On display through July 2025, back by popular demand, the unique, large scale zoetrope features characters from animation studio’s famed franchise, giving visitors a birds-eye view of the optical illusion that makes all moving pictures possible.
As part of its 3rd anniversary celebration, The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has brought back, by popular demand, a crowd favorite – The Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope, now on display through July 2025. The zoetrope is being displayed alongside another piece from the museum’s unique pre-cinema collection: a historical “Wheel of Life” zoetrope from the 19th century, along with the historical image sets that accompanied it.
According to Collections Curator, Laura Mart, “We’re thrilled to give our audiences the opportunity to see the mesmerizing magic of animation with The Pixar Toy Story 3D Zoetrope. Alongside this zoetrope, visitors can see a historical Wheel of Life zoetrope from the 1800s, which is also from the Academy Museum’s collection. Together, these spinning devices delight audiences and give them an up-close view of the optical illusion that makes all moving pictures possible.”
As the exhibit notes, 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.
In the mid-2000s, the Pixar crew built a giant zoetrope that featured beloved characters from the films. They began by mounting 214 Toy Story maquettes, each posed in a sequence of postures, on a turntable. As the table turns and strobe lights flash, the characters come to life: Woody and his horse buck past in one direction; Buzz rolls by on a Pixar ball in the other; Jesse the cowgirl, from Toy Story 2, dances inside a lasso; army men parachute from the sky as three-eyed aliens wave and play.
You can find more information, including visiting hours, here.
Source: The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures.
Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.
