Pixar Exhibition to Open in Seoul in June
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Fans of popular computer animated films such as ``Toy Story,'' ``Finding Nemo,'' ``Monsters Inc.'' and ``Cars'' will be happy to know an exhibition featuring the art of Pixar Animation Studios will be coming to Seoul in June.
``Pixar: 20 Years of Animation'' will be held at the Seoul Arts Center Design Museum, from June 25 to August 26. The Pixar retrospective was originally shown at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City to celebrate the studio's 20th anniversary, from Dec. 14, 2005 to Feb. 2, 2006.
The exhibition features nearly 600 original art works from Pixar Animation Studios, such as paintings, drawings, storyboards, digital installations and 3-dimensional models of animated characters from ``Finding Nemo,'' ``Toy Story,'' ``A Bug's Life,'' ``Monsters Inc,'' ``The Incredibles'' and ``Cars.''
The works show how beloved characters such as Woody, Buzz, Nemo, Sully and Mike come to life from animators' sketches, and then how they are recreated on computers. You'll find a pencil sketch of Buzz Lightyear from ``Toy Story,'' a sculpture of Sully from ``Monsters Inc.'' and pastel drawing of Nemo, which will surely delight both kids and adults.
``Demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between traditional and digital media pioneered by the studio over its twenty-year history, 'Pixar: 20 Years of Animation' is a tribute to the artists whose work has reinvented the genre,'' MoMA said, when the exhibition opened in 2005.
The exhibition has traveled to the Science Museum in London; Mori Arts Centre in Tokyo; National Museum of Scotland and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne.
Pixar, whose name is a combination of ``pixel'' and ``art,'' pioneered computer-generated animation. Pixar Animation Studios was founded in Emeryville, Calif. in 1986 and initially produced animation mainly for advertising.
In 1995, Pixar hit gold when its first full-length film ``Toy Story,'' earned $362 million worldwide. Since then, Pixar's films have been both critical and commercial successes. Pixar has won seven Academy Awards for its films, including two Best Animated Feature awards for ``Finding Nemo'' and ``The Incredibles.
In 2006, the Walt Disney Company bought Pixar, making the animation studio a wholly owned subsidiary.