A video essay analyzing the use of shapes in Pixar’s UP to convey a message about main character Carl’s life in the beginning of the film.
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Transcript provided by Youtube:
00:14
let’s take a look at how Pixar’s Up uses
00:18
geometric shades to emphasize the
00:19
monotony in Carl’s life in this scene
00:22
Carl is sitting in his bed notice the
00:25
rectangular figures that appear on the
00:26
screen the lack could be neat shapes in
00:28
this scene reflect the day-to-day
00:29
repetition in Carl’s life the redundancy
00:32
of the shapes acts as a metaphor the
00:34
squares board the viewers eyes in the
00:36
same way that Carl’s life bores him here
00:43
even Carl’s body is abnormally
00:45
rectangular
00:54
take a look at this scene notice all of
00:58
the squares that appear behind him as
00:59
well as the squares that appear in the
01:01
staircase in front of him even more
01:02
interesting the scene is spatially
01:04
broken up into three geometric triangles
01:07
this blocking technique is used
01:09
throughout the entire morning routine
01:11
sequence notice how both the literal and
01:16
spatial use of rectangles is used in the
01:19
following scenes
01:33
this next shot is extremely telling it
01:36
emphasizes the monotony in Carlos life
01:39
while also acting as a tool to show his
01:41
desire to break out of the normalcy and
01:43
men his house as it is surrounded by
01:46
outside forces it represents the
01:48
victimization of Carl as he is boxed in
01:51
by the confines of society due to his
01:53
age in contrast with rectangular shapes
01:56
representing Carl’s Square life the
01:58
introduction of circles for shadows the
02:00
arrival of change something new and
02:02
exciting in the form of an energetic
02:04
young boy named Russell good afternoon
02:06
my name is Russell the first prominent
02:09
circles can be seen as locks on Carl’s
02:11
door suggesting that just outside his
02:13
door awaits an alternative to his
02:15
current life it takes Russell’s youthful
02:17
optimism to break down Carl’s angular
02:20
walls in this way the circle of life
02:23
from youth to old age manifests itself
02:26
in fantastically vibrant ways
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This post was previously published on Youtube.
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video.