Commentary &Pixar 18 Dec 2005 11:05 am
Pixar Zoetrope
Thanks to George Griffin for sending me information which I definitely feel should be posted. It concerns the “Zoetrope” PIXAR has placed in the middle of their exhibit at MOMA.
“Michael, The Pixar zoetrope is so obviously indebted to Gregory Barsamian and Toshio Iwai and the wall notes only mention Studio Ghibli as an inspiration. Why does a studio that has so thoroughly re-invented cartoon technology play dumb about individual artists who have gone before them. Corporate deception. Here are some urls for this topic, “solid animation?â€
Since viewing the exhibit I’ve had no fewer than five people tell me that the “Zoetrope” on display was inspired by Studio Ghibli. Why shouldn’t PIXAR & MOMA appropriately credit the two artists originators? Maybe Disney is getting closer to renewing their relationship with PIXAR.
To see a couple of photos of PIXAR’s “Zoetrope” go to Ronnie Del Carmen‘s blog.
on 19 Dec 2005 at 12:47 pm 1.Loren Carpenter said …
Thank you for pointing out the conceptual history of the 3D zoetrope. The Pixar zoetrope was, in fact inspired by the one at the Ghibli museum. Our zoetrope started out as a bootleg skunkworks project with no budget for 6 months. Warren Trezevant and I wanted to have one in our lobby so we built a small one with our own funds to generate interest. When the MoMA show came along it gave us a time goal and a budget.
Besides the one at Ghibli, we knew of a few others: Stewart Dickson’s animated topology, Peter Hudson’s BurningMan constructions and Gregory Barsamian’s at the Museum of the Moving Image. Our moral obligation is to indicate our immediate antecedent, which we did with a brass plaque on the front and a sign at the entrance to the room. The history of the art is the province of the curators, Steven Higgins and Ron Magliozzi. I’m sure they will be glad to be fully informed.