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Ever since he worked on Tron, Chris Wedge has been able to see the future. As an "image choreographer" on the 1982 cyberfantasy, Wedge knew computers would soon change the face of filmmaking. More than two decades later, he's proving his point with the film Robots, due in theaters March 11.
Robots is the first major computer-animated movie that creates an entirely new world - there are no toys, bugs, fish, or people. Everything in it was designed from scratch. The film follows plucky inventor-hero Rodney Copperbottom (voiced by Ewan McGregor and shown at right) as he leaves his parents in Rivet Town to make his fortune in Robot City, a cross between Manhattan and the inner workings of a pocket watch. In this story, characters don't grow up - they get upgrades.
Despite the film's fantastical setting, it feels very familiar. The proprietary rendering software created by Blue Sky, the animation house Wedge cofounded, showers light rays onto a scene and analyzes how they interact with different materials. "We created a place you can't find anywhere on our planet," Wedge explains. "But it's illuminated and rendered in a way that it looks like we've been there before."
For years, Wedge watched as his good friend, Pixar's John Lasseter, set the bar for CG animation (Finding Nemo, The Incredibles). At long last, the director's own vision hits the big screen.
DIRECTOR CHRIS WEDGE'S ROAD TO SUCCESS
Tron (1982)
Before there were desktop PCs, Wedge mapped shots on graph paper, punched commands into data cards, loaded them into the computer, and waited a week for the returns. It was frustrating as hell, but exciting. "Even at that early stage," Wedge says, "I knew that there was no horizon for computer animation."
Where the Wild Things Are (1983)
Working with Pixar's John Lasseter, who was then at Disney, Wedge designed the first software that blended 2-D cel and 3-D CG animation. They created test footage for a Wild Things film, but Disney never made it. Other animators stepped up and did a movie of their own.
Bunny (1998)
It took Wedge eight years to finish this seven-minute film about an old rabbit and an expiring moth. Bunny stunned the industry with its rich, lifelike detail and warm lighting, winning the Academy Award in 1999 for best animated short. "We showed that you could make something visually very natural," Wedge says.
Ice Age (2002)
Ice Age was Wedge's first feature-length animated film - and his first talkie. (Wedge himself voiced the tiny rodent Scrat.) It grossed $375émillion worldwide and sold 25 million DVDs and videos. The film's success finally gave Wedge the leverage he needed to make his dream movie, Robots.
- Anne Thompson
PLAY
Robot City, Here I Come!
