Toy Story Meets Google Street View

theodp writes "The Atlantic talks to creative director Tom Jenkins about his short film Address Is Approximate, which tells the whimsical story of a toy's journey to the California coast. Jenkins' personal project, described a 'Toy Story for the Internet age,' uses stop-motion animation and Google Street View to bring an after-working-hours office space to life. Film critic Larry Page gives it a thumbs-up."

The pacific coast is really that beautiful

[Krishnoid]

If you've never driven down the California coast, try to do it. Photos and video can't reproduce it accurately -- you have to experience it to understand. I only saw it for the first time a few years ago, and the stick figure's expression at the beginning perfectly captures what I imagine the emotion of someone who used to live near the west coast, has been living in New York for a few years, has difficulty sharing the experience with the people around him/her who have never been there -- and is homesick.

I don't think it actually uses Street View images.

[safetyinnumbers]

Its viewpoints are too widely spaced to give such smooth movement. I notice that the linked interview is evasive about whether it actually uses it.

Re:For the internet age?

[SeaFox]

Toy Story was released in 1995. Wasn't the internet age already underway at that point?

What's ironic about the comment is it suggests Toy Story is old-hat or using some outdated technology when this new short film is done in stop motion and Toy Story is computer animated.

Re:For the internet age?

[derGoldstein]

Back then you could HEAR your computer working! The dial-up modems, the loud spinning HDs, CD-ROMs, Floppy Disks, and dot-matrix printers. You knew what your computer was going just by listening.
Now it's all sterile. Software is downloaded onto solid-state hard-drives, in silent computers with low-rpm fans, if any. No wonder there are so many botnets -- you have no idea what your computer is doing anymore.

I sometimes wish I could turn the sound back ON. Sure, there was cyan and #C0C0C0 all over the place, but it FELT real.