Put this under the category of “Not gonna ever happen in a hundred million years.” Some of our favorite DC superheroes have been re-imagined in the style of Pixar animation. For those of you living under a rock, Pixar is the studio responsible for films such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, and Up. Their cute CGI character are known throughout the world for not only how cute a lot of them are, but also for how realistic they seem on screen.
A 26 year old American artist names Daniel Araya has redrawn Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and the Green Lantern in that very distinct very Awww style that Pixar has become famous for. Check out his Deviant Art page for other great Pixar type stuff like Wolverine and Sabertooth, and Obi Wan! They all look great and he did a great job.
This is what he had to say about these pieces:
“A few weeks ago, just for fun I started doing concepts for a faux Justice League CG movie. I’ve always been a huge fan of Bruce Timm and the DC Timmverse he helped create, and I thought it would be cool to basically design the JLA movie that I would direct if given the chance. I didn’t do any huge drastic changes because I didn’t want to betray the characters in terms of who they are and what they’re about. I just wanted to build on what’s already been established and tweak things the way I saw them. I was going to wait until I had more artwork before I posted this, but with all the freelance I’ve got, I don’t think I’ll be able to work on this again for a while.”
Here are the 4 superheroes and a bit about them from the author:
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– Superman is a wholesome, good-natured guy with antiquated notions of heroism, and that’s what I like about him. He represents a more honest hero, and SO many people don’t like him because he’s too corny, or not badass enough, and I think that’s ridiculous. I hardly touched his costume at all because I wanted him to look corny and I wanted his image to reflect the dated quality of his beliefs. I really don’t like when people try to make him like, this dark, violent, angry guy just for the sake of making him cooler.
-Anyway I tried to make him primarily out of chunky square shapes, and I went as far as taking away the angles on his boots to make them a little more chunky and plain. I think he should be a big character to emphasize the fact that he’s all about IMMENSE power and protectiveness. I know a lot of people say that he shouldn’t be big because nothing would give him a workout, but I disagree because
1) Every time I see him lift something, he looks like he’s straining real hard. Whether it’s a car, a piece of rubble, a building, it all seems to be difficult for him.
2) The design reflecting the spirit of the character is more important to me than whether or not he’d be big in real life. He’s powerful and he’s protective, that’s what I want my design to emphasize.
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-I wanted Batman to be composed of triangular shapes to emphasize how dangerous he is. I also didn’t want to draw him big and bulky because in my version he’s primarily an acrobat, not a bodybuilder. He’s constantly doing flips and jumping off rooftops, so he’d be extremely lean. I also gave him the more armored costume because
1) It looks cool
2) Having an outfit that looks more like protective gear while everyone else is wearing more “costume-y” outfits visually reinforces the fact that he’s human and mortal. It reminds us that he NEEDS this to protect him and that’s a trait that I (and I think most people) like about batman.
-I also made Batman’s skin even more pale here than in the Bruce Wayne pic to further emphasize the lack of warmth in Batman, and it also helped to add more contrast against the darkness of his suit. I like the idea of his face being that one little speck of pale, cold, humanity peeking out from this huge enveloping shroud of darkness.
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-I went with angry, warrior, man hating Wonder Woman. I feel like if you’re raised your entire life immersed in bigotry, you’re not just going to change your beliefs after a single adventure. It’s not gonna be like “oh these guys fought with me to save the world, men aren’t so bad.” Nobody just drops prejudiced opinions like that, they skew and distort things to keep supporting and maintaining their discrimination. I feel like her acceptance of men would be a very slow, gradual thing and it would never be 100%. I was mostly inspired by Darwyn Cooke’s design with some tweaks here and there where I thought it made more sense or would add some appeal.
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-I thought it would be cool if his outfit was more of a manifestation of the ring’s power as opposed to just cloth. I think that’s the angle the live action movie is taking too, so I thought I’d do my version of that idea. I thought it would be cool if the green parts were constantly shifting, and seemed like you were looking inside some kind of unstable, nebulous energy reaction. I went with the spots because I was paying homage to that swiss cheese effect that Jack Kirby used to do whenever he drew energy.
