[2008.05.22] Tall tales 离奇故事

Computer animation
电脑动画

Tall tales
离奇故事

May 22nd 2008
From The Economist print edition

The rollercoaster, rags-to-riches story of a remarkable animation studio
非同凡响的动画工作室是如何白手起家，平步青云的。

Breaking the mould
打破陈规

PIXAR’S characters—whether the heroic toys of “Toy Story”, the father and son fish of “Finding Nemo”, the insects in “A Bug’s Life” or the rat-chef of “Ratatouille”—are full of yearning; for a child to play with, a lost family member, or to become something that seems far out of reach. The small company that imagined them is just the same. Right from the beginning, Pixar, officially a computer-hardware business, secretly dreamed of a more creative life making feature films.
从《玩具总动员》中神勇的玩具 兵，到《海底总动员》里的父子鱼；从《虫虫总动员》中的小昆虫，到《美食总动员》里的老鼠大厨，皮克斯创造出的角色总是对未来满怀期待：期待着能够一起玩 耍的小伙伴，期待着失去的亲人重新团聚，期待着拥有看似无法企及的身份。这其实也是这家小公司对自身的期许。成立伊始的皮克斯公司的正式业务是电脑硬件， 然而却暗暗怀着制做长篇电影的梦想。

Ed Catmull’s ambition at school had been to become an animator at Disney, but he gave up because he couldn’t draw. Computer animation, he realised, having graduated in computer science and physics, could be a way to overcome this. So Mr Catmull brought together a small group of people to form a computer-graphics group, which later became Pixar. Their early attempts were uninspiring, however. Two years in the making, the 1977 film, “Tubby the Tuba”, looked bad and the story did not work. Mr Catmull and his colleagues quickly realised that fancy technology was not enough, and that story-telling was just as vital to computer animation as to the hand-drawn sort. Under John Lasseter, a young animator rejected by Disney, Pixar started to develop a new kind of cartoon, which eschewed fairy-tale plots and entertained adults as well as children.
早在中学时代，埃 德·凯特默Ed Catmull就梦想着进迪士尼做动画片。然而由于不会画画，最后他还是放弃了这个念头。他选择了计算机科学与物理学作为专业，毕业之后，他意识到计算机 动画可以补偿他的遗憾。凯特默建立了一个小组，研究电子动画技术。这个小组便是后来的皮克斯公司。然而起初他们的努力并没有取得什么成为。经过了两年的制 作，1977年，他们完成了一部名为“Tubby the Tuba” 的电影。画面很糟糕，故事情节也乏善可陈。凯特默和他的同事们很快意识到花拳绣腿的技术是无事无补的，和手绘动画一样，故事情节在电脑动画中也起着举足轻 重的作用。一名年轻的动画制作者约翰·莱斯特被迪士尼拒之门外之后转投皮克斯公司。在他的故事下，皮克斯开始研发一套全新的动画技术。他们摈弃了童话情 节，不仅仅面向儿童，也要给成年人带来同样的乐趣。

Pixar soon drew the attention of George Lucas, director of the “Star Wars” films, and its future seemed assured. But all Mr Lucas really wanted was for the little company to make whizzy special effects for Lucasfilm’s movies, not expensive computer-animated films of its own. At one point, in 1985, Pixar, losing money fast, was nearly sold to General Motors and Philips Electronics, which wanted its computer-graphics modelling tools to help design cars and transform medical scans into three-dimensional images. Even when Steve Jobs, a co-founder of Apple, came to the rescue, Pixar was still in danger. Its pretence to be a computer company was going badly: sales of the Pixar Image Computer were slow. The only significant way the company was earning money was by making cartoon advertisements to sell other companies’ products.
不久，皮克斯引起了《星球大战》系列电影 的导演乔治·卢卡斯的注意，前途也逐渐变得光明起来。然而卢卡斯对这家小公司的期待只是为卢卡斯影业的电影中增添些眼花缭乱的特效，而不是自出机杼且价格 不菲的电脑动画。1985年，皮克斯公司的财政陷入了困境，几乎被通用汽车和菲利浦电子收购。前者想在汽车设置中皮克斯的计算机动画建模技术，后者则想将 医疗检查的结果用三维图像显示出来。即使苹果公司创始人之一斯蒂芬·乔布斯出手相助，收购了公司，皮克斯依然未能摆脱困境。作为一家计算机公司，他们的业 绩可谓惨不忍睹。皮克斯牌图像电脑的销量一直停滞不前。为其他公司的产品设计卡通广告成了皮克斯公司财务收入的唯一主要来源。

But there was reason for hope. “Tin Toy”, a short animated film, won an Oscar in 1988, and that was enough to keep Pixar alive and, crucially, to attract the interest of Disney. Together, the two studios made “Toy Story”, which became a critical and financial success.
然而皮克斯仍然抱有着希望。1988年，他们制作的动画短片Tin Toy赢得了奥斯卡奖。皮克斯得以借此维持生计，更重要的是，这让他们吸引了迪士尼的注意。两家工作室协作打造了《玩具总动员》。这部作品广受好评，票房上也大获丰收。

Several more hits followed, and Pixar astounded Hollywood with its consistency. The studio became widely revered for its creative culture and for its insistence on originality. There are few American companies with as saintly a reputation. In 2006 Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion, and promptly put Messrs Catmull and Lasseter in charge of Disney’s own animation unit.
在这之后，皮克斯又接连制做了几部成功作品。他们坚持不懈的精神终于打动了好莱坞。皮克斯作品独树一帜的风格和坚 持不懈的创新精神受到了广泛推崇。很少有美国公司能享有如此的声誉。2006年，迪士尼公司以74亿美元的价格收购了皮克斯，并迅速将莫斯·凯特默和莱斯 特二人提到了迪士尼动画部门的主管位置。

A number of interesting things about Disney emerge in this excellent, readable account of Pixar’s early years. David Price claims, for instance, that Disney’s chief executive, Michael Eisner, considered shutting down the company’s animation unit after he took over as chief executive in 1984, an astonishing fact given the subsequent success of cartoon films such as “The Lion King”. Mr Price also makes clear just how much Pixar owes to Disney: it was the larger company’s marketing for “Toy Story”, for instance, that gave Mr Jobs the confidence to launch an initial public offering of shares in Pixar in 2005.
在迪士尼与皮克斯成绩卓著、令人侧目的合作关系初期，发生了一些颇令人回味的事情。例如，大卫·普莱斯对外透 露，迪士尼公司的总裁麦克尔·埃斯纳自1984年上任以来，一直考虑停止公司动画部门的运作。考虑到迪士尼一系列成功的动画电影作品（如《狮子王》），这 事的确令人吃惊不小。普莱斯还声称，迪士尼对皮克斯恩重如山。举例而言，正是迪士尼以其大公司的资本对《玩具总动员》进行了经营推广，才使得乔布斯坚定了 信心，于2005年首次公开发行皮克斯公司的股票。

Mr Price leaves Pixar and its animators in the arms of Mickey Mouse and friends, and assumes that all will be well. So far, the acquisition has undoubtedly benefited Disney. Creative types who left the animation giant in recent years are beginning to return, and morale is high at the company as Pixar prepares next month to launch its ninth feature film, “Wall-E”, about a robot in the year 2700. But will the company have the same energy in future, and what will happen when Mr Lasseter has his next “creative” spat with Disney? Pixar’s life from here on, safely tucked away inside a powerful corporation, is likely to be less visible. But that does not mean it will be any less interesting.
普莱斯把皮克斯工作室的动画制作人推向了米老鼠众的怀抱，他觉得这 样大家都会过上幸福的生活。就目前来看，无疑迪士尼因这笔收购而获益良多。动画巨人找回了近年来逐渐失去的灵感天分。由于皮克斯工作组宣布下月将推出它的 第九部动画电影“Wall·E”，公司的士气士气也为之振奋。然而公司这种活力四射的状态能保持多久？如果莱斯特与迪士尼再就“创新”的问题与迪士尼翻脸 又会如何？皮克斯现在已经可以在大公司里大口喝酒大块吃肉了，但其未来仍然无法预料。事态的发展也许仍然会非常有趣。

译者：Lennow.W http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=11562&page=1&extra=#pid72406