Little Teaser

I've found this blog has drifted away from Design topics somewhat and begun to mutate into a compendium of libertarian sympathy. Although I do have a mild passion for the fight against government tyranny, my primary passion is Design and artwork for film and that is the course where I would like to steer this ship back towards. 

So I thought to turn over this new leaf, I'd have a look the recent teaser poster for Pixar's new film Brave. 

Generally I love teaser artwork, its typically the most engaging and creative collateral made for a film; the artwork is required to arrest the audience with some intrigue or a strong visual concept based on a wider abstraction of the film. Its almost always more interesting than the head-collage of top-billed cast that usually follows in the subsequent theatrical campaign.

At first glance, I would not have picked this artwork to be for a Pixar film, it is distinctly more atmospheric and mature than any previous Pixar key art perhaps with the exception of Wall-E, which I think is a good sign for this film. I love the lighting used in this artwork; using mist to enhance the sense of distance and amply the glow of the low-lying light source (sun). The bold silhouette of the title treatment and the sole redhead figure gives a distinct tenor of adventure and scale. Furthermore, the artwork constructs a sensation of space and direction, fashioned from the trajectory of the stream running from the character's vantage point and positioning us in the artwork at the base of the poster. The floating magical blue lights trailing behind the character signifies a direction to her movement, a journey. This impression is further underlined by the hazy forms behind the title treatment, lending to a sense of the unknown lying beyond. 

The darker ambience to the artwork along with the style of the title treatment gives the artwork a distinct Burtonesque (referring to Tim Burton) feel, not unlike the key art for Big Fish. The fiery red curls too particularly evoke impressions of Burton's take on the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland.

What this teaser artwork is telling me about the film Brave both excites and concerns me; Pixar seem to be attempting a few fundamentally new things with this movie. This will be the first Pixar film with a female lead character, which of itself is novel and will open up the potential for a new field of character exploration which has yet to be fully realised in a Pixar film. It does however have the potential to in essence change the particular dynamic that has made Pixar's movies so universally appreciated; that is - in reference to Movie Bob's Up review - "...the most primal of mannish heartaches, the father/son dynamic". The setting also appears to be more fantastical than previous films which have always kept some semblance of modernity to them.

These implications of setting and character - bolstered by a key art with a distinct quality of ambience and fatefulness - are pointing towards Pixar's artistic intentions of carrying a more mature tone with this film. Though with Pixar's track record, I have no doubt there will be plenty of fun to be had on the way.