Experience 30 years of Pixar’s animation in one extravaganza

It only takes a brief tour of Tokyo to see how pervasive the city’s love for whimsy is. From public service posters featuring pandas, bears, and cats encouraging citizens to recycle, not litter or hold onto escalator handrails to happy animals serving as prefecture mascots, it’s no wonder that cartoons play a huge part in Japan’s everyday life, whether you are a three-year-old child or an 80-year-old grandpa.

One of the powerhouses in digital animation, Pixar rose to fame with its beloved tale of talking toys in Toy Story. In 2016, it celebrates 30 years of delighting audiences and fans are invited to experience its journey at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo.

Offering an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at film favourites, some 500 artworks will be on display at Pixar: 30 Years of Animation, including pieces from Toy Story, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Nemo and more. Two unique installations have also been created for the exhibition – Zoetrope and Artscape – as well as a video that depicts the sweat and dedication that go into animating a story.

Despite Pixar’s strength in digital animation, many of the featured artworks still use traditional methods of drawing. Artists use different mediums ranging from ink and pencil to pastels and watercolour to design characters and settings, which are rendered digitally into the final product we see in the movies.

First displayed at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art in 2005, the exhibition has since travelled quite extensively and its Tokyo pitstop features never-before-seen pieces to celebrate the animation studio’s three decades of work.