“I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.”

Actor, Michael Caine describing Jaws: The Revenge— a movie he’s supposed to be ashamed of.

I found that quote, and the entire CNN interview with Caine very charming. Great perspective from a guy who’s been doing what he loves for a very long time.

I think many of us—especially those with an artistic or creative bent— can appreciate his sentiments about taking jobs “because I thought no one was ever going to offer me another one”. We all face doubts in our work and may have to pay our dues, so it’s encouraging to see how he has reached a level where he takes jobs only when they interest him; when “they’re so good they interrupt my life”. When you find a project like that, work isn’t work anymore and that’s where the interesting things start to happen.

I have two kids under 11 years old, so it is a given that I see more than my fair share of movies geared toward children. And really, as a designer there is a lot to enjoy in many of these films even for adults—especially if you love design, art or animation. What is more, there has been a sort of mini-Renaissance in this genre of kids movies. Many of these movies come from books such as the Harry Potter films, Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Bridge to Terabithia. They have a lot in common thematically (modern fantasy), feature tween-age protagonists, and share a similar visual aesthetic. And they also happen to be pretty entertaining.

When I was a kid there were tons of great movies in a similar vein such as Flight of the Navigator, The Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, and The Neverending Story to name a few. These were imaginative stories not driven by pre-existing material or toy sales that really inspired me as a child. The newer movies seem to be a spiritual continuation of this greatness, albeit with much improved special effects.

With that said, it came as no surprise to me that The Spiderwick Chronicles was another enjoyable romp through a childhood fantasy. What did comes as a surprise was a bit of creature design that really blew me away. The scene featuring the fairy sprites was just a few seconds of the film but I wished it had lasted much longer. Sprites in the movie were depicted as small creatures that moved much like insects but were anatomically like plants such that they could easily remain unseen in a bed of flowers. They were colorful, imaginative, and sort of floated lithely on the air. Despite this they were designed in such a way as to feel very plausible (at least as plausible as fairies can feel) in a design that naturally follows the rules of our world, if only with a small injection of magic—far more believable than the other creatures in the film (though they were largely charming). I loved that this part of the movie was completely under-developed, in fact the sprites did not speak at all. They were left mysterious and with the audience wanting more.

Still, it was the design that really got my attention. As designers we are often asked to design as system or within a system. Even the most simple of visual communication interacts with a system of visual cues that recall language or other bits of many means of communication. So it is exciting to see this in other forms of design and creativity. I always have admired excellent design of life forms that either align with life on Earth or completely made-up worlds. I think Jim Hensen’s worlds such as in Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal are great examples. In fact, most of Hensen’s work shares a base aesthetic. But I’m equally turned-off when it is done poorly. For example, the bad guys in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films were very unappealing to me. They were, for the most, part too slimy, too detailed, and lacking any of the appealing design that nature provides. Even the ugliest creatures on earth have a sense of proportion and elegance that the LoTR crew never captured. Maybe that was the point of the design—that they appeared to be alien to nature— but that disagrees with the source material, and me. I like even my bad guys to be beautiful, like the demon character in Legend (pictured, though this is a much later action figure version. I could not find a decent still from the movie); still one of my favorites.

If you’ve missed Spiderwick or any of the movies mentioned, here they all come highly-recommended, at least from me. And there are more. What are your favorite movies in this vein?

A few days ago as I browsed my queue, a lightbox-style modal dialog popped up in my browser. It seems the online system was now more tightly integrated with the retail stores which noticed that I had already rented a movie that was in my queue and offered to automatically remove it. Nice touch. It’s nice to see a web app with such a helpful feature.

Like each of the previous Pixar films, The Incredibles was absolutely dripping with the lore of its theme: super heros. The story moved in and out of classic super hero staples form the serials of the 1950’s to modern hero and action flicks with equal grace. A particularly fun moment had the villain catching himself as the hero escapes while he is “monologuing”. I find it truly remarkable that Pixar takes so much pride in really getting into the theme for each film. They handled the insect world in A Bug’s Life; the world of toys in the Toy Story films; a world of childhood monsters in Monsters, Inc.; and marine life in Finding Nemo. Each film is an example of Pixar’s ability to completely understand the theme of each film and then to weave a story that is alive with mild satire, humor, and great characters. Not to mention the amazing technical achievements like Sully’s perfectly rendered fur in Monsters, Inc. or the accurately sterile plastic featured in Toy Story. The Incredibles had me marveling at the amazing rendered sheen of the red nylon super suits and the perfectly rendered hair effects.

To me it feels like Pixar’s approach is to choose a subject matter to act as the theme of every film. Then everything else is created to support that theme. The story, characters, art and design, and sound all act to really describe the world of this subject from top to bottom. I think that is a big part of my interest in these film because it is an approach that is very familiar to me as a graphic designer. In my work, I am constantly immersing myself in the world of my clients and their audiences seeking to support a message that is equally strong both visually and textually. As designers, we are taught to create designs were every element is carefully considered work as a whole in communicating the message of the piece. I think Pixar approaches their films in a similar manner.

One more point I’d like to make about Pixar’s films is the superb visual design of the characters. In their first attempt at a film featuring primarily “human” characters, Pixar avoided the pitfall of other studios that have sought to create realistic looking human models and instead has left in just enough style to keep them fun and cute. I don’t think anything that Dreamworks pictures (creators of Shrek) has ever looked at good as the work of Pixar. Their characters tend to be creepy. The characters in The Incredibles are human cartoons that are realistic enough to fit into their environment, but have enough cartoon elements to allow them to really be attractive and emotive. This is a huge factor for me. Compare the characters in The Incredibles to the creepy 3D Tom Hanks in the trailer to the animated The Polar Express. Yikes!