[ecrea] New book: "Il sistema Pixar" ("The Pixar System")

A new book on Pixar just came out:

/*Il Sistema Pixar */(Il Mulino, 2017) by Christian Uva
series "Universale Paperbacks il Mulino"
pp. 192, 978-88-15-27058-0
publication year 2017


Born out of Lucasfilm, acquired by Steve Jobs in 1986 and fallen under 
the Walt Disney Company in 2006, Pixar is an ideal example of a creative 
industry capable of imposing itself globally as a quality brand that 
identifies a precise vision of the world as well as a solid and 
full-bodied, infantile and adult imaginary. Films like /Toy Story, 
Finding Nemo, The Incredible, Cars /or /Inside Out/ are the result of an 
industrial, narrative, aesthetic and ideological system that, in the 
last twenty years, has been able to revitalise the animated film as a 
whole. Moving between technofilia and nostalgia, this articulated system 
has also enabled to offer an articulated reflection on the contemporary 
American way of life and, in particular, on the challenges that the 
national identity of the United States has been facing in the last decades.
The book addresses Pixar in terms of a "new American story” focusing on 
the identity issues that Emeryville's Studio urges from the point of 
view of its own origins and of those of the characters of his films, as 
well as the same aesthetic that characterizes his representations. At 
the heart of the book is the culture that permeates every aspect of the 
"Pixar system": from the "mythical" stories of its founders (between 
CaliforniaN ideology and Mormon religion) to the nature of its software, 
from the Pixar brand to its ideologies, from memory to gender. The 
volume ends with a reflection on the Pixar of the future.

The book can be found at: https://www.mulino.it/isbn/9788815270580

Christian Uva is Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at 
University “Roma Tre” (Italy).

+++

TOC (in Italian)


CHRISTIAN UVA
Il sistema Pixar

    Introduzione. Una nuova narrazione nazionale
    I. Una storia americana

    1. Nuovi miti, antiche identità
    2. Hippy e mormoni tra passato e futuro
    3. L'ideologia californiana
    4. Un brand nel brand
    5. Software culturali
    6. Monoliti, memorie e «loghi comuni»
    7. Un modello eccezionale
    8. L'habitat

    II. Estetica, tecnologia, ideologia

    1. «Better than real»
    2. Umano, troppo umano, perturbante
    3. Il sex appeal dell'inorganico
    4. La morale dei giocattoli
    5. Immaginari industriali
    6. Visioni promozionali
    7. «Pixar Revolt»
    8. Collettività eterogenee e creature difettose
    9. L'energia liberatrice della tecnologia

    III. Mito, memoria, identità

    1. Il mito americano fra tradizione e modernità
    2. Archivi della memoria
    3. Il film più «yankee»
    4. La condizione suburbana
    5. Viaggi al centro dell'identità
    6. C'era una (s)volta...
    7. «Life in plastic»
    8. Nuovi maschi

    Conclusioni
    Riferimenti bibliografici
    Indice dei nomi



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