Finding Nemo

The tale
Life in the Great Barrier Reef if full of dangers for a tiny fish. When marlin, an overly cautious clownfish, helplessly watches his son got scooped p by a diver, he must put aside his fears of the ocean and leave the safety of his coral enclave to find Nemo. Buoyed by the companionship of Dory, a forgetful but relentlessly optimistic fish. Marlin finds himself the unlikely hero in a seemingly impossible land-and-see rescuer.

The characters
Pixar wanted to remain true to the way aquatic life moves about, which posed a difficult challenge for animators: making often armless, legless character expressive in a way that people could relate to. Animators learned to work with the limited motion and appendages of fish, and packed as much expression as they could into a face of fin gesture. The end result is the look of real fish that are believable as characters.

Behind the scenes
To create the look ad feel of real underwater environment, the Finding Nemo development team recreated several components found in the ocean: particulate matter (particles, like specks of dust in air, that are always present inn water); surge and swell (the constant movement); caustic lighting (patterns of light on the ocean floor and shafts of light); murk (how light filters out over distance); and reflection and refraction (the look of water from above and below the surface)

The wrap-up
In 2003, splash hit Finding Nemo became the world’s highest grossing animated film of all time and the ninth highest grossing film ever made, reeling in more that $850 million worldwide. Finding Nemo is making other waves as well. The DVD is already the No.1 selling DVD of all time, and the movie was honored with an Oscar for best animated film and received Oscar nomination for best original Screenplay, Best original score and best sound editing.

WALL-E

The tale
What if mankind had to leave earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off? After hundred years doing what he was built for, WALL-E discovers a new purpose in life when he meets a sleek search robot named EVE. EVE comes to realize that WALL-E has inadvertently stumbled upon the key to the planet’s future, the races back to space report her findings to the humans. Meanwhile, WALL-E chases EVE across the galaxy and sets into motion one of the most imaginative adventures ever bought to the big screen

The characters
One of the most exciting challenges the WALL-E animation team faced was creating characters that could communicate emotions and actions clearly without being able to rely on traditional dialogue. According to director Andres Stanton, “in the world of animation, pantomime is the thing that animators love best. It’s their bread and butter”

Behind the scenes
For the director Andrew Stanton, there was only one clear choice to create the specialty voices and design the sounds for this film. That choice was multiple Oscar –winning sound designer Ben Burtt, the wizard behind- the voice of R2-D2, the crack of Indiana Jones’ whip, the hiss for alien and many other iconic sounds known to moviegoers everywhere. Even with Burtt’s vast experience, the library of 2,400 sound files he created to WALL-E was the most ever for his career

Ratatouille

The tale
In Ratatouille, a rat named Remy dreams of becoming great chef despite his family’s wishes and the obvious problem of being a rat in decidedly rodent-phobic profession. When fate places Remy in the sewers of Paris, he finds himself ideally situated beneath a restaurant made famous by his culinary hereon. Auguste Gusteau. Remy’s passion for cooking soon sets in motion a hilarious and exciting rat race that turns the world of Paris upside down.

The characters
For Ratatouille, the filmmakers decided to look at rats from a fresh perspective, reassessing some of their most amazing talents and qualities, and analyzing every aspect of how they interact with the world. To make the rats dramatically expressive, animator’s closely studied their behaviors, from the swish of their tails, the twitch of their whiskers and the amazing and extreme shapes that cats can form.

Behind the scenes
Bringing the culinary world to life in an accurate and exciting way was the key to the entire story. The process started in Paris, where the filmmakers conducted “research”, touring and eating at some of the finest restaurants in the “city of lights”. Upon their return, the entire team participated in a series of cooking classes, in which computer artists learned to slice and dice like the pros.

The wrap-up
Ratatouille proved to be the perfect recipe for audiences and critics alike. According to rotten tomatoes Ratatouille was the best-reviewed film of the year, animated or live-action. The film won the Academy Award for best animated feature and received a total of five nominations the most ever for a computer-animated film. Fans across the globe made Ratatouille a huge commercial success, the film earned over $621 million in worldwide box office.