Pocahontas vs Buzz: 5 differences between Disney and Pixar
- Tommaso Carlo Mascolo
- 23 giu 2016
- Tempo di lettura: 3 min
We call the decade from 1989 to 1999 the “Disney Renaissance”, in which Walt Disney Animation Studios returned to being a great success after a long period of crisis. The administration of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells, and the collaboration with Jeffrey Katzemberg, gave new life to the Studios, making Walt Disney Company the greatest entertainment factory in the world.
The first movie of that period was The Little Mermaid (1989), that represented a glorious return to Disney Classics, and won two Oscars. Thanks to the creative genius of Katzemberg, this movie was followed by other successes, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and The Lion King (1994).
The Disney Renaissance ended in 1999, with Tarzan, which collected about half a billion in the box office.
However, another important event occurred in more or less the same period. In 1986, Steve Jobs bought a part of the Lucasfilm computer division, becoming the major shareholder of a company that would completely change the rules of animation: Pixar.
Four years later, Disney and Pixar started their long relationship, and in 1995 the first Toy Story presented a new era in the history of cinema itself.
To better understand this evolution, we must examine some differences between the two animation companies.
1. PENCIL OR COMPUTER?
All the movies that belong to the Disney Renaissance era are hand-drawn. The Little Mermaid used about one thousand different colors and more than one million sketches. The first Pixar innovation was to the use of computer graphic. Toy Story was the first fully computer animated movie in the history of cinema. In 1972, Ed Catmull, one of the Pixar founders, created a digital model of his left hand, and he animated it in a three-dimensional space. Since that moment, the relationship between cinema and computer graphics has become more and more important.
2. FAIRY TALES? NO THANKS
Hans Christian Andersen, The Arabian Nights, Victor Hugo, Edgar Rice Borroughs, William Shakespeare, European and Chinese tales: this is the literary framework the Disney Renaissance movies developed from.
On the other hand, Pixar movies are original stories, not based on classic novels or fairy tales, but on the observation of every-day life. For example, the director of Finding Nemo, Andrew Stanton, claimed that the idea for the movie first saw the light after a day passed at the aquarium with his son. In that moment, he decided to recreate the underwater world with digital animation.
3. EXOTIC/ORDINARY WORLD
The movies of Disney Renaissance are set in many different places and times. 17th century America, Ancient China, the African savannah, the city of Agrabah, and a small French village in the 19th century are the settings of Pocahontas, Mulan, The Lion King, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. “Once upon a time in a faraway land” is the starting point of many fairy tales, and a “faraway land” allows everything: magic, adventure, battles, and thwarted loves.
Instead, Pixar movies are set in ordinary and closer worlds (with the only exception of Brave). The first Toy Story begins in a child’s bedroom, and Inside Out, the latest Pixar movie, is even set in the mind of an eleven year old girl.
4. IS THE WORLD DIVIDED INTO GOOD AND EVIL?
In Disney movies, the answer is: yes. There is always the hero and the antagonist, and we have no doubt over who represents the good and who represents the evil. At the end of the movie, the hero wins, and that is all.
This division of the world is absent in Pixar movies, because the real conflict is internal. Buzz Lightyear believes he is a real Space Ranger, the hero who has to fight the evil. But then, he understands that he is only a toy for kids. In Pixar movies, fiction is revealed, and reality is far more complex than a fairy tale.
5. SHALL WE SING?
In Pixar movies there are surely beautiful songs and musical compositions (for example the one composed by Michael Giacchino for Up), but it is really rare to have a character singing.
The Disney Renaissance movies can be actually considered as musicals. The songs are an essential part of the movie: they make the story go on and reveal the personalities, the desires and the purposes of the main characters. Many songs were written by artists such as Time Rice and Elton John, becoming immediately successful and memorable hits.
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