The hidden sociological message from Disney/PIXAR's newest film
| by Joe Leo, Columnist |
continued... from: previous page
When Disney bought Pixar two years ago, Lasseter returned to the company that let him go for his crazy ideas about how computer animation was the wave of the future. More importantly, that purchase from Disney meant that Jobs was no longer in charge. Lasseter was put in charge, but that opened up a new role for Jobs as a member on Disney's board of directors.
And that role was probably the most important role Jobs would have, other than the day he announced that the word "interim" would be dropped from the beginning of his CEO title.
Apple may have more influence today because of its ties with a major media giant such as Disney. Never mind the fact that it has a direct connection because its CEO is, or rather, was the former CEO of Pixar which is now in the hands of Disney, which he also still has his hands in. (Did you get all of that?).
Let's take the movie "Wall-E" for example.
Yesterday, MacDailyNews reported that the star of Disney/PIXAR's newest film is, at its heart, a Mac. Though they didn't come up with that idea. (And you never would have known that by looking at the character since there's no Apple logo on it).
Their report comes by way of a major daily based in Texas, the Austin-American Statesman, whose entertainment reporter Dale Roe reports:
"Pixar and Apple computer head Steve Jobs' influence is seen here: Not only did Apple whiz Jonathan Ive consult on the design of the film's love interest, one of the trinkets Wall-E has collected is a relatively clunky, first-edition iPod. And when Wall-E boots up, there's that familiar startup chime. That's right ... Wall-E is a Macintosh!"
The editors of MacDailyNews comment that of course Wall-E is a Mac, since it still works after seven centuries of existence. (700 years if you lost track).
Also on the tails of the movie's opening, yesterday Dennis Sellers of Macsimum News points us all to a special report from Popular Mechanics, where in the magazine's technology section of their website, is an in-depth analysis of none other than Pixar and Apple, focusing more on the topic of Steve Jobs and his role at Disney, and as Sellers puts it?
"...how there are more philosophical similarities between CGI robots and the iPhone 3G than you might have ever imagined."
Popular Mechanics reporter Peter Debruge writes: "So what about that white dominatrix bot in WALL*E? Sure, it's a nod to the Apple design aesthetic... as consumers have come to expect from both of Steve Jobs's iconic companies. And even though Jobs owns a majority stake in Pixar, he doesn't meddle in such details as story and character design."
You could have fooled us Mac enthusiasts and Apple fanatics!
Debruge also started out his article saying that you don't have to look much further than this new film to see the influence of Apple on the animation studio behind, or now at, Disney.
Interestingly enough, it is mentioned in the article that Pixar almost became an automotive design firm, going along the lines of the TechNow! report by Scott McGrew. (There is also more information about the technologies included in that "Pixar Box" within the article).
But one of the ideas we're getting at here is mirrored by Debruge's discussion of that "white dominatrix" robot who is supposed to be Wall-E's girlfriend named EVE, who is supposed to resemble an iPhone 3G, though she looks more like a G4 iMac.
Could it be, possibly, a preview of the next iMac in the pipeline? (Huh?).
