About the Exhibition

Back by popular demand! Featuring a cast of characters from the beloved Toy Story franchise, this large-scale three-dimensional zoetrope returns to thrill and enthrall visitors of all ages with the magic of animation. For the first time, the Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope is presented alongside another highlight of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures’s outstanding pre-cinema collection: a historical “Wheel of Life” zoetrope from the 19th century, along with the historical image sets that accompanied it.

From flip books to stop-motion movies, animation fools the eye and mind into perceiving a sequence of still images as one continuously-moving image. This fundamental concept was discovered in the 19th century, and soon became the basis for moving image entertainment such as the zoetrope, a device often used as a toy and consisting of a spinning drum that made a sequence of still images leap into action as a continuously moving loop.

This exhibition spans 150 years of moving image technology, from the 19th century "Wheel of Life" zoetrope to the 3D printed Pixar Toy Story zoetrope. Like the film Toy Story (USA, 1995), the first fully computer-animated feature film, the Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope harnesses the power of computers to bring a new dimension to animation.

Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope is curated by Collections Curator Laura Mart.