Why is Pixar successful?

The history of animation has new chapter with PIXAR just like Disney at his time; PIXAR has reinvented the art of animation. PIXAR is now one of the most important animation studios in the entire world, it has done hit after hit, something that was unimaginable for anyone but PIXAR did it; PIXAR is different, indeed, but what is the PIXAR’s secret to be successful?

The secret of PIXAR is have a good story, the people from PIXAR doesn’t care if the movie will be a blockbuster the most important thing for them is to do a good movie, a movie that they would love to see. The movies from PIXAR are not just sequence of events that doesn’t express anything; their movies have feelings, advices and lessons for the live.

Another secret is their creative process at PIXAR. All the stories they have done into a movie came from PIXAR’s people, they don’t buy or get the stories or the scripts from outside, all the stories, worlds, characters are create by the PIXAR’s artists. PIXAR’s people are very open to advices and critics from themselves; for every sequence the animator have done the producers and directors make a projection of the animation and the animator has to listen the good and bad things about it in order to do a better job with it.

And the last secret and for me the most important is the people they work with. The people from PIXAR are like a real family, the support, help and critic each other, they are like a unit, anyone needs help and anyone helps. The people are respectful with anyone’s work and anyone knows that the people who work there are people they can trust. And no matter who you are or what you do at PIXAR, you’re part of the project and you are important like anyone else, at PIXAR the egos are not allowed.

PIXAR is not just an animation studio, PIXAR is a family of creative people, people who love movies and made movies for people. The movies from PIXAR are art. And the movies are blockbuster not because their creators made them to be, they are blockbusters because of the stories, characters with human characteristics, the animation, the message, the music, etc. The movies from PIXAR are complete they have everything a movie has to have; they are not just a bunch of effects and dialogue without meaning, the movies from PIXAR always have a lesson or an idea behind.

Image from: http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=pixar#/d2d663t

Info from: Jochen's course and the Pixar story

Run Lola Run

"Man... probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all? Countless questions in search of an answer... an answer that will give rise to a new question... and the next answer will give rise to the next question and so on. But, in the end, isn't it always the same question? And always the same answer? "

A redhead and runner girl that’s the premise of Run Lola Run, a German film about a girl who try to help her boyfriend the story is simple, the boyfriend lost a bag with the money he has to give to the mafia and Lola has to run to his father to get the money. But the film doesn’t have a unique version; this film has 3 possible endings because of the little events that surround Lola’s race. In this essay I’m going to talk about the events and how they connect the story and make it change.

The beginning of the film is in the 3 versions the same Lola answering the phone, talk to her boyfriend, Manni, and she drops the phone and leave the apartment while her mom is talking on the phone and asks to her for shampoo. She goes down to the spiral stairs and suddenly she meets a boy and his dog and depend of Lola’s reaction the beginning of the race change. First version Lola gets scared because of the dog growl and she leave the building faster. The second version the boy makes Lola tripping and she falls down stairs and her leg gets hurt so she goes slower. In the third version Lola keeps her velocity because she doesn’t got scared.

Later Lola hit a woman and her baby and the woman and we can see her future because of a sequence of photos we can see she get drunk, lost her baby and stole one or she win the lottery or she get very religious. Later Lola meet a boy who try to sell to her a bike, Lola in the 2 first version reject his offer and we can see his future in one he get married and the other one he dies; in the third version he sell the bike to a homeless guy, who have the bag with the money. Lola hit her father friend’s car and makes him lost his concentration and he crush to another car or he avoid the car and picks up Lola’s dad. That events make Lola lost or increase her velocity and depend of that she arrive to the bank a different moment of the conversation of her father and his mistress and that determinate her father’s mood.

In the first version Lola knows that her father is not her real dad and he is going to leaver her and her mom so she didn’t get the money. In the second she became really angry because her father hit her and she stole the money. And in the third her father leaves the bank before she arrives and she doesn’t get the money. The endings are really different, in the first version Manni stole a store with the help of Lola but the police arrive and one of them kill Lola. In the second Lola get the money but an ambulance crashes Manni. In the third one Manni get the money back because he found the homeless guy while Lola won at the casino and get the money so everything goes well they have a happy open ending.

Run Lola Run is a film where we can see the different endings but the characters live the 3 story and learn about them for example Lola know how to unlock the gun in the second version because in the first one Manni teaches her how to. The 3 stories begin because Lola or Manni say “STOP” like if they could change the story because the conversation they have, the decide their future, and maybe we can change our future because every action we do have a reaction and not only in ours lives in everyone lives because even we don’t like we are connect to another person. The most interesting thong about the money is the narrative because the story has repetitive elements but depends of the way they develop or act after the crush with Lola like the ambulance they can change the entire ending.