With Pixar, Animation Grows Up'

"Up" is a wonderful movie. Among the best I've seen this year.

I gave it 3 1/2 stars. After writing my review I saw it a second time and came away convinced I should have given it 4 stars.

Apparently lots of you agree. Pixar's latest effort did smashing business on its opening weekend (nearly $70 million). Even more telling are the comments I've been getting.

On the same day, two guys - both middle-aged men - told me they'd found themselves crying twice during the film.

This is not a reaction we're used to with animated entertainment, much less from middle-aged men. But "Up" makes cartoon characters as real, as substantial, as emotionally rich as any Oscar-winning drama.

Yeah, it's a fanciful adventure about an old man and little kid who float away for a South American expedition in a house borne aloft by hundreds of colorful helium balloons.

But it's also about growing old, about loneliness at any stage of life, about bereavement and the human need for growth and adventure that stubbornly refuses to fade with time.

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Pixar Animation To Build Studio In Vancouver

Vancouver, British Columbia (AHN) - Pixar Animation is setting up a 20,000-square foot studio in Vancouver where it will produce popular short features. Pixar plans to hire about 100 people, most of them Canadians, who will make the studio's 3D, computer-animated short films which normally run for three to five minutes.

However, the theatrical features of the film will still be made at Pixar's main studio in Emeryville, California, where about 900 employees are located.

According to the Calgary Herald, Walt Disney Studios, which merged with Pixar in 2006, is looking for good locations in Vancouver, particularly downtown. Pixar's timetable is to have the studio in operation by fall.

Pixar's entry is considered timely since 600 jobs were shed at video game maker Black Box, following the cost cutting measures initiated by its parent firm Electronic Arts.

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Pixar Animation Goes to Poland

In the forthcoming months, animation fans based in Poland will have the chance to see all of Pixar Animation Studios' theatrical shorts on free-tv. In a series of broadcast deals signed within the past week, Disney-ABC-ESPN Television has come to an agreement with TVP (Poland) to air Pixar's fourteen animated shorts, in addition to other, live-action Disney Channel properties. Disney-ABC-ESPN Television is the content distribution group of The Walt Disney Co. which is chiefly centered on facilitating international television programming.

Poland's TVP, a public broadcasting station, has acquired the rights to air each of the fourteen Pixar theatrical shorts. Titles picked up naturally include the supernatural Driver's Ed tale of "Lifted" (2006), which tracks the humorous experience of a young alien student whose knack for flying a flying saucer isn't yet perfected; and "For the Birds" (2000), whose elegant and fluid portrayal of the perils of birds perched on telephone wires is indeed made of the stuff of theatrical cartoons past.

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Animated film is a real winner

'WALL-E' should garner a best film nomination in Oscars, says critic

Computer generated images (CGI) were first used as a special effects tool in the film business, seen for the first time in The Abyss (1989) and later in Terminator II: Judgment Day (1991). Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park (1993) was famous for the use of the tool when it came to creating the dinosaurs within the film, and finally in 1995 an entire feature film was created inside a computer.

First of all, let’s be clear that Pixar, the company that teamed with Disney to create some of the greatest animations of this generation, made Tin Toy in the ’90s, a fascinating early look at what could be wrought inside a computer. That led to Toy Story (1995), which changed the face of the industry and revolutionized the art form and technology. Like the coming of sound, movies were rocked by CGI as sweeping change could be felt in the air. You see, the technology could be used to create stunning animation or as visual effects tools in big-budget epics like Saving Private Ryan (1998), or low-budget works such as The Sweet Hereafter (1997), in which the bus plunging into the frigid water is all a computer effect.

Since Toy Story, the CGI-animated features have dominated the box office, with the most breathtaking work being that in Finding Nemo (2003), a brilliantly animated film that was also wildly entertaining and fun to watch. So popular were these films that a brand new Academy Award was created to present to the best animated feature film each year, as the flesh-and-blood pictures were being threatened by the presence of such brilliance in the world of animation.

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Pixar Animation: A restrospective

Oh, I am so excited! Wall-E hits theaters tomorrow. I wish there was some sort of giant hat that looked like the little robot that I could wear when I see the movie; that's how totally stoked I am for this flick. Why? 2 reasons. I like the general premise of the film; a robot all alone on a garbage inhabited Earth; a film with almost no dialogue. It's an odd premise, but it sounds cool. The second reason I'm excited for this movie? It's PIXAR!! Pixar, the company single handedly saving animation from becoming the dreaded scum of cinema; since Toy Story, the only animated film I've seen that can hold a candle to a Pixar movie is Dreamworks' Kung Fu Panda.

All of the Pixar movies rock, some of them being among my favorite films of all time. You can rank some of the Pixar movies with the best animated classics from the days of Walt himself; since Toy Story, the only animated film I've seen that can hold a candle to a Pixar movie is the recent Kung Fu Panda. Kids love them, teenagers love them, adults love them, and critics have an unbridled fascination with them.

Today, we're going to take a look at the studio's films, ranking them from best to worst; of course, the worst Pixar movie is still incredible filmmaking. Joining me near the end of this retrospective is guest critic Thomas Lack, with his own choice on how the list would go. So grab your Buzz Lightyear action figure and get ready for a trip down animation-memory lane!

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