Monsters, Superheroes, and Fishies

This weekend I got out of the house. That's big enough news on it's own, but wait! There's more! I headed over to Roppongi Hills to see the PIXAR: 20 Years of Animation exhibition at the Mori Arts Center Gallery. I fully and unabashedly confess to being a huge fan of Pixar. Yes, the images are amazing and the animation sublime. For me, though, it's the tight storytelling that holds everything together. How perfect then that the exhibition concentrates on the evolution of the stories and the building of the characters.

The art was gorgeous. I particularly enjoyed the collages used as concept art for The Incredibles. That graphic retro vibe really appeals to me. In some cases I actually prefer the sketches to the finished art. Especially for Monsters, Inc., where the poor critters got more and more humanoid as the process went along. I dug the heck out of the film, but the idea of truly frightening, inhuman (and not at all cuddly) creatures in that story is enough to make my head go boom. Even if the film would have earned a fraction what it did at the box office.

The exhibition continues until August 27th before moving on to Fukushima.