From Text To Culture

Since 1995, we have been enjoying the Pixar's animated feature films for around 16 years during which 10 such kind of movies have been made by Pixar Animation Studio. On the one hand, thanks to the touching original scripts and outstanding computer animation capability, Pixar's animated feature films have harvested the keen interests from fans, record high box offices and glowing praise from the industry; on the other hand, with the successful marketing and circulating development, we are finding more and more social and cultural connotations in the Pixar's animated feature films. How do feature films of Pixar earn great evaluation as well as high box office? What are the unique features of the stories and the ways of telling them? Behind the films, what kind of cultural thoughts and value standards are there? This essay intends to review ten feature films of Pixar produced during 1995 to 2009 to analyze the Pixar products from various aspects of narrative, aesthetics and cultural communication so as to find the narrative model and the deep concept and value guide behind the films via a study from points to the whole vista.There are four chapters in the essay. Chapter 1 makes a concentrated analysis on the narrative themes of the Pixar feature films, focusing on the inner core of the Pixar stories'care and attention to the ever-lasting emotion of human being and the current realities of our society. Those are the soul of the Pixar animations and also cater for the mental needs of the most audiences.Chapter 2 concentrates on characters, discussing the regular modeled characters and their functions in the Pixar feature films. To put it in a detailed way, there are several settings like supervisor, challenger, and funny role. And various presenting features and functions shown by the special character of "human being" are especially studied in this Chapter.Chapter 3 shifts the focus from static factors to motional ones. The inheriting as well as the overturning of the traditional animations in narrative skills is illustrated via the analysis on the structure of binary opposition, montage and the rule of balance. Additionally, the unique beauty of the style is showcased through the reference of the classical genre film factors by the Pixar feature films, and the artistic characteristics of the new technologies are presented by the high-level visual effects.Chapter 4 makes a wider presentation of the Pixar feature films in terms of the motional process of production, disseminating and the generation of social impact. Firstly, from the point of view of the production stage, the omnipresent innovations as well as the professional spirit of the creation team and the application of the global strategy have guaranteed the high quality of the Pixar feature films from the very basis, which are also the preconditions of its global influence. Secondly, in the process of distribution and dissemination, the formidable net resource and the stereoscopic development of the animation stars both gain an exponential growth of the influence of the feature films. That process has given the Pixar feature films a more profound cultural meaning. Thirdly, under the powerful popularization and the circulating dissemination for a relatively long period, the American culture and concept shown through the animations have become more culturally galvanizing while some new and more complicated and multiple social and cultural significance are inevitably generated.Through the above analysis, we may conclude the general features of the Pixar's animated feature films in text structure and narration style, find their inheriting and overturning to the classical animations by comparison and the new characteristics of the age shown by that, uncover the inside value judges and cultural concepts implied within, and the multi-social significance revealed from those concepts by the strong cooperation and powerful combination with Disney.