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The Adventures of Andr & Wally B.

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Wikipedia article




'The Adventures of Andr & Wally B.' (or simply 'Andr & Wally B.') is a 1984 American CGI-animated short film that was groundbreaking by the standards of the time and helped spark the film industry's interest in computer animation. The film was produced by the Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project, a division of Lucasfilm and the predecessor of Pixar.

The animation in the film was by John Lasseter and was his first computer animated project with Lucasfilm. As a result of the success of this project and others would become an important executive at Pixar. The film was released on July 25, 1984, at SIGGRAPH in Minneapolis.

Plot



The short involves a boy named Andr awakening in a forest and being confronted by a pesky bumblebee named Wally B. Andr tricks the bee into turning his back so that he can run away. Angered, Wally B. chases Andr and eventually catches up with him, and strikes with the stinger. A collision occurs off-screen and a dizzy Wally B. reappears with a bent stinger. Shortly thereafter, Wally B. gets hit by Andr's tossed hat as a last laugh for revenge.

Production



The credits for the piece are: concept/direction Alvy Ray Smith, animation John Lasseter, technical lead Bill Reeves, technical contributions by Tom Duff (who designed the animation program called "md", short for "motion doctor"), Eben Ostby, Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter, Ed Catmull, David Salesin, Tom Porter, and Sam Leffler, filming by David DiFrancesco, Tom Noggle, and Don Conway, and computer logistics by Craig Good.

The title is a tribute to the 1981 film 'My Dinner with Andre', starring Andr Gregory and Wallace Shawn, the latter of which went on to voice Rex for the 'Toy Story' franchise. It was originally entitled 'My Breakfast with Andr', about waking up with an android.Paik, Karen. 'To Infinity and Beyond!: The Story of Pixar Animation Studios'. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007. 4244. The android's awakening was meant to symbolize the rise of computer animation itself.

The animation on the short was groundbreaking, featuring the first use of motion blur in CG animation and complex 3D backgrounds, where the lighting styles and colors were inspired by Maxfield Parrish, made using particle systems. Lasseter pushed the envelope by asking for manipulatable shapes capable of the squash and stretch style, as earlier CG models had generally been restricted to rigid geometric shapes. It was rendered on a Cray X-MP/48 supercomputer, ten VAX-11/750 superminicomputers from Project Athena and five VAX computers at Lucasfilm. These machines were often available only at night, and much of the movie was therefore made "in the wee hours".[http://tcm.computerhistory.org/CHMfiles/Computer%20Animation%20Theater%201984-1985.pdf Computer Animation Theater 1984-1985] The Cray Computer Corporation allowed them to use their computer in hopes Lucasfilm would buy a machine.[http://alvyray.com/Art/AndreAndWally.htm Alvy Ray Smith Andre and Wally B] The film's soundtrack was partially produced by SoundDroid.

Release



The film premiered on July 25, 1984, in Minneapolis at the annual SIGGRAPH conference, though 2 shots or about 6 seconds of the film were incomplete and made of wire-frame renders, so-called pencil test footage, over the completed backgrounds. The final rendering of the film was released a month later, on August 17 at Toronto's International Animation Festival. The film was also showcased at "Digicon '85".

Home media



It was released for home video in the collections 'State of the Art of Computer Animation', 'Tiny Toy Stories', and 'Pixar Short Films Collection, Volume 1' (DVD/Blu-ray).

See also



* List of Pixar shorts

* Walt Disney Pictures

References




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