Buzz Lightyear, Dory, Mike and Sulley, Edna Mode and WALL-E are now standing inside the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science on Biscayne Boulevard. The Science Behind Pixar, a traveling exhibition with more than 50 interactive stations, opened at Frost Science on Saturday, Oct. 10, and stays in downtown Miami through Sunday, April 11, 2027.

The show is included with regular museum admission, so a family ticket to the aquarium and planetarium now also covers a walk through how an animated film gets made, from the first digital sculpture to the final rendered frame.

Who built it

The exhibition was created by the Museum of Science in Boston working with Pixar Animation Studios. It uses scenes and characters from Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters, Inc., The Incredibles, A Bug's Life and other Pixar features to show the math, physics, computer science and art that go into each film. Visitors also hear recorded accounts from people on Pixar's own production teams describing how they solve problems on the job.

In Miami, the show fills the Hsiao Family Special Exhibition Gallery on the first floor of the museum.

Eight stops on the way from sketch to screen

The gallery is laid out to follow the order in which Pixar actually makes a movie. Frost Science breaks it into eight stages, each with its own hands-on stations:

  • Modeling, where a character starts as a digital sculpture built from points and surfaces.
  • Rigging, which gives that model a skeleton of controls so animators can move it.
  • Surfaces, the step that decides whether something looks like plastic, fur, metal or skin.
  • Sets and cameras, where the virtual world gets built and the shots get framed.
  • Animation, the frame by frame acting that brings a character to life.
  • Simulation, which uses physics to move things no animator could hand-pose, such as hair, cloth and water.
  • Lighting, where the mood and time of day in each shot are set.
  • Rendering, the final computing step that turns all of that data into finished images.

At each stop, visitors try the same kind of task a Pixar artist or engineer would, such as posing a character, adjusting a virtual light or changing how a surface reflects. The museum notes that the flowing hair and moving ocean water in Pixar films come from math and physics as much as from drawing, and the stations are built to show how.

Face to face with the characters

Along the route are full-size recreations of Pixar characters: Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, Dory from Finding Nemo, Mike and Sulley from Monsters, Inc., Edna Mode from The Incredibles, and WALL-E. They sit along the route among the stations for the stages of the process.

The Animator Pass takes it through the rest of the museum

Frost Science added a program of its own to go with the touring show. The Animator Pass, developed by the museum's in-house teams and included with admission, is picked up at the front entrance. It sends visitors into the museum's permanent galleries with activities that connect animation ideas to exhibits they might otherwise walk past.

According to the museum, the pass pairs surfacing with WALL-E and Eve in the Power of Science gallery, lighting with Buzz Lightyear in the VizLab, and the floating balloons from Up with the Feathers to the Stars exhibition.

Who it is for

The museum recommends the interactive stations for ages 7 and up. Younger children can still see the characters and try the activities with an adult helping. Frost Science has also published an educator guide for teachers planning field trips around the exhibition, with learning goals and classroom activities tied to the eight stages.

Tickets, prices and getting there

The Science Behind Pixar does not need a separate ticket. It is part of the museum's Explorer Ticket, which also covers the aquarium, the permanent exhibitions and one show in the Frost Planetarium, booked on site the day of the visit based on availability.

Adult tickets start at $29.95 and youth tickets for ages 4 to 11 start at $24.95. Children 3 and under and museum members get in free. Prices change by date, and the price for a given day appears on the museum's ticket calendar when that date is selected. Seniors 62 and older get $5 off an Explorer Ticket with ID, and first responders, active military and veterans get in free with ID at the membership window. Memberships start at $89 for an individual, $119 for two people and $179 for a Crew membership, and include free admission all year.

Frost Science is open daily at 1101 Biscayne Blvd. in downtown Miami and has an on-site parking garage. The museum recommends buying tickets in advance on its Plan Your Day page. Bags larger than 14 by 12 inches, along with backpacks and suitcases, are checked at the entrance at no charge. For questions, the museum's main line is 305-434-9600.

The Science Behind Pixar runs through Sunday, April 11, 2027.

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