28 Feb Elemental

Spatial Depth

I suppose most people will talk about the story. It has the by now standard Father dynamics. The also now standard tension from a systemic (I hesitate to say ‘environmental’) threat rather than a bad guy. And a love story of the typical kind where the male pursues. The social context is that form of racism that is anti-immigrant, particularly vile just now.

All this is done at the high level that Pixar has mastered, it seems almost uniquely. So there’s that. No one refines story as well as Pixar. It means they will never be edgy, but they do take chances in related areas. ‘Lightyear’ was a very intellectually clever notion in narrative framing, a place where few go.

What drew me in is the texture.

You see, the original pitch, all the way back to Jobs’ introduction, was that Pixar could use computers to render textures to the level of natural perception, what ordinary viewers would call ‘real’. This was a turning point in computer science that many of us see as a crossover between the natural and synthetic worlds. It seems trivial already today — but it was such a central advance that to this day it drives how Pixar imagines the cinematic experience. I just saw ‘Wish’ from the sibling animation group and while they have their own approach to texture, it is simply a tactical decision. Their films come from a different imagination.

Pixar starts with what they could uniquely do with space and texture. So we have worlds under the sea, defined by snow, or clouds, or water surfaces. We have cameras that move enough beyond what a physical camera can do to be subconsciously striking. Now this.

Here, they go further than they have before with water, but the real star is the texture of fire skin. They quite literally had to up their computer power an order of magnitude. This isn’t just for fun; the way our minds work is that when we encounter something that is real but slightly novel, we ingest it more directly and deeply. Musicians know this, but eye music is still in infancy, even after a century of evolution.

I deeply admire and congratulate whoever it is at Pixar who champions this as a core. Is it Doktor? Is it the still present any sexually disgraced Lassiter? It can’t be anyone in the Disney management team.

Posted in 2024

Ted’s Evaluation — 3 of 3: Worth watching.

IMDB