Les Aventures d'André et Wally B.

'André And Wally B. (1984)' is a pioneering 3D animation from the people who would go onto become Pixar. It represents a myriad of firsts for the technique and is generally considered to be the first 3D animation with a plot. Needless to say, it's an important movie. However, it isn't really entertaining. The environments all looks surprisingly good but the characters can't match it. Their actual animation is stiff and dull, too. The plot itself is so basic that it's difficult to call it a story, really. Still, these elements can be forgiven if one views the piece in its proper context. It's basically just an experiment. I know that it's brilliant for what it is but it simply doesn't hold up. 5/10

'Andre and Wally B' isn't strictly a true Pixar film (since it was produced mainly at Lucasfilms), but John Lassester was amongst the creative team behind it, and it can still be found on their official Pixar site. A very early venture in making short animated films from CGI, this definitely doesn't rank up there as one of their coolest, perhaps because the limitations are all too obvious. The 3D animation isn't really all that great – the characters look basic and chunky, like they were taken straight from some sort of video game – while the storyline (if you can call it that) is too firmly-welded in the style of classic Walt Disney shorts. This may be done in computer animation, but otherwise it's just the same cartoony mayhem you've seen countless times before, involving a strange character named Andre (you know, I'm not really sure what kind of animal he's meant to be), being chased by a malicious bee. To be fair, I do actually enjoy a lot of the older Walt Disney cartoons, but the traditional 2D animation there had a greater fluidity that the more primitive CGI in this short film, which feels far too awkward and bulky to pull the same style off successfully.

I'm guessing they didn't really have the capacity back then to put together a CGI film with a great deal happening in, so all things considered this isn't bad. It just can't compare to the sort of thing Pixar since went onto achieve, having adopted their own unique style and approach to this medium – their studio's first short, 'Luxo Jr' was an absolute classic.

Grade: C

It was proof that motion blur techniques and complex 3D objects could be used against a partially rendered background. This was the birth of the greatest animation studio currently working today. The seed that enabled The Graphics Group to form, what is now known as, Pixar. Therefore automatically assigning this animation short as an important part of animation history. A refreshing new method into filmmaking, especially back in 1984. Colourful 3D shapes conjoined together to create models. Unfortunately though, its conceptual proof does not make for an engaging story...or anything engaging for that matter. A man/creature/thing gets chased by a bee. Simple. Totalling at less than two minutes long, it contains no characterisation, interactivity or memorability. Nearly a third of the short itself is introductory and closing credits, consequently leaving approximately one minute to establish some sort of entertainment. Too bad it fell flat. The primary focus for innovation meant that its actual purpose as entertainment was lost. However I appreciate the technical prowess and astute innovation, acting as a stepping stone for the pinnacle company of animation that we know and love today.

This is the first short made by the set of people who went on to be Pixar's founders and the company's core creative people. It is much more of proof of concept experimental work than a true story. Indeed, the storyline-such as it is-is a basic scenario and largely exists to allow the filmmakers to test various animation techniques, i.e. 3d models, point blur etc. To that end the film is enjoyable as a piece of history. On its own the short is rather dull and simple-the animation is *exceedingly* dated.

I do like that the short still has the distinctiveness of Pixar.

An android and a bee in Conflict.

It is worth noting that this was very important when it was first released. By the standards of the time it is impressive. I'd like to call attention to the opening which imitates a crane shot and pan, highly cinematic in its own right, and something that hadn't really been seen before this in animation, at least not looking so convincing.

Of course by today's standards it is very dated. It doesn't feel fair or particularly useful to criticize 3D that is literally just shy of 40 years old. So I will not be doing that. However, it isn't particularly fun or engaging, something absolutely not true of other works of the time, and much further back, including ones not live action. Of course I'm not expecting something profound in 90 seconds not counting in credits. And I do appreciate that this was legitimately just something John Lasseter and others made for his kids. I'll just say that I'm really glad that Pixar has gone above and beyond improving that they have a lot to offer since making this. This, along with a lot of its ilk, is currently available at no additional fee on Disney plus.

I recommend this to completists. 6/10.