The exhibition is large, ambitious, encompassing the entire Casa Seat space: in case anyone hadn't noticed, here we have one of the most important animation studios in the world, and without them, Corpse Bride, Spirit, The Prince of Egypt, or Madagascar would not exist, not to mention the recent success of the Barça mascot CAT. The center's windows are covered with vinyls featuring this long list of characters, the panels are large and occupy both floors, the stair railings and the second floor also form part of the exhibition, and the screens with explanatory videos are numerous and captivating. But, in addition, the aesthetic, typographic, and museographic treatment is of high quality, and this can be due both to the house's investment and simply to the talent of the studio itself. As we said, they have created themselves.
Leaving aside a large mural with the studio's chronology, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is the first character presented to the visitor, perhaps because it received the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film in 2023. It is an almost Tim Burton-esque character, decadent and almost terrifying, immersed in a general atmosphere of spindly limbs and elongated hands (like those of Geppetto himself), but with a visibly masterful stroke (in the center of the space, in a display case, the artisanal creation tools: brushes, rulers, set squares, pencils, compasses, charcoal, varnish, all on wood). Father and puppet evoke a desire to hug them, a nostalgic abandonment and an endearing fragility, which fits with the framework the director wanted to convey to fascist Italy. Noteworthy in this section is the meticulous study of Pinocchio's hands and all their movements.
Corpse Bride is, like everything Tim Burton touches, an icon: we are no longer in the universe of the emaciated but directly in the skeletal, in the world of ghosts and zombies. In this section, it is not only the bride who stands out, but all the guests who come from the bride's side, all of them with an overwhelming personality: the skeleton girl, with tiny hands in proportion to her head; the troop of Victorian-era people (hilarious rounded figures, or with top hats, with jewels, vests, burial hats, cigars, canes or monocles, all of them from the Victorian era, but rather seemingly taken from any photo we have seen from the Catalan modernist era); the groom Victor; the orchestra of skeletons…
Due to the large amount of work (approximately 80 characters, in addition to the costume design and the film's well-known calligraphy) he had to decline the offer to create the characters for Pixar's Ratatouille. We will also see the antecedent of the project: the short film The Periwig Maker.
The horse Spirit is a huge challenge: drawing a character with a human figure is costly if you want to create a true effect, drawing hands and their movements is extremely difficult, conceiving an entire atmospheric imaginary is a crazy task, but giving birth to a horse with character, with its own gesture, with a gaze and with rigorous adherence to its breed, must be almost impossible. But it's not just the horse: the eagle, the Indians, the railroad operators… and a very prominent section dedicated exclusively to the protagonist's mane and its very particular movements. Spirit looks at you, acts, gets into its role as an animated character and at the same time never stops being a strict purebred horse.
From here we will move on to the major challenge of Madagascar, between the modernity of The Lion King and the classic The Jungle Book, but with its own stroke and with that obsession of the team to make sure you never forget that figure, that profile, that gesture. The same for Kung Fu Panda and for How to Train Your Dragon, for the entire army of ants from Antz, for the more unnoticed Flushed Away and especially for the legendary The Prince of Egypt, with those profiles so adjusted to the hieroglyphs and those postures so biblical, so full of transcendence and love, from the pharaohs to Moses in a single discursive line that combines historical rigor with faith in the afterlife.
The upper floor is almost entirely CAT territory, but first we will see a mural with newspaper clippings from around the world highlighting the group's work, as well as a reference to the turtle Elliot Green, to Bee Movie or to the dog Balto, to the characters and merchandising of "Hotel Transylvania" or "El Dorado" (a delightful review of the physiognomy and customs of the Hispanic or "spaniards" characters of the colonial era) or to the well-known medieval character of Cruzcampo beer (which I suppose aims to save it from insipidity).
The colored paw prints of the cat will lead us to an exhibition of all the related football shirts, the history of their creation (commissioned by Fútbol Club Barcelona for its 125th anniversary) and a panel for a photo opportunity. An unexpected phenomenon, an undisputed and very recent success, especially among the youngest.
A studio that from Barcelona has shaken hands with Burton, Spielberg, Del Toro, Pixar, DreamWorks or Disney (or with voice actors Will Smith, Robert de Niro or Angelina Jolie) deserved a major exhibition in the city center. Another thing is when you go out and find the work (of red cement) that the City Council has perpetrated to "pacify" the Jardinets de Gràcia. Please, Jordi, Carlos: draw them some gardens.