COP2 - Writing an Introduction

Pixar studios have been toying with audience’s emotions with such high capacity since the studio was founded by John Lasseter in 1986. What is exciting and impressive about Pixar’s animated films is the ability to present the audience with such relatable characters and story situations in which the audience can heavily relate to these components and become entwined in the film.

Undertows of psychological research can be seen in the practice of Pixar and one of the most recent films, Inside Out (2015) explicitly displays this connection between Pixar films and psychology. Pixar uses various factors to aid in the manipulation of audience’s emotions. Exploring these factors might give a better idea of how Pixar is able to create such emotional responses to their films.

If we strip it down, all an animation really is in detached terms is marks and colours on the screen, it’s our brain that adds recognition and meaning to these symbols.’If I hold my head to the left and look down at the handle grips and front wheel and map carrier and gas tank I get one pattern of sense data. If I move my head to the right I get another slightly different pattern of sense data. The two views are different. The angles of the planes and curves of the metal are different. The sunlight strikes them differently. If there's no logical basis for substance, then there's no logical basis for concluding that what's produced these two views is the same motorcycle.’(Pirsig). We put the data together in our brain that we receive from our senses and that's what builds this passage for the storyteller to connect to.