[Shouts] “Hey, Buzz!
You’re flying!”
In almost every Pixar film, there’s a MOMENT.
It’s the scene you remember years later, when you cried or laughed like a child.
These moments make us forget we’re watching a movie --
for a few seconds at least, we’re part of the story.
But what IS the Pixar Moment?
For this essay we’re going to focus on scenes from three films:
Toy Story, Up, and Ratatouille.
Though the movies themselves are very different,
they each have a key scene that centers on what writer K.M.
Weiland calls,
“The lie your character believes.”
Characters usually have a preconceived notion
about themselves, others, or the world.
“It’s not that I like the Empire, I hate it,
but there’s nothing I can do about it right now.”
The story slowly tears down that falsehood so the characters can grow and learn.
Sometimes the hero learns this lesson early in the story as the inciting incident.
“You’re a wizard, Harry.”
Usually, the realization is saved for the climax,
when a character needs knowledge to overcome the final obstacle.
“He is the one.”
And it doesn’t have to be the protagonist who believes the lie.
It can be a villain --
“You were right about me.”
or even the sidekick --
“I’ll take the heat for it.
We’ll wait for your father to come home, and when he gets here,
I’ll tell him that I did it.”
“No, I’ll take it.”
So let’s examine how Pixar creates these moments of self-realization
and how we can find the Pixar moments in our own lives.
[Sings] “Remember me…”
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Toy Story centers on a clash of egos between two tiny toys.
Both characters have inflated egos.
Buzz thinks he’s a real space ranger on a mission to save the galaxy.
“I’m Buzz Lightyear, Space Ranger.
I protect the Galaxy from the threat of invasion
from the evil Emperor Zurg.”
While Woody believes that he alone is central to Andy’s life.
“In a couple of days, everything’ll be just the way it was.
They’ll see.
I’m still Andy’s favorite toy.”
Toy Story's Pixar moment comes at the climax of the film.
After Woody rescues Buzz from Sid, a series of obstacles keeps them
from joining the others.
All of these letdowns bring the audience’s hopes to a nadir,
preparing us for the final triumph when Woody lights the rocket.
[Shouts] “To infinity and beyond!”
In this moment, Buzz acknowledges, with glee, that he’s not a real space ranger
–
but he’s learned to play pretend.
[Shouts] “Hey, Buzz!
You’re flying!”
“This isn’t flying.
This is falling with style.”
And by adopting Buzz’s catch phrase,
[In unison] “To infinity and beyond!”
Woody lets go of his self-importance and accepts his new buddy.
So both have a more realistic sense of their places in the world.
And now that they've given up their egotistical delusions,
they're free to experience the joys of friendship.
“Besides, when it all ends, I’ll have old Buzz Lightyear to keep me company.”
So Toy Story’s Pixar moment encourages us to break free
of rigid preconceptions about who we are.
When we accept change, we grow --
and we can perform feats we never imagined possible...
like falling with style.
“AHHH!”
[Screams] “This is the part where we blow up!”
“Not today!”
Moving on to Up.
EVERYONE remembers the first ten minutes.
Carl and Ellie’s marriage was happy, but tinged with sadness.
They couldn’t have children
and couldn't afford their dream vacation to Paradise Falls.
“And once I get there…
Well.
I’m saving these pages for all the ADVENTURES I’m gonna have!”
When Ellie passes away, Carl believes she died unfulfilled.
[Sighs]
He wants to bring their home to Paradise Falls
so he can finally make her dream adventure come true.
[Shouts] “So long, boys!
I’ll send you a postcard from Paradise Falls!”
Along the way he meets obstacles to this goal.
“I’m tired.”
But Carl sticks to his mission.
“Whether you assist me or not, I am going to Paradise Falls if it kills me!”
After succeeding, he shuns his new friends so he can be alone in his grief.
Notice, the first piece of furniture he sets upright is Ellie’s chair –
a touching sign of respect.
Now he’s essentially waiting to die, so he and Ellie can be together again.
But then... the moment.
He flips through the final pages of Ellie’s adventure scrapbook.
The camera slowly pushes in on the photos and in toward Carl’s face
as he sees a lifetime of smiles.
Together, we realize that Ellie was grateful and content with her experiences.
Carl believed he failed Ellie by not giving her excitement.
But her final message says that she never regarded her life as a waste.
She simply thanks him for the adventure.
[Sobs]
Like Carl, many of us project our worldviews onto the people we care about.
Even when we’re trying to make our loved ones happy,
we can be blinded by our assumptions of what that means --
and fail to understand the people closest to us.
Up teaches us that to truly know our beloveds,
we have to see the world from their perspective.
And also, we should remember that every day with them is an adventure.
“Ready?”
“Ready!”
The final lie a character can believe is about their worldview.
“You know what I’m craving?
A little… perspective.”
This is beautifully portrayed in the climax of Ratatouille.
Remy is a rat and aspiring chef, mentored by the spirit of the late chef Gusteau
who made famous the motto, “Anyone can cook.”
Gusteau’s restaurant is in decline,
suffering from a negative review by the revered critic Anton Ego.
“My last review condemned it to the tourist trade.”
Anton Ego is the antithesis of the idea “anyone can cook.”
Even his name implies vanity, elevating the individual over the masses.
And this is the lie that he believes –
that only a select few can practice the fine art of cooking.
Then Remy serves him Ratatouille, which some dismiss as a peasant dish.
“Ratatouille, it’s a peasant dish.
Are you sure you want to serve THIS to Ego?”
Ego begins the meal with pen in hand, like he’s a professional at the office.
First the dish, flanked by Ego’s notebook and fork.
Then we examine the food from Anton’s shoulder, nearly from his point-of-view.
We’re seeing the food as he sees it -- as something to be studied.
The food enters his mouth and then we see Ego’s eyes close up for the first time.
Through his eyes, the scene melts away
and Ego is transported to a small cottage in his childhood.
Outside, his bicycle is broken.
He’s crying.
But his loving mother cooks him a meal and,
without a word, tells him everything will be fine.
In this moment, he changes his view of food and of the world.
Not only can anyone cook,
but eating great food doesn’t have to be an intellectual, elitist pursuit.
It can be the simplest and most fundamental of joys,
one that carries us back home to our childhoods.
This moment is powerful because the audience is right beside Ego,
watching our adulthoods melt away.
In a flash, we’re all children again, sitting in a caring kitchen with a home-cooked
meal.
“To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged
my preconceptions about fine cooking is a gross understatement.
They have rocked me to my core.”
All of these Pixar moments encourage us to see that WE, too,
might be holding onto false ideas about ourselves, our loves ones, or our world.
Maybe we feel like we’ll always be alone or that workplace traditions can’t change,
that our economy can only depend on one energy source
or that winning means everything.
“You must try things that may not work.
And you must not let anyone define your limits because of where you come from.
Your only limit is your soul.”
These deeply entrenched lies prevent us from growing.
Embracing the full TRUTH is the only way to escape a narrow point of view
and live our fullest lives.
“There are times when a critic truly risks something
and that is in the discovery and defense of the new.”
On the other side of the Pixar moment,
it’s like the mental and spiritual equivalent of the Happy Ever After –
the experience of true freedom.
Life is exhilarating, full of possibility –
an adventure into infinity and beyond.
What’s your favorite Pixar moment?
Let us know in the comments below.
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Thanks for watching.
Hi, guys.
Susannah and Debra here.
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