Product Design Gospel in Pixar’s “Up”
A few days ago I saw Pixar’s “Up” in theaters and I highly recommend that anyone who hasn’t seen it yet drop what they are doing and go RIGHT NOW! It’s another home run from Pixar who (with the exception of a certain automobile-centered film) cannot seem to make a bad movie.
However, there was one scene in “Up” that really disturbed my inner product designer. Without ruining the plot of the movie, at a certain point, the main character, Mr. Fredrickson, must relieve some weight from his balloon-levitated home. Until this part in the film, Mr. Fredrickson has shown a great emotional attachment to every item in his home, but now he won’t be able to “fly” his house without getting rid of these objects. After a few seconds of inner unrest, Mr. Fredrickson then proceeds to carelessly toss all of his belongings from his home damaging and destroying them in the process.
As a recent product design graduate, I just spent four years learning about how to add value and meaning to everyday objects through design. I felt insulted as I watched Mr. Fredrickson destroy product after product that clearly had importance in his life. I felt like Pixar was preaching a message along the lines of, “The things that you surround yourself with are not as important as the memories of those objects.” But where would those memories come from without the interactions with those products in the first place?
I have always been sort of a pack-rat because I enjoy connecting worthwhile memories in my life with the meaningful objects that helped make those impressions. I guess I’m a little worried that by throwing away those objects, I will be throwing away part of that memory. Pixar has always been a company that clearly valued the importance of design, so I could not help but feel betrayed by Pixar during this scene of the movie.
After my brief moment of inner turmoil, I still enjoyed “Up” greatly. In my opinion, it is the funniest and most dramatic Pixar film to date. Also, as a jobless college grad struggling to find direction at this point in my life, I really give Pixar credit for arousing such an emotional design issue. Touché, Pixar… touché.