PIXAR @25: WALL-E "The Secret of Pandora's Box"

It's not apocalypse. It's not the Great Flood. It's not a Nostradamus prediction. It's hope--hidden under all these.

We take a good look at our candy wrappers now, only to foresee these will be part of a colossal Smokey Mountain we've never imagined before: the world. And it can only be as horrible and inevitable as we choose it to be, whether we're aware of it or not.

Pixar's vision, along with every scientist's wonder, also produced a rough sketch of the world scores after, with its innovative release of WALL-E (2008, directed by Andrew Stanton). And it's not based on any written scriptures or wild predictions all telling us we couldn't possibly do anything about it. The movie was based on man's timeless weakness: discipline.

Laid on the metal claws of a charming mute robot named WALL-E (short for Waste Allocation Lift Loader, Earth-Class) while the human race searched for its new haven in a humongous space ship far out in the Milky Way, the earthly waste land was peacefully decomposing in methane and carbon monoxide. But not until hardworking WALL-E (Ben Burtt) digged out another color people had long forgotten, and proof of the world's hopeful existence: a green sprout.

The movie, I realized was far more optimistic on several levels. It was not only about the green sprout and the captain's enthusiasm to go back to earth. Even its unique idea that the planet was destroyed by unbelievable tons of human waste still reflects on a promising hope as it rooted from human discipline, a part of our nature that can still be changed.

WALL-E's attitude of being obsessively organized in "cubing" and collecting and arranging things always reminds me of how I used to do the same thing, then getting all upset when my siblings would mess it all up. It must also be a revolutionary break-through with Pixar's portrayal of technology evolution with all the electronic and path-finding chairs and hologram computers, the new "oxygen tanks" of the human race back then.

Hope is not hiding from us, nor is it hiding from the brokenhearted world. We simply have to choose to see and believe in it.

WALL-E Fact Sheet

1. "In the world of animation, pantomime is the thing that animators love best. It's their bread and butter." Although absence of dialogue became one of the challenges for Pixar animators in WALL-E, director Andrew Stanton considered it an exciting one.

2. The man behind WALL-E's voice, multiple Oscar-winning sound designer Ben Burtt, also made R2-D2's voice a timeless wonder.

2. The big innocent bulgy eyes of WALL-E were coined from its likeness with binoculars, according to John Lasseter (creator of Toy Story movies).

PIXAR @25: Finding Nemo The shark bait

Curiosity is a booby trap we kids will always fall into.

My royal dream of exploring the ocean even without a swimming lesson finally came true with Pixar's legendary film Finding Nemo (2003, directed by Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich). Feeling the ocean waves from its deepest harbors and witnessing the realistic and colorful water creatures in the movie once made me think, "Hey I don't even need an oxygen tank to behold ocean's beauty!"

The Great Barrier Reef

What came with the package tour was an equally memorable lesson for us juvenile kids: that a father's overprotection is never an exaggeration.

We're represented by Nemo (Alexander Gould), a clown fish we and all other naïve fishes have thought of as funny because he's a clown fish. He's part of our club who's hypnotized by peer pressure, trapped by curiosity and imprisoned by his young and vulnerable mind, all preventing him to understand his father Marlin (Albert Brooks).

While the movie gave the final verdict of finding us all guilty, its theme focused more on the father's venture to the ends of the Pacific Ocean just to find his son. We saw how Marlin was too afraid to even leave the Great Barrier Reef, but when he helplessly saw his son pocketed by a diver, he left all his doubt behind and faced the sharks, the dangerous currents, the jellyfish clan, the whales, and the carnivorous birds.

Just like Nemo we'd tried to stow away from home not analyzing enough what we're doing. And when we got into trouble, it would be the only time when we'd miss them terribly and wished we could hide under mom's dress. Even if we'd only locked up in our room we'd hear our parents crying in the other room as well, realizing how they must hurt more whenever we close the door on them.

Finding Nemo taught me well how to understand and love my parents more, even at times when I think they worrry too much. 

I would always remember the forgetful but optimistic Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), the character my mentor Ms. Josephine Bonsol always equates herself to, and the scenes when Marlin and Dory were asking for directions from an amazing school of fish.

Somehow, it must be an incurable disease for us kids to always think we're Superheroes who can do everything and anything, but we'll only fall into booby traps all day long if we don't accept the truth that we're not.

FINDING NEMO Fact Sheet

1. A "wave" of personal experiences from director Andrew Stanton patched up the movie story. It was from his childhood memories of visiting his dentist with an aquarium, the ocean as his front yard and his parenting challenges that made Finding Nemo alive.

2. Nemo's Lucky Fin, according to Stanton, represents our limitations as kids that always make our parents worry too much about our safety.

The legendary Pixar Pinoy Animator: Nelson Bohol

3. The legendary tankscape of the aquarium raised the Filipino pride with lay-out artist Nelson Bohol, Pixar's Pinoy Animator and Supervising Production Artist. He also contributed his exceptional talent in the making of Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille and WALL-E.

4. Finding Nemo became the highest grossing animated film of all time, collecting over $850M in worldwide box office receipts.

5. It garnered an Oscar for Best Animated Film and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Best Sound Editing.

PIXAR @25: A BUG'S LIFE (1998) "It's a buggy bug world out there"

The Ant Island

The definition of a true hero is when you succeeded in saving others even if they hadn't believed in you.



The memory always comes back, when my siblings and I used to watch A Bug's Life (1998, directed by John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton) over and over again in VHS. The architectural design of the colony's anthill has always marveled me and made me want to dissect the pile of mud in our own backyard.

After peeking into the life of toys, Pixar took their wild imagination to the next level and entered the world of ants and bugs for us to learn the true meaning of heroism.

While the rest of the ants endure the routine manually collecting food and portraying slavery, Flik (Dave Foley) takes a stand with his inventions to collect more food the easy way, although he strongly believes ants shouldn't do the dirty job for the lazy freeloading grasshoppers.


We were still young and took the childish pleasure of turning on the water hose and wiping out the anthill in our backyards. And while watching A Bug's Life, we lick on our lollipops and suddenly contemplate on the real life of ants under the scorching sun, carrying heavy seeds and beans and realizing that at the end of the day, the food was not for them to munch.

While we once accepted the norm that ants are boring insects and simply never cease to line up, we've witnessed Flik's wild journey and even the colorful life of an insect circus troupe we've never imagined before.

It seriously depresses me that I last watched this movie when I was nine and I desperately want to watch it again. I had missed the vibrant circus troupe, especially Francis (Dennis Leary) the ladybug who's always mistaken as a girl, and Tuck and Roll (Michael McShane), the Hungarian twin pill bugs who, by character definition, always ended up fighting.


But what I missed the most was the group's quest to outwit Hopper (Kevin Spacey) and his swarm of grasshoppers by making a large fake bird, and how, at a young age, I finally understood one's dream of changing his own way of life because he believes it's not his.

Tuck and Roll: always ending up fighting

Somehow, a true hero is not officially defined as the Superman who saves the day, but the outcast who simply wants to change the world.




A BUG'S LIFE Fact sheet


1. The makers of A Bug's Life had admitted establishing the impression from a bug's point of view was no easy task. Pixar had even created a "bug cam" and shot the world from a bug's viewpoint to capture and refer from its majestic transluscency.

2. It became the highest grossing animated movie of 1998, collecting $362M in worldwide box office receipts.


3. The movie also garnered an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Comedy Score, a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition, and four ASIFA Hollywood Annie Awards for Outstanding Feature, Directory, Writing and Production Design.


4. The Aesop fable The Ant and the Grasshopper became the movie's inspiration, when one day writer-director Andrew Stanton and storyboard artist Joe Ranft chatted about the story.