One of the cool things about museums is that, thanks to their broad dictionary definition (museum |noun: a building in which objects of historical, scientific, artistic, or cultural interest are stored and exhibited; thanks, OED!), they can kind of be, and do, anything. Which is great for Cooper Hewitt, the Smithsonian’s design museum operating out of Andrew Carnegie’s bonkers mansion, because it’s free to house a multifarious collection of anything vaguely related to “design.”
For the rest of the summer, their definition of design includes the mighty Pixar, those CGI wizards who pixelated the backdrop to your ’90s. Pixar: The Design of Story, the Cooper Hewitt exhibit that brought the Dot and Line all the way to 91st St. and the edge of Central Park on a day that felt like the warm embrace of a moist dishrag had everything to do with smooth, smooth toons. Remember this jawn?
Aw, cute lil lamps! Ever want to know their deal? Well:
And that’s the best thing about the exhibit, which runs until September 11, 2016: It takes cartoons seriously. Seriously enough, that is, to render in computer-animated close-up the curls of Merida’s hair from Brave, to show off inspirations for the mid-century features of the world of The Incredibles down to its lounge chairs and water pitchers (OK Cooper Hewitt, we get it, you looooove design), and to detail each variation of red and brown chosen for the rust on WALL-E’s adorable metal frame. It’s a pretty small exhibit, all things considered, but even if you’re not such a big Luxohead that you can recite the name of every major wheeled character in this movie that may or may not be good five times fast in under 20 seconds, it’s still worth the museum’s cover charge.
Your $16 price of admission includes, of course, access to the over-the-top abode itself — done in an outrageously opulent Georgian meets Colonial Revival style — as well as showings of late-Renaissance grotesques, whatever the hell this thing is, and a bunch of mirrors selected by a fashion designer with conspicuous art world ties. Oh, and table-sized tablets, and pens that let you effectively upload the museum. That means you can take Pixar home with you, just like you did when you were a kid.
P.S. Thanks to Cooper Hewitt for letting us tour the museum!
Thanks for reading The Dot and Line, where we talk about animation of all kinds. Don’t forget to ❤ this article and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
