‘Pixar In Real Life’ Reveals True Disney Magic
by Frank Martin
It’s undeniable that there’s a certain magic to what Disney has accomplished. Behind the constant corporate greed and creative accounting, the heart of the company still remains its characters and the fandom they create. It is hard sometimes to reconcile these two sides of such a large company, but there is one show titled Pixar In Real Life that manages to capture it in a very unique way.
Pixar In Real Life isn’t a typical show. There’s not necessarily any story to be told. In fact, the episodes are extremely short. But what they do manage to accomplish is to take various aspects of popular Pixar films and characters and insert them into the lives of unsuspecting passerbys in New York City. Every episode accomplishes this in a different fashion by utilizing a very creative system of real actors and set pieces. For instance, people stumbled upon a control panel similar to what was used in Inside Out, and after playing with the panel, these people realize they can actually control the emotions of actors acting out a scene in front of them. Another episode has an actor ask random people to watch a pile of garbage while they go around the corner. Then Wall-E emerges from the garbage to present the person with a ring that the actor said they had lost.
It’s pretty clear that these people roped into the skits aren’t actors. They may have been prepped a bit to expect something spontaneous to happen, but they certainly aren’t in on the act. They are just regular people with a familiarization of the Pixar characters and are caught off guard by the random and surprising way in which these stories come to life. It’s a truly unsuspecting moment for these people, and their reaction is genuine. It’s easy to spot the emotion on their faces when these magical characters interact with them. They are completely caught by surprise. It is in these candid moments that audiences can still see the magic that Disney can bestow upon people, even if the corporate executives behind these creations might sour the experience.
Pixar In Real Life is now streaming on Disney+.
