PIXAR: 20 Years of Animation @ ACMI

As it seemed I had been neglecting my +1 duties of late, I allowed my live-in Man About Town to drag me kicking and screaming to the opening of the Pixar exhibition at ACMI , the first of Melbourne's to "winter blockbuster" exhibitions. You can imagine the scores my fingernails have left in the cement paving.

It was quite an exhibition, which we finally got to see after a couple of speeches by the Minister for Tourism, the Head of ACMI and video greetings from Geoffrey Rush and John Lasseter.

Much was made of the never before seen artwork that goes into making Pixar's incredible films and some of it is really sublime. There is a real sense of the love that flows from the artists into their work. And the shear breadth of talent that the studio has amassed over the years.

The centrepiece of the exhibition (not that it even needs one) is a huge 3D zoetrope, which at first sight looks like a wedding cake that has been pompously overdecorated but the effect when it is hit by the strobe lighting is just phenomenal and would have been worth the price of admission, had we paid.

I imagine there will be a few small kiddies over the coming months drooling over the glass casing of the pretty whirring machine.


Quite a few of Pixar's earlier shorts are on display as well as artwork from the upcoming feature Ratatouille, which ended up being helmed by Brad "The Iron Giant" Bird (though he took the reigns over half way through so it'll be interesting to see how his hand is felt).

Go.