The Adventures of André and Wally B.

The Adventures of André and Wally B.
Poster for The Adventures of André and Wally B.
Directed by	Alvy Ray Smith
Written by	Alvy Ray Smith (concept)
Studio	The Graphics Group
Distributed by	Lucasfilm
Release date(s)	December 18, 1984 (1984-12-18) December 18, 1985 (with Brazil)
Running time	2 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

The Adventures of André and Wally B. is an animated short made in 1984 by The Graphics Group (a subsidiary of Lucasfilm), which was later spun out as a startup company called Pixar. Although it is technically not a Pixar short, the animation was by John Lasseter (originally for his son), who was working on his first computer animated project and would move on to be a pivotal player at Pixar. The animation was groundbreaking for the time and helped spark the film industry's interest in computer animation. This film was released on December 18, 1984.

It was released theatrically before Brazil (1985).

Plot

The short involves a character named André (their names are only known by the title, they are never mentioned in the film) being awakened in a forest by a pesky bee named Wally B. André distracts the bee so that he can run away. Wally B. chases André and eventually catches up with him then stings him off the screen. Wally B. later reappears with a bent stinger. Soon though, Wally B. gets hit by André's tossed hat as a last laugh.

Production

The credits for the piece are concept/direction Alvy Ray Smith, animation John Lasseter, technical lead Bill Reeves, technical contributions by Tom Duff (who designed the animation program called “md”, short for "motion doctor"), Eben Ostby, Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter, Ed Catmull, David Salesin, Tom Porter, and Sam Leffler, filming by David DiFrancesco, Tom Noggle, and Don Conway, and computer logistics by Craig Good. The title is a tribute to the film My Dinner with André, starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. It was originally entitled My Breakfast with André, about waking up with an android.

The animation on the feature was truly groundbreaking at the time, featuring the first use of motion blur in CG animation and complex 3D backgrounds, where the lighting styles and colors were inspired by Maxfield Parrish, made using particle systems. Lasseter pushed the envelope by asking for manipulatable shapes capable of the squash and stretch style, as earlier CG models had generally been restricted to rigid geometric shapes. It was rendered on a Cray X-MP/48 supercomputer and ten VAX-11/750 superminicomputers from Project Athena.

Release

The film was premiered at SIGGRAPH, though it was a mix of final rendering and wire-frame pencil tests, and was re-released with final rendering a month later at the International Film Festival (IFF). It was released theatrically before Brazil (1985) and also before Toy Story (1995). It was released for home video in the collections Tiny Toy Stories and Pixar Short Films Collection - Volume 1. In the same DVD, it was revealed in a short documentary story of Pixar, that, when The Adventures of André and Wally B. was in production, they planned to show it at SIGGRAPH, but the short couldn't be finished on time. They showed in SIGGRAPH 1984 anyway, with George Lucas and Linda Ronstadt in the audience.

Alternatives

• On Disney Channel, the original credits are edited out and replaced it with fade out card.
• The HD telecasts on Disney Channel and ABC Family use pillarboxing.
• On YTV Short Circuitz, they had cut the original intro and the credits.

See Also

• List of Pixar shorts
• Pixar
• Walt Disney Pictures
• Imaginaria

External links

• The Adventures of André and Wally B. Official website at Pixar.com
• The Adventures of André and Wally B. at the Internet Movie Database
• The Adventures Of André And Wally B. at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• The Adventures of André and Wally B. at AllRovi
• Alvy's Andre & Wally B. webpage

Preceded by -

Pixar Animation Studios short films 1984

Succeeded by Luxo Jr.