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The Adventures of André and Wally B.

The Adventures of André and Wally B.
Poster for The Adventures of André and Wally B.
Film poster
Directed by Alvy Ray Smith
Written by Alvy Ray Smith (concept)
Production
company
Distributed by Lucasfilm
Release date
  • July 25, 1984 (1984-07-25)
Running time
2 minutes
Country United States

The Adventures of André and Wally B., or simply André and Wally B., is a 1984 American animated short film produced by The Graphics Group, then a division of Lucasfilm which was later renamed Pixar before being spun off as a separate company in 1986. The animation in the film was by John Lasseter, who was then working on his first computer animated project with Lucasfilm and as a result of the success of this project and others would become an important executive at Pixar. The animation was groundbreaking by the standards of the time and helped spark the film industry's interest in computer animation. The film was released on July 25, 1984, at SIGGRAPH in Minneapolis.

The short involves a character named André being awakened in a forest by a pesky bee named Wally B. André distracts the bee so that he can run away. Wally B. chases André and eventually catches up with him, and strikes with the stinger. A collision occurs off-screen and a dizzy Wally B. reappears with a bent stinger. Shortly, Wally B. gets hit by André's tossed hat as a last laugh.

The credits for the piece are concept/direction Alvy Ray Smith, animation John Lasseter, technical lead Bill Reeves, technical contributions by Tom Duff (who designed the animation program called “md”, short for "motion doctor"), Eben Ostby, Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter, Ed Catmull, David Salesin, Tom Porter, and Sam Leffler, filming by David DiFrancesco, Tom Noggle, and Don Conway, and computer logistics by Craig Good. The title is a tribute to the 1981 film My Dinner with Andre, starring Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn, the latter of which went on to voice Rex for the Toy Story franchise. It was originally entitled My Breakfast with André, about waking up with an android.


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