Pixar's Success

Nowadays, Pixar is one of the most important computer animation studios with the enough technological, creative and production capabilities to create brand new animated films and its related products. Pixar is a clear example of the great result that comes out from the combination of technology and talent; bringing to us on theaters an exciting and incredible menu of movies with excellent and memorable characters, backgrounds and stories. Pixar keeps a constant success thanks to its unusual creative process.

First, Pixar has a very good team. It is conformed by really talented people that are capable to contribute and unify the ideas so to tell a story; these people are able to manage a bad idea into something that really works out.  Also, together as a team they are able to recover from failures that may come out from taking risks when trying to make original films by helping each other and trying all over again. The team gives people unexpected ideas that first may seem out of mind, but finally they turn to be great movies. Precisely this turns their films into blockbusters, because people watch unconventional stories never imagined before.

Secondly, it promotes a healthy criticism for a progress. The team greatly trusts one another, feeling free to communicate with anyone regardless of the discipline or position they have.  The feedback given helps each other to learn and to catch some inspiration from others. Directors can mention important points to the crew so to keep everyone on their correct way. These constant checks, help to detect possible mistakes before it is too late "We know screwups are an essential part of making something good. That’s why our goal is to screw up as fast as possible", (Lee Unkrich, director of TS3)

Lastly, Pixar provides a great work environment. Physically, artists have several cozy places where they can feel comfort while working. Pixar is a place where technology meets human, easing in this way a wide spectrum of fluid ideas supported by specialized equipment that brings them to reality. The environment is also built by the constant change on the way people works, it never stays the same. Periodically, new artists with fresh ideas arrive to the company so to print this dynamic on films and short films.

The obtained results from this company are completely notable. Some of them are their 26 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes, and 3 Grammys among many other awards. Pixar is the perfect example of how can projects evolve from its basics into a great production; the secret is to have talent, trust upon your team and a supporting equipment. I believe these elements conjugated with a stunning passion of what we do, turn to be the project of our lives.            

Pixar's UP Scene Analysis

Video : Disney Pixar UP – Married Life – Carl & Ellie

Scenes: 1

Change of value:

·      From alive to death

·      From having company to being alone

Here I am confused; I do not know exactly which the change of value is. If it only applies to the main character (Carl), I think it would be the second option.  But I really think those are the changes of value.

Beat 1

The first beat begins where Carl and Ellie get married. They start working together on their house, spending time together and sharing a great happiness and love between them.

Beat 2

When Carl thinks about having a family, Ellie agrees. They start to make changes on the house for the baby’s room. But the doctor gives them bad news; Ellie is unable to have babies. Sadness comes to them.

Beat 3

Instead of staying depressed, they start making new plans; like going to Paradise Falls. Both start saving money for the trip. Time passes and they get old, now they are two elders still in love.

Beat 4

Carl remembers their missing adventure to Paradise Falls, so he buys tickets for the trip.  Ellie suddenly gets sick and goes to hospital. Finally she dies. Now Carl is alone. 

Run Lola Run

Run Lola Run is a German crime thriller movie released on 1998 and directed by Tom Tykwer. Starring Franka Potente and Moritz Bleibtreu. It presents a series of three different stories which end will be affected by the decisions that Lola takes so to save her boyfriend. The film makes me thing about ¿How the choices, according to time, we make can affect our destiny? Therefore the time will affect the choices we make, changing our destiny.

First, the dog will mark how the story will develop. Depending on the actions the dog has, Lola will gain or lose time. The changes and actions of the dog will affect directly Lola’s experiences. So these actions will impact in a way all the people surrounding Lola.

Also, we can see that every single event can changes the destiny upon other’s lives. On the first story, Lola is killed. On the second her boyfriend, Manni, dies. So we can see how the time that takes Lola to make her decisions, will cause different events to occur; causing joy, suffering or even death to people.

Lastly, even though time will never come back, we can have second chances. As we live, we can get into different circumstances that will need one choice. If we notice that our choice was not quite right, we can be able later on to change to another option. So we can see that in a way, life can be repeated all and over again.

As conclusion, I can say that all our actions are defined by the time we take to make them, causing different reactions oh our future. All these actions will show a positive or negative consequence on all the people surrounding us. That’s why we can all say that all our lives are completely unpredictable, because we will not know which ones will be the consequences of the actions we take in time. 

Character Map - Helmut

Helmut Grokenberger

The Mask
-Taxi Driver
-Foreigner

Strong Traits
-Loves his job
-Wants to learn new things
-Funny

Trouble Traits
-Needs to practice more English
-Innocent
-Needs to learn how to drive

Dark Side
-Disobeying

Fears
-Avoiding rules

Admired Traits
-People who own a family


Helmut was a difficult character for me to analyze. I think that several experiencies are behind all that simplicity. For example, it is very strange for me…Why does he was a clown on Germany? or why does a german clown comes to NY, a city which is full of yellow cabs that he does not know how to drive and takes it as his job? All this fear of getting no clients on the cab, or disobeying rules is for a reason. Also the reactions that he has when asked for a family, seems really weird to me. Maybe in the past he has had troubles with his family until the point of losing it, and therefore he admires how Yo Yo has a well-formed one. I think Helmut has several underneath, obviously unknown, traits.

Field Trip

33rd Comic and Manga Festival - "La Mole"

It will be great if we can go there to enjoy comics!! :)

Lady Capulet

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous Shakespeare’s writings and also one of the most famous stories around the world. This romantic tragedy story portraying young love between Romeo and Juliet is known for being recreated several times on movies. One of these movies is ‘Romeo + Juliet’ with stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. As in the book, Romeo + Juliet has the same dialogues and characters, but completely different place and time. As it is a complete modernization of the play, characters are psychologically different on the movie from the ones on the book. Lady Capulet is the best character adaptation on the movie.

First, Lady Capulet is the funniest character on ‘Romeo + Juliet’. The way she walks is very comical; actually she looks like a bad fashion parade apprentice. Her speaking way is really peculiar. Even the dialogues remain just as they are on the book; Lady Capulet gives them a special touch of comedy that makes her unique. Her outfits are completely weird; although she is older than Juliet, Lady Capulet wears eccentric random stuff as if going to a Halloween party.

Lady Capulet is extremely cheerful. On the book, Lady Capulet is thought to be a completely serious and demure woman, while on the movie is very dynamic. She shouts more than I could imagine; instead of talking at normal decibels, her voice is really acute and noisy.  Also, she made me laugh out loud because her behavior is completely exaggerated according to what she, as Juliet’s mother, is supposed to be.

She portrays a regular mother behavior. As she wants her daughter to be married with a great guy, she talks to Juliet about Paris in a very joyful way so to convince her. Immediately, she starts to lead up for her daughter’s wedding in order to give Juliet a moment worth of her. She also supports Juliet when the idea of getting married to Paris is not that great for her, just as a regular mother would do.

I think 1996’s ‘Romeo + Juliet’ is a very good recreation of Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. Even though Lady Capulet has an exaggerated personality, we can perfectly understand what this tragedy is about and still have this anxiety to know what is going to happen next. Therefore she is the best character adaptation on the film.

Finding Nemo - Freytag's Pyramid

·      Exposition

We meet Marlin and his wife, taking care of their future kids, still on eggs. A barracuda appears, and kills Marlin’s wife and all but one of their children. This event makes Marlin to become overprotective with his son, Nemo.

·      Inciting incident: Nemo gets caught by a diver.

It is Nemo’s first day of school and he is going to the reef. Nemo and his friends escape from the class and watch a boat on the sea’s surface. Marlin arrives. Trying to touch the boat, a diver traps Nemo and takes a picture of Marlin, leaving him completely dizzy and unable to go after Nemo.

·      Rising action: Marlin and Dory start looking for Nemo

After Nemo is captured and the boat goes, Marlin sets after it. Accidentally he hits Dory and she tells him that a few minutes ago, she saw the boat. Both start going after it so to find Nemo.

·      Climax: Nemo attempts to escape the aquarium

The diver who caught Nemo leaves him on an aquarium at his dental office; Nemo was the birthday present for the diver’s niece. As she is known to be a rude girl, Nemo tries to escape and goes down trough the toilet.

·      Falling action: Marlin gives up

After many failures of finding Nemo, Marlin decides to give up. Because of this, Marlin and Dory have a dispute and he decides to leave her.

·      Turning point: Dory meets Nemo and does not recognize him

Returning to her way back home, Dory meets Nemo. When he tells her his name, she did not recognize who he was; so Dory continues her way leaving Nemo alone.

·      Moment of last suspense: Marlin and Dory think Nemo is dead

Dory now remembers who Nemo is. Both go to find Marlin. When they finally meet again, a fishing net traps Dory. Nemo decides to save her, so he also enters to the net. When they finally did it, the fish crushes Nemo and Marlin and Dory think he is dead.

·      Resolution: Marlin and Nemo are together again

Marlin apologizes to Nemo. They return back to their anemone with Dory. Their life comes to normality.

Finding Nemo, the best movie ever!

We are used to live in a world were traffic, pollution, noise, plenty of people, killings, etc are present every day. But have you ever taken a second to think about how is it to live on the ocean? Fish talking just as humans do? About all the colors, different animal species and ecosystems down there? Finding Nemo is the perfect movie to show it.

Fist, the story of Finding Nemo is excellent, it promotes perseverance.  Marlin, a total apprehensive father gets angry with his son Nemo during his first day of school. In an attempt to disobey Marlin of not touching the bottom of a boat, Nemo is captured by a scuba diver and taken away in the boat. Trying to find someone to help Marlin to find his son, he meets Dory a blue fish with ‘short-term memory loss’.  Both will do everything to find Nemo, and they will never give up. The story is a complete portrait of how strong is the love between a father and his son since Marlin tries to find help from many different fish, so to find Nemo.

Second, it is a great familiar comedy due to characters. Since the beginning of the movie we meet Dory. She is an excellent companion for Marlin. She makes the entire search easier and funnier. Dory is always laughing, singing, and looking for the negative moments to be positive ones.

Apart from Dory, we also have Crush an old turtle, Bruce, Anchor and Chum three vegetarian sharks, the “Tank Gang” and Nigel. They are alternative characters that make a very funny movie. 

 Finally, the movie has great visual graphics. From beginning to end we are taken to a wonderful world, which is the ocean. We can see how exactly are the fish ecosystems, how many different species are down there, how do they operate between each other, all the colors that are found, the strange and incredible animals at the deep and obscure ocean. I mean, it is the ocean’s life itself, as we never thought before. 

Finding Nemo present to us a great story, very funny characters and incredible visual graphics. For that reason, it is the best movie ever made! 

James Dean

James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, Marion, Indiana. He was a well-known American actor.

While being majoring at Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA, he started his first appearances on television spots and in some movies, mainly at James Whitmore's acting workshop. His first television appearance was in a Pepsi Cola commercial.

Rebel Without a Cause (1955), East of Eden (1955) and Giant (1956) were the most influential film performances on his career.

Thanks to those movies, James Dean became the first actor who got a posthumous Academy Award nomination for best actor. 

Everything seemed to be rising up on his career. But unfortunately on September 30, 1955 he was having a car race at Salinas, California. While driving, another car crossed into Dean’s lane, causing a head-on hit between the two cars.

He was severely injured, so paramedics tried to save his life while in ambulance. It is said that the crash result into a broken neck, multiple jaw, arms and legs fractures, plus severe internal injures. 

James Dean was pronounced dead. 

Three months ago…

My life is not extraordinary. But I believe it is a happy one.

I have passed trough different times, some great and others just harsh. I am really thankful because there are only few tough times that I can remember.

Unless one that happened three months ago. On September, my dad suffered a heart attack. Of course it was something completely unexpected for all of us.

Immediately, my father was taken to the hospital so the doctors could try to save his life. It was really complicated because anyone of the family was certain about what was truly happening.

The doctors needed just a few more minutes to notice what my father was having. After they were quite sure, a really liable medicine was applied to him. This medicine was only given so to stop the heart attack. Of course his stay in hospital was just beginning. 

Several medical analysis were made in order to catch up how harmful the heart attack was.  Every visible symptom was taken into consideration since they had to find the exact reason that caused the heart’s failure.

Actually it turned complicated for the doctors to hit upon the precise reason of the heart attack. My father made daily exercise as a routine of his life. On meals, he avoided flesh, pork or any fatty food; therefore he maintained a good physical health.

He was at intensive care during the whole first week; at any moment another heart attack could happen.  Unfortunately during that week no relative, but my mom, was able to visit him or only pass by and say hello. My sister and I had to anxiously wait until the second week so to visit him. It was really maddening, since we had no chance to even talk to him after the problem.

Three weeks passed until he was finally discharged from hospital. Obviously he was even thinner because of the food provided by the hospital, no salt nor fat…tasteless. But we did not matter.  He returned with no mishap, getting rid of any negative situation that most of the times heart attacks leave.

My father, my mother, my sister and I were really happy because we were together again. No one thought that literally in just a minute, everyone’s life would change that much. Now we are even closer to each other, noticing how fortunate we are …everyone alive, happy about it, and enjoying every single moment.  

A*