How Toy Story and Buzz Aldrin have a lot in common. By Dan Allison  I RECENLY RENTED two DVDs, both Tim Burton films, The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Corpse Bride (2005). Both films were made using the process of stop-motion animation, which requires the shooting to take place one frame at a time, moving the puppets just slightly each time, so that when it is played back, the puppets appear to be moving on their own. It is a very slow and laborious process, as it takes 24 frames for each second of footage. It can take weeks of work just to finish a single scene.
Both of the DVDs had a special features section which included "the making of" documentaries for each of the films. The two documentaries were basically the same, showing the process of how Tim Burton's ideas and sketches turned into the actual films. But with the making of Bride, the process of stop-motion animation was presented as a "dying art". Tim Burton even commented about how difficult it is to find animators who still know how to do stop-motion well in this time when CGI dominates the field of animation. Nightmare was released in 1993, before computer animation became the norm for animated films. I remember when it came out in theaters. I was completely amazed. It looked unlike anything I had ever seen before. Roger Ebert comments: "Working with gifted artists and designers, he [the director, Henry Selick] has made a world here that is as completely new as the worlds we saw for the first time in such films as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari or Star Wars. What all of these films have in common is a visual richness, so abundant that they deserve more than one viewing. First, go for the story. Then go back just to look in the corners of the screen, and appreciate the little visual surprises and inspirations that are tucked into every nook and cranny."Truth be told, I was eight years old at the time, so I hadn't seen much. But it was a landmark cinematic accomplishment nonetheless, and it is still a great movie. THE NEW TOY ON THE BLOCK  Two years after the release of Nightmare, the very first feature length film to be created entirely through computer animation was released, titled Toy Story. In Toy Story, Woody, a toy cowboy who is the favorite toy of the young boy Andy, finds his role as the favorite toy being taken over by Buzz Lightyear, a "space ranger" that Andy receives on his birthday.
I find this storyline to be particularly symbolic in relationship to the transition between traditional animation techniques and computer animation, or even, more broadly, the transition between an agricultural/industrial society to a technological society. I wasn't alive in 1969, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin first set foot on the moon. But it is clear that the public interest in television's westerns, which were very popular at the time, began to wane after Apollo 11, as people became more interested in things related to technology — a fact that would later be used as a plot device in Toy Story 2. I would say that the release of Toy Story had the same effect on traditional animation. Interest diminished in what technologically came before. Of course, this is not merely about animation techniques. This is about real change. Computer technology is at the crest of the wave that is currently sweeping through the world of art and the world in general. The change happening in the field of animation is yet another metaphor for what is happening all around. Here's one way to view these changes: New mediums are being born, and some of these new mediums look a lot like the old ones. In some cases, the new mediums are even taking the place of the old ones, much like Buzz Lightyear took the place of Woody. This is neither good nor bad, and at the same time, it is both good and bad. Each medium has its strengths, weaknesses, and its own personality, just like each individual artist has a unique personality and style. And each new combination of mediums brings new flavors into the mix, just like collaboration between artists yields things that none of the individual artists could have created by themselves. Mediums live, grow, socialize, and die, just like artists themselves. Around the 1920's, when synchronized audio recording was beginning to catch on in the film industry, creating "talkies", many film makers protested, saying that it took away the magic of film and that film was meant to be silent. But today, we all know the fate of the silent film. As much as I would love to see traditional animation techniques hold their position as Andy's favorite toy, I fear that it is not meant to be. The world is ever changing, and as painful as that can be sometimes, I wouldn't want it any other way. The way I see it, all artists, mediums, movements, communities, messages, and ideas live and die, but art itself cannot die. Our imagination won't let it. —Dan Allison regularly offers newly created artwork on his site the (w)hole. NOT YET A SUBSCRIBER TO POLYSEMY? Make the choice to become one today — click here for POLYSEMY Print, or here for POLYSEMY Digital. ©2006 Polysemy. All rights reserved. |
