Differing from Pixar's Style

After Pixar made a name for themselves with the tremendous success of Toy Story and their successors of other popular movies, many up-and coming American animation studios abandoned hand-drawn animation. They began to emulate Pixar’s style of computer animation in their own movies. The majority of mainstream CGI animated films began to look similar, with cartoony characters that stayed away from the uncanny valley, and an attempt to create realistic nature and sets. 

But not all CGI movies are striving to follow Pixar’s style. Many large studios are starting to experiment with new styles of computer animation. Walt Disney Animation Studios has tested new technology with their recent short films. Paperman had a new 2D/CG hybrid animation visual look, and Feast followed in its footsteps with a similar design. Warner Bros.’ The LEGO Movie introduced an amazing new style that deviates from the mainstream, with all the LEGO characters looking like they are stop-motion animated. Another example is Blue Sky’s The Peanuts Movie, which arrives in theaters tomorrow (Nov. 6). The computer animation looks slightly flat like hand-drawn animation, but still retains textures on the characters (Snoopy has fur, for example). It also has a stop-motion flair, and eliminates motion blur unlike Pixar and other conventional animated movies. More and more animation studios are branching out with CGI animation, and creating new and unique visual styles.

Copying the look of a Pixar movie is not necessarily the key to making an acclaimed animated film. As Tim Burton put it, “In Hollywood, they think drawn animation doesn't work anymore, computers are the way. They forget that the reason computers are the way is that Pixar makes good movies. So everybody tries to copy Pixar. They're relying too much on the technology and not enough on the artists.” Audiences aren’t going to care about a film solely because it looks pretty and has neat visuals. The main element that a successful animated movie needs is the ability to tell a story.