En theater on June 19, Vice-Versa 2 is the twenty-ninth animated feature film produced by the Pixar studio. The film is a sequel to Vice versa (2015) – diving into the brain of a little girl where emotions (Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness) are embodied by characters –, which won the Oscar for best animated film in 2016 and garnered more of $850 million in box office revenue. Script originality, technical prowess, commercial exploit… So many elements that make up Pixar’s signature. Over the years, and with success, the name of the company from Emeryville, near San Francisco, has entered common parlance. We will see the new Pixar as we read the latest Emmanuel Carrère or the new Beyoncé.
His first appearance in the pages of World, on February 4, 1985, is a simple mention in a report devoted to a Monegasque forum on “international specialists in new images”. In a nicely titled article “ More beautiful, more intelligent images”, dedicated to the performance of new microprocessors, Philippe Quéau also cites “the American Pixar system from Lucasfilm, intended for cinematographic special effects”. Pixar is then an entity of the production company of director George Lucas who marked the past decade with the first three Star Wars.
Very quickly, Hollywood will be interested in the little geniuses of Silicon Valley who want to reinvent animation, until now produced by armies of designers, pencil in hand. On January 31, 1990, filmmaker Bob Swaim observed: “After having invaded television, the computer is attacking cinema. » Two years before, Who wants the skin of Roger Rabbit, by Robert Zemeckis, had “risen from the dead the animated feature film”, Disney emerging from dark years marked by failure and lack of inventiveness.
“The advent of a new ugliness”
Bob Swaim continues: “Currently, bets and financial investments are judiciously made on the person of John Lasseter, of Pixar, eternal star of animation festivals and winner of the 1989 Animation Oscar with the short film Tin Toy. (…) Lasseter has built a solid reputation over the past five years with a series of short films that combine the best of traditional animation techniques with computer animation techniques. Which gives a truly spectacular result. » He adds : “Lasseter now promises us a feature film in computer-generated images within three or four years. It’s high time for CG actors to start learning their lines. »
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