Marta García was not yet born when ‘Toy Story’ was released in 1995. She was 12 years old when she saw ‘Toy Story 3’ in 2010 in the company of his older brother, a fan of the animated saga who, since he was a child, had compulsively collected all kinds of memorabilia linked to the fabulous Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Jessie, Rex and company. García, who works in the world of advertising, is 24 years old today and remembers, as if it were yesterday, the sea of tears, the lump in the throat and the emotional turmoil which was the dramatic moment when the toys, hand in hand, are about to burn to death in the dump, not to mention that devastating last goodbye to their owner, Andybefore leaving for college. “That day I learned many things: the awareness of death, the transition from childhood to adulthood, the strength of friendship… That day I felt that I was getting older& rdquor ;, says the publicist, who has never missed a Pixar movie again.
The ending of ‘Toy story 3’ is probably the Sistine Chapel from Pixar cinema in its objective of approaching, from depth and risk, the fears and tribulations of childhood and adolescence. To the fact, in short, of growing up and becoming older, because being a child is not always a bed of roses. The latest shining example of him is ‘Red’, movie just released on the streaming platform Disney +in which he raises the bar and puts the focus on the difficult moment of adolescence and the jump to puberty. ‘Red’, as you may already know, tells the story of a 13-year-old girl who suddenly notices a change in her body: she has turned into a huge furry red panda and, depending on her mood, it will transform into Learn to be in control of your own emotions. An original and irresistible ‘coming of age’ about the difficult relationship with our parents and the joyous friendship between girls, capable of destroying the taboos on menstruation, hormones and adolescent sexual desire.
Pixar cinema, in truth, has always been a bit like this: multilayer works, as simple in appearance as complex in their subject matter, concerned with both entertaining and making us think about great themes such as childhood terrors (‘Monsters SA’), death (‘Coco’ and ‘Soul’) or ecology (‘Wall ·AND’). “The writers who write these stories have the ability to reflect very well the childhood realityincluding fears and emotions & rdquor ;, explains Silvia Pastor, educational psychologist and worker in a non-governmental organization that helps children. In her opinion, movies are an excellent opportunity to converse with our real-life sons and daughters. Of course, “adapting the language to their age and being aware that children, depending on their age, will understand more or less the layers” that hyphens usually have.
For children and for adults
Esteban Echeverria is creative director of the Argentine animation production company NutsMedia and considers that much of Pixar’s “genius” lies in its ability to expand the ‘target’ beyond children: “Its success lies in being able to speak to everyone, including parents, adults. And many people who don’t have children enjoy Pixar films, such as ‘Up’, Wall E’, ‘Inside out’ or, now, ‘Red'”. For Echeverría, Pixar films have the amazing ability to “question the child about what is to come and the adult about what has already happened”.
In this sense, the Argentine creative believes that the Pixar title that has best explained the transition to adulthood is ‘Inside out’: “It’s not her best movie, but it is the deepest and most intense. As an adult, that moment in which the girl’s invisible friend vanishes makes a big impact, Bing Bong the Pink Elephant, because it tells us about the loss of memory when you are a child; it reaches you to the deepest fiber. But it also teaches children incredible things: basically, learn that when you grow up you don’t always have to be happy: that for a while you are going to be good and then bad, and that you are going to be bad more times than good when you grow up. It’s very brave to teach something like that from an animated film.”
“You can not underestimate the imagination and knowledge of children & rdquor ;, assures Mario Torrecillas, director of PDA (Little Cartoons), audiovisual workshop aimed at making animated films in schools around the world, including a refugee camp in Haiti. The screenwriter remembers that, when it premiered ‘Toy Story’ in 1996everyone was talking about it being the first animated film to be shot on a computer: “And we all went to see it thinking that it would be a pioneering 3D thing, and what we found was much more than just the technological roll: finally an intelligent and emotional movie for children, who did not treat the viewer as if he were a fool. Pixar has been able, and very well, to turn its attention to children, treating them as adults”. For Torrecillas, the North American animated factory is the only one that, in some way, has been able to approach the ability to explain childhood age with the delicate emotion and intelligence of the Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki and his Studio Ghibli, responsible for milestones such as ‘My neighbor Totoro’ or ‘Spirited Away’. Echeverría thinks the same: “Pixar has learned a lot, and well, from Miyazaki, who is everyone’s muse; the Ghibli thing is more poetic, not so obvious, but Pixar, when it comes to explaining emotions, has known how to take what best of the master”.
deeper conversations
Silvia Pastor saw ‘Red’ with her 5-year-old daughter the same weekend it premiered on Disney+. “It helped us to talk about the period and the compresses, something that I had already explained to him. I also told him how when you’re older you need to put on deodorant because your body changes. They are small details, but very necessary and that can give you the opportunity to deeper conversations. For example, the emotional ones. I told him that when he grows up he will stop loving me so much and feel more comfortable with his friends & rdquor ;, admits the expert.
What Pastor’s daughter still does not understand is that, indeed, there will come a time in her life when her vital references will be her friends and not so much her parents. She explains it perfectly ‘Red’ and also the excellent previous short of her director, ‘Beam’. It’s fiction, but based on science. The book ‘The adolescent brain’ – from the scientist specializing in neuroeducation David Good– emphasizes that social life in preadolescence is essential because it generates oxytocin, a neurohormone that makes boys and girls are happier being with their gang and not with their parents. That is just what happens to the protagonists of Red and Bao. “Adolescents have emotions on the surface: sadness, joy, anger, fear… How do you live with people who are so unstable? Thanks to oxytocin, which allows them to feel comfortable & rdquor ;, explains Professor Bueno.
live with emotions
Silvia Pastor insists on the importance of emotionssomething that perfectly reflects ‘Inside out’ and of course ‘Red’. “Fathers and mothers are used to cutting off negative emotions: don’t cry, don’t get angry… It’s a mistake. They have to live with them and learn to control them. ‘Upside down’ doesn’t hide any bad emotions, including rage. In addition, the script reflects something that is very good for children to see: that ‘normal’ families also discuss, that not everything is black or white in life. Emotions go far beyond happiness and sadness & rdquor ;.
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To the psychopedagogue, ‘Soul’ he liked it less in cinematic terms. But he also applauds the film for addressing “very well & rdquor; a subject as complicated for minors as death, another unfairly taboo subject for children, also treated in ‘Coco’. “The good thing about Pixar movies is that they have many layers.. If your son has not learned great things, nothing happens. He enjoys it as well. And, in addition, it can always serve as a starting point for you to explain more or less complicated matters & rdquor ;.
Beyond emotions, death and the transition to adolescence, the critic Javier Ocaña states in the book ‘From Snow White to Kurosawa’ that ‘Wall·E’ is “the most suggestive challenge for the little ones in the entire Pixar filmography”. When the robot Eva arrives on the scene “The usual stereotypes of what is feminine and what is masculine escape: she is the tough type, with decision and even capacity for violence; and he, the scary, shy and delicate & rdquor ;.