merlin:

Threads of Taste

Excerpt from Toy Story 2 (dir. John Lasseter, Ash Brannon, Lee Unkrich; 1999)

Per yesterday’s marathon episode of The Talk Show (jump to around 123:52 here), this is a 15-second excerpt from one of my favorite PIXAR scenes in one of my favorite PIXAR movies.

It’s the bit with the POV shot while The Cleaner fixes Woody’s arm.

And, it’s a one-second shot.

Watch it twice. It’s insane.

Because, here’s the thing: like the transitions between The Magic Kingdom’s “lands,” the extravagant fish tanks and white tigers at The Mirage, and the impossibly seamless design of an iPhone 4’s chassis—there’s absolutely no direct or quantifiable financial reason to make this one little shot this good.

The only reason to make each thread on a broken toy’s shirt look this good is taste. Pure and simple.

And, at least as far as I’m concerned, that taste is precisely the thing that makes PIXAR, PIXAR.

There’s no A/B test for awesome.