Pixar Exhibition at Taipei Fine Arts Museum

 

A gigantic color storyboard

 Are you a fan of Finding Nemo, Toy Story, or A Bug’s Life? Well, if you are a fan of these movies (or a ton of other animation movie by the same production studio), you would not want to miss a major ongoing exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum – Pixar, 20 Years of Animation.

 

Now, I would wager that most of the kids nowadays (and probably a full battalion of adolescents and young adults) probably know about the 3D animation company with their spectacular list of films ranging from short clips to feature films.

 

The Fine Arts Museum is one of the stops of Pixar, 20 Years of Animation Exhibition world tour. The first exhibition was held at New York’s Museum of Fine Arts in 2005.

 

Unfortunately, the opening night of the exhibition coincided with the arrival of Typhoon Morakot on the island, effectively drenching many of the attendees. As it turned out, most of the important guests arrived at the event on time.

  

Crowds at the first night of the show

The exhibition consisted of “artifacts” from the studio, such as 3-D models, sketches, storyboards, and scene design. There are also dedicated areas at the venue showing some of the studio’s earlier clips.

 

 

The legendary studio began its history as a department of Lucasfilm before being acquired by Steve Jobs – the Apple Guru. Of course, it retained its individual identity even after being bought by Disney.

 

 

Group photos of the important guests

Fans of the studio will be able to follow the history of the studio from its humble birth through its rise to fame. Major works such as Toy Story (1 and 2), Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Monster Inc., Cars, Ratatouille, Wall-E, and even UP were spotlighted at the exhibition.

 

 

Finding Nemo – color print

Finding Nemo – a wall of fish

A Bug’s Life – character models

Monster Inc. sketch

Monster Inc. – Character model

Jessie - Toy Story 2

Model of the master chef

Story board of Ratouillie

Wall-E model

Up – Main character

Up – color storyboard

As expected, there were tons of kids at the venue (who’d want to miss out at the chance to savor the appearance of the Ratatouille model?) and even more young adults. It was quite refreshing to see both the past-and-present animation (standard 2D with all the cell works) exist at the same place with its present-to-future siblings (computer 3D wonders).

 

 

The Entrance to the exhibition ground

Poster at the entrance of the exhibition venue

 

If anyone is visiting Taipei, you’d probably want to drop by the Fine Arts Museum. The show is on between August 7 and November 1.

 

(On a side note, Morakot went down in history a major disaster for Taiwan, setting off the worst floods and mudslides in 50 years. It dumped a record amount of water in central and southern part of the island – even reaching 8 feet in some areas. As one meteorologist puts it, that’s like pouring one-sixth of Yangtze’s water down on someone’s head.)