sure we could get this film rendered in time because it was just so complex,” chuckles John Lasseter. "Some of the rendering times were, like, 50 hours per frame."
“But we really felt that this complexity was needed to make the town of Radiator Springs believable."
Friends, Not Food
The Film: Finding Nemo (2003)
The Moment: Blending the comic with the terrifying, Andrew Stanton’s first directorial effort pitches the meeting between Dory, Marlin and three self-proclaimed vegetarian sharks perfectly.
And when Bruce (given wonderful, visceral life by Barry Humphries) cracks under the pressure and resorts to his natural killing machine status, it results in a breathless underwater pipe pursuit.
In Their Own Words: “We originally had an extra sequence in there, with the sharks playing volleyball using mines,” recalls Stanton. “But Jim Reardon pushed me to include a chase through the sunken submarine instead. And I am so thankful for that.”
“I think this is the first time we put blood in a CG movie!”
Power Up!
The Film: The Incredibles (2004)
The Moment: After hiding their abilities for so long, the Parr family finally get a chance to let loose - and have to, if they’re going to survive an encounter with Syndrome’s goons on his island.
The sheer, unadulterated joy of watching young Dash finally open up to his true potential (and top speed) will surely force a grin and gape to your face – even if you’ve never cracked a comic book open in your life.
In Their Own Words: “You have a husband and wife who had used their abilities and to sublimate them, and then you have kids who were never encouraged to use them,” explains Brad Bird.
“So, what would it be like for those kids to finally unleash their full potential? And then you have the story of a guy who’s living in the past, and a mom that’s so living in the present that she’s cut off a certain part of herself that is still alive.
“It should come through that Helen gets a little bit reawakened as well. She thinks that she’s not missing anything, but it turns out that she is a little bit.”
You. Are. A. Toy!
The Film: Toy Story (1995)
The Moment: So notable that it gets used in just about every celebratory montage for the film, this burst of frustration from Woody to Buzz is included for a reason - it’s quite brilliant.
The film has been building to this point and it’s delivered perfectly by Tom Hanks, with able support from Tim Allen, who gets the killer follow-up: “You are a sad, strange little man, and you have my pity.”
In Their Own Words: “I’m probably more proud of this than any other sequence in the film,” explains Lasseter. “In this scene, you have the wonderful opportunity for both characters to look at the other and say, ‘You are the craziest person I have ever met in my life!’ And as the audience, you know exactly where they’re coming from!”
Meet The Monsters
The Film: Monsters, Inc (2001)
The Moment: Among the many things Pixar gets right is the fact that the studio’s writers and animators know how to introduce you to a world, cramming a boatload of explanatory information into a simple montage.
The sweeping look into the scream-gathering universe of Monsters, Inc is just breathtaking – even down to the obligatory Right Stuff slow-mo shot.
In Their Own Words: Says Pete Docter, “Monstropolis was a challenge. We like to bring on children’s book illustrators and artists and designers from the outside and then they visualise what the settings and characters might look like.
“The city was so open-ended at first because it could be anything - buildings made of jelly or they live in caves or… It was almost too open-ended.
“John Lasseter came on and said, ‘What if it was our world, only monsters lived here? We’d have to make the floors stronger. The doors would have to be wider and probably with multiple doorknobs so that short monsters can get in as well as tall monsters.’”
Explode Into Space
The Film: Wall-E (2008)
The Moment: Wall-E is rudely ejected from the star cruiser Axiom by EVE, who wants to send him home. We not only get the pulse-pounding moment of EVE seeing the escape pod explode, but the glorious ballet among the stars between the two robots as they sail around the ship.
In Their Own Words: “We wanted to get Wall-E back out into space", says Andrew Stanton. "We knew we couldn’t geek out in the second act when he reaches the Axiom and not see him out there again.
“But we needed a good story reason to do so – and that made the film even better. We break a lot of rules, like sound in space, but Wall-E using a fire extinguisher to fly means that we get this really romantic cascade of crystals.”
Grand Entrance
The Film: A Bug’s Life (1998)
The Moment: Like a scene out of a ‘50s gang movie, bully bug Hopper – voiced with ideal smarm and menace by Kevin Spacey – and his gang land in the ant colony and demand their annual food supply.
Between ramping up the grasshoppers’ buzz so it sounds like motorcycles and the excellent character animation on the wrong ‘uns, it’s another early indication that Pixar knows how to wow with simplicity.
In Their Own Words: “We had the idea of the feet smashing into the ant hill, with shafts of light coming through from the very first outline,” says Andrew Stanton.
“We were so excited about our grasshoppers’ introduction, with them coming in like Hell’s Angels to a small Midwestern town and just wreaking havoc, riding their motorcycles through cafes. But then the leader comes in and they all stop dead and it shows you the power of Hopper over the others.”
Race Fever
The Film: Cars (2006)
The Moment: Pulsing with John Lasseter’s love for fast cars and the thrill of the race, Cars opens with an impressive speedway sequence that boasts not only some intense action, but also a host of sly references to product placement.
In Their Own Words: “I grew up in Los Angeles, California and if you haven’t heard, we’re crazy about cars in LA. My father was a parts manager for a Chevrolet dealership all my life, and I grew up going to the dealership to look at all the latest new cars, and I got my love of cars from that.
“And also I live in Sonoma California, which is a kind of wine region of northern California, but we do have a raceway there in the town, a road course, and all the big race circuits come there so I’ve really grown to have a love of racing as well.
“My wife was the one that reminded me that I had to think about the people who don't really fetishise cars. She said, 'Make this movie for me, your nieces and everybody else in the world who doesn’t like racing’.”
Song Of Sorrow
The Film: Toy Story 2 (1999)
The Moment: A depressed Jessie explains to Woody why she doesn’t ever want to be owned by a human again. Instead of reams of exposition or a standard montage, the TS team cues up Sarah McLachlan singing the Randy Newman-penned 'When She Loved Me' to show how Jessie had been cherished then cast aside.
Tears? You betcha.
In Their Own Words: “This is one of the best uses of a song, I think, in any movie,” says Lasseter. “We were working on this sequence where Jessie relates her back story. And every time she would tell the story, it lost some emotion. We said, ‘What about a song?’
We don’t generally like to have characters break out in song. We like a song to fit the emotion and this worked so well. Randy Newman wrote it very fast. I told him, ‘Randy, this song has to be sad.' It brought tears to our eyes.”
Menu Memory
The Film: Ratatouille (2007)
The Moment: Snarky, stodgy, ultra-picky food critic Anton Ego graces Gusteau’s restaurant, having heard there’s a hot new chef in town. He’s eager to tear the man down.
But something else happens: with one mouthful of the ratatouille whipped up by Remy the rodent and Linguini the wannabe chef, Ego is transported back to childhood in a shot that encapsulates everything about him in one two-second scene.
In Their Own Words: “When I was writing the character, Peter O'Toole was the voice I heard in my mind," says director Brad Bird.
"We had to dance with him a little bit, but once he was in, it was a blast. The animators were climbing over each other to get more Anton Ego scenes in the film because they loved the character so much."
