Here is my presentation.
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Pixar Animation Studios logo
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The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film
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Inspiring flicbits - To infinity and beyond
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a) Key quotes
1.“ Toy Story is the very humanist project and it is a modernism of a meditation of what it is to love, what is fundamentally human and what intrinsic values underpin our mortality.” Understanding animation / Paul Wells 1961- New York : Routledge, 1998
2.“Toy Story’s Woody and Buzz, which, drawing upon developmental psychology, shows the ways in which the parallel interactive relationships between children and their toys, spectators and characters, mediate the transition from a culture of the camera to the digital and consumerist era. ” Also, Some people think, “Animated film is commonly perceived as children’s play and is often neglected as a serious form of cinematic art.” Paul Wells don’t agree with that, he think “animation is a unique art form, it is significant and worthy of study.” and “the animated film has much to tell us about ourselves, the cultures we live in, and our view of art and society.” “In the ways in which national and cultural context are reimagined: In enunciating itself, Animation enunciates America: history, mythology, freedom.”
Animation and America By Paul Wells. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
3.“Observing everyday details and conceive character identity creates animated characters that are coherent and true to life.” DreamWorks animator Pierre PERIFEL, Pulses of abstraction: Episodes from a history of animation Diss.Johnston, Andrew; Gunning, Tom; Lastra, James; Tsivian, Yuri; Wild, Jennifer. The University of Chicago, 2011.
4. “A company that forever changed the film industry,it is a story of technical innovation that revolutionized animation--and ended up a multibillion-dollar success.” Price, David A, “Pixar’s RenderMan is capable of creating highly realistic and believable fur with unique features like Deep Shadows and Point Based Occlusion.” The a to z of animation and cartoons,Dobson, Nichola, 1976- Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2010
5.“Correctly realising that adults was quite happy for their inner child to be entertained with intelligence and style”. “Channel 4.com: Hollywood’s Family Values”. Channel 4.com. Retrieved 2008-12-31.
b) Key References.
Comment: It content a very detail information of Toy Story Series and easy for me to understand. It is a very useful resource for doing this project.
2. Understanding animation, Paul Wells 1961- New York : Routledge, 1998.
Comment: This is a scholar book that contains lots of texts, pictures and good discussions on the origin and characteristics of animation. Althought there are many difficult word that I don’t know, I think this book can helps me to understand animation and find useful quotation.
3. Animation and America, Paul Wells. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002.
Comment: The book included many different aspects of relation of Animation and America. It provides an overview of possible approaches to the study of animation. Also included some essay about my case study, Toy Story, it is a very useful resource for my case study.
4. “Channel 4.com: Hollywood’s Family Values”. Channel 4.com. Retrieved 2008-12-31. It focuses mainly on relationship of animation and family. And the article is not very long and easy for me to understand.
5. Pulses of abstraction: Episodes from a history of animation Diss. Johnston, Andrew; Gunning, Tom; Lastra, James; Tsivian, Yuri; Wild, Jennifer. The University of Chicago, 2011.
Comment: It is a difficult book. It contains a lot of professional terms and difficult sentence structure. Only little information can apply in my presentation.
c) Case Study - Toy Story Series
Toy Story Series produced by Pixar Studio and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.
Toy Story Series include:
Toy Story1: Release on November 22, 1995
Directed by John Lasseter
Toy Story2: Release on November 24, 1999
Directed by John Lasseter
Toy Story 3: Release on June 12, 2010
Directed by Lee Unkrich
Toy Story is a comedy-adventure animation film.It is also categorised as family movie. In the story, Toy Story follows a group of toys who pretend to be lifeless whenever humans are present, and focuses on Woody, a pullstring cowboy doll , and Buzz Lightyear, an astronaut action figure and their funny friends’s adventure story.In Toy Story 1. A little boy called Andy loves to play with his toys, especially his doll named "Woody". They come to life when Andy is not with them. Woody believes that he has a good life as a toy. However, he must worry about Andy's family moving, and what Woody does not know is about Andy's birthday party. Later Andy has a new favorite toy called Buzz Lightyear, who does not believe that he is a toy. Woody, who is now consumed with jealousy, tries to get rid of Buzz. However, both Woody and Buzz are now lost later and they must find a way to get back to Andy. In Toy Story 3, the toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
Toy Stoy give a great impact in many aspects. It gave a large impact on the film industry with its innovative computer animation. Also,
various industries were interested in the technology used for the film.
Graphics chip makers desired to compute imagery similar to the film’s animation for personal computers and game developers wanted to learn how to replicate the animation for video games.
More and more film want to building artificial intelligence into the lifelike characters in the film.
In addition, one part I love best is Toy Story left an impact with its catchphrase “To infinity and beyond!”, sequels, and software, among others. In the story, Buzz is a toy and cant fly.Woody argues Buzz’s ability to fly. Buzz has faith and proves he can. Finally, a miracle happen, Buzz really can. This reflect a Thomas theorom (a theory of sociology )states “It is not important whether or not the interpretation is correct--if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences.” I think it is very meaningful.
I like Toy Story series because it was the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer. And Toy Story series shows the development of the digital animation. The high technology animation produced by Pixar give us alots of High end quality animation, all the things in the movie become more realist so that increase audience’s entertainment, enjoyment. The story is lovely, and I think it is a masterpiece of love, friendship and family movie. This film is as chock-full of heart and warmth.
The question raised may be some people think that “Animated film is commonly perceived as children’s play and is often neglected as a serious form of cinematic art and previous accounts have tended to treat animation in isolation from broader currents in cinema.” However I don’t think so, I don’t think their kid’s films. I think animation like Toy Story series, is not only an animation, but a meaning film, and indigenous American art forms. Toy Story is the very humanist project and it is a modernism of a meditation of what it is to love, what is fundamentally human and what intrinsic values underpin our mortality.
I think, Animation is not only an entertainment and it can brings us happiness and hope. It let us to know the culture from the image and characters. Such as Toy Story, Woody and Buzz may symbolize Superheroes, western cowboy in USA, Which there are the essential culture in USA. Also, I think animation can help us to remind our childhood. Let us experience our happy childhood again and forgot our unhappy thing in the moment. Last but not lease, I think most of the Animation is educational, just like Toy story, it encourage us to treasure the things we have such family, friendship through the funny story of Woody and Buzz family. I think all animation has its own value and worth to produce and watch. In 2005,Toy Story was selected into the National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. According to Paul Wells, an animation profession, Toy Story is the very humanist project and it is a modernism of a “meditation of what it is to love, what is fundamentally human and what intrinsic values underpin our mortality. I very agree with that.
In Past, Children were not encouraged to see moving pictures, because people think that moving pictures would corrupt kids. However Disney became the first major purveyor of cinematic family entertainment. Movie like Toy story become the family films. Cinema become a Family-friendly place, family can have fun when watching it. People now correctly realising that adults were quite happy for their inner child to be entertained with intelligence and style such as animation. They always avoided sex and violence, have correct attitudes toward them. Nowadays, animation always has a positive value and worth to watch.
Some important quotation to support my view include, Paul Wells, an animation profession, he think “animation is a unique art form, it is significant and worthy of study.” and “the animated film has much to tell us about ourselves, the cultures we live in, and our view of art and society. They are in the ways in which national and cultural context are re-imagined: In enunciating itself, Animation enunciates America: history, mythology, freedom.”
Also, according to DreamWorks animator Pierre PERIFEL animation is observing everyday details and conceive character identity create animated characters that are coherent and true to life.”
