The “Pixar face”

“Soul” and the Pixar Face

The arrival of “Soul,” Pixar’s new film, reinforced a little insight in me.

Do you know the “DreamWorks’ face”?
It’s this face: (Yes, I know “Cars” is a Pixar.)

What does this face mean?
“I AM AWSOME !!!!
I’m cool!
I’m cool, I have a sensitive heart but also cynical and witty when needed … in short, Be me!”

Is there also a “Pixar face”?
Yes! And behold, it is before you:

What is this look? Eyes wide open, eyebrows raised, gaze rising, bright, curious, inhaling … it’s a Pixar face. We see it all the time. These images are all from “The good Dinosaur”’s trailer:

But what does this face say?
It says “I see something wonderful! I’m personally not great, .. But I see something great.”
It is a longing for something external, for discovery. But let’s be precise, it’s not a desire to be a hero but to be a spectator.

There is a kind of reflection of the viewers in the film here. In a “normal” movie we identify with the protagonist and want to be him not only because he is cool but because we identify with him. Because it illuminates the power we have built. At Pixar we warm up in the light of the great, not identify with them. It is more a paraphrase of child identification, than a reconstruction of it.

I will give an example:
Carl from “Up” admires the naturalist Charles Muntz as a child. He sees him in the movies and imagines that he is also a continent explorer. But his longing over the years, his and his wife Elli, is not to be a country explorer but to visit there. They do not engage in research during their lives but in fantasies about being “like”. Even as they get older. Carl’s preoccupation with balloons is where he channels Munch’s zeppelin, and Muntz’s longing to catch a bird is rare for Elli to present with parrots on safari.

In contrast, even the little mermaid wants something bigger than herself. But it’s a personal longing. She wants to be with humans. It is an inner desire not to be “like” but to be “with”. When Glenn Kean animated this gesture he knew it was a cliché, hand reaching out, but he realized it was the right thing to do. Ariel does not want to observe human beings, she wants to be a part of them. She aspires to be a human being and the human beings, the viewers, identify with her. She reaches out to us.

Most of the characters in “Pixar” aspire to something that is either inconceivable or should be. Just as Mike Wazowski understand that he will not be a scarer (“Monster University”) and Carl understands that there is no real value in getting to South America (which is just an attempt at compensation). Trying to be “like” is a balloon that explodes and childhood dreams with it. This is followed by a real and profound change in the form of a new creation, which also fades, and is replaced by a small, local correction (even if it has a deep dimension), a painfully realistic change.
Inspiration remains inspiration. The characters stare at the silver screen and not beyond it.

In Disney movies, we look up to characters who look up to something they want. In Pixar films the characters reflect us, they stare at the screen, like us. And the object of observation is beyond their reach, like us. They want to want.

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