Pixar

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Incorporated: 1986
NAIC: 512110 Motion Picture Production
SIC: 7812 Motion Picture & Video Production

Pixar Animation Studios burst onto the big screen with the release of Toy Story, the first ever feature-length animated film created solely through computerized graphics. Yet Pixar's background is one of considerable pedigree, from roots at the University of Utah and the New York Institute of Technology before becoming part of George Lucas's Lucasfilm Ltd. of San Rafael, California. Purchased in 1986 by computer wunderkind Steven P. Jobs, cofounder of Apple Computer and NeXT Inc., the newly independent company was named after its primary product, the Pixar computer. After several one-of-a-kind, award-winning computer graphics and animation software packages (including the patented RenderMan, Ringmaster, Marionette, and CAPS), Pixar's creative geniuses produced some memorable television commercials before joining forces with Walt Disney to design and produce feature-length animated films. These works, Toy Story and its successor, Toy Story 2, as well as A Bug's Life, were huge hits for both Disney and Pixar, beloved by audiences and critics alike. Pixar's talent lineup has been the recipient of nine Academy Awards to date.

Pixar's tenuous evolution began in the 1970s when millionaire Alexander Schare, then president of the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), was looking for someone to create an animated film from a sound recording of Tubby the Tuba. Enter a computer scientist named Ed Catmull with a Ph.D. from the University of Utah, who along with several others set up house (at Schare's expense) at NYIT's Long Island campus to work with computer graphics. Though Tubby the Tuba was never made, the team successfully produced video artwork. When creative mogul George Lucas proposed moving the team to the West Coast in 1979 as part of Lucasfilm Ltd., the breeding ground of the original Star Wars trilogy, Catmull and his colleagues agreed.

Over the next few years, Catmull and his ensemble created innovative graphics programs and equipment for Lucas, including an imaging computer called the 'Pixar.' The Pixar was then used to develop high-tech graphics and animation sequences for Lucasfilm projects. Unlike other computers, Pixar's software constructed high-resolution, three-dimensional color images of virtually anything, from buildings and cars to tornadoes and aliens. Remarkably, Pixar was also capable of helping medical professionals at Johns Hopkins diagnose diseases from 3D renderings of CAT-scans and x-rays; giving weather technicians new images from satellites; and even helping prospectors locate oil from enhanced seismic readings--all at a speed some 200 times faster than previous computer programs.

In 1984, John Lasseter, who had met Catmull at a computer graphics conference and was employed by Walt Disney Studios, visited Lucasfilm for a month-long stint. Lasseter, who had graduated from the California Institute of the Arts where he had won two Student Academy Awards for animated film, decided to stay. Meanwhile, after spinning off a joint venture called Droid Works, George Lucas started shopping around Pixar with hopes of a second spinoff. Pixar caught the interest of several companies, including EDS, then a division of General Motors, Philips N.V., and computer whiz-kid Steve Jobs, cofounder and chairman of Apple Computer Inc. Unable to convince Apple's board of directors to invest in or purchase the fledgling graphics company, Jobs reluctantly abandoned his hopes for Pixar.

Yet circumstances changed drastically for Jobs in 1985. Stripped of his responsibilities and deposed from his Apple kingdom (at about the same time the first Pixar computer went on the market for $105,000), Jobs sold the majority of his Apple stock and started over. Plunging $12 million into a new computer enterprise named NeXT Inc., specializing in personal computers for colleges and universities, Jobs approached Lucas in 1986 and paid $10 million for the San Raphael-based Pixar and created an independent company. Though Catmull, Lasseter, and crew regarded Jobs as kin in their quest for high-tech fun and games given his laidback reputation and status as a computer wonder boy--the new boss instructed them to put aside their dreams of animation and film and to instead concentrate on technical graphics they could sell.

'If I knew in 1986 how much it was going to cost to keep Pixar going, I doubt if I would've bought the company,' Jobs later told Fortune magazine. 'The problem was, for many years the cost of the computers required to make animation we could sell was tremendously high.' Luckily, Pixar's crew came up with several software innovations, which they used to create a myriad of products. In 1986 came the first of many Oscar nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for a short animated film called Luxo Jr. Next came Red's Dream in 1987, then the development of RenderMan, for which the company applied for and received a patent. A revolutionary graphics program that allowed computer artists to add color and create texture to onscreen 3D objects, RenderMan produced stunningly realistic photo images almost indistinguishable from actual photographs. RenderMan's brand of images paid off when Tin Toy, written and directed by Lasseter as the first computer-generated animation, won an Academy Award as Best Animated Short Film in 1988.

As CEO of Pixar, Jobs expanded the company's leading edge graphics and animation capabilities by joining forces in July 1989 with the San Francisco-based Colossal Pictures, a live action, animation, and special effects studio, for collaboration purposes and to broker Pixar for television commercials and promotional films. With Colossal's background and experience in broadcast media and Pixar's unique computer capabilities, the partnership was poised for tremendous success. By 1990 when more than a dozen RenderMan products were introduced, RenderMan licensing fees finally began to pay off. Not only were many hardware and software packagers incorporating the graphics program into their products, but RenderMan was endorsed by such industry heavyweights as Digital Equipment, IBM, Intel Corporation, and Sun Microsystems. In addition, Pixar created two commercials in its association with Colossal. The second commercial, for Life Savers 'Holes' bite-size candies (which took 12 weeks to produce using RenderMan's software), aired in March and was a hit with audiences.

In April 1990 Pixar signed a letter of intent to sell its valuable yet stagnating hardware operations, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems of Freemont, California. The move, which included the transfer of 18 of Pixar's 100 employees, was finalized several weeks later and allowed Pixar to devote the company's full energy to further development of its rendering capabilities. Before the end of the year, Pixar moved from San Rafael to new $15 million digs in the Point Richmond Tech Center of Richmond, California, and reached revenues of just under $3.4 million, though still not reporting a profit.

While Jobs's other company, NeXT Inc., seemed to prosper and was expected to reach $100 million in computer sales, Pixar still struggled to make ends meet in 1991. In February, 30 employees were laid off, including President Charles Kolstad. Jobs, sometimes criticized as a mercurial spinmeister with too little substance to back up his visions and words, was brought to task in the media for the shortcomings of both companies. Yet salvation came to Pixar in the name of Toy Story, the first full-length computer-animated feature film, as a collaboration between Pixar and Lasseter's old stomping grounds, Walt Disney Studios. Signing a contract to produce quality 'digital entertainment,' Pixar was responsible for the content and animation of three full-length films; Disney provided the funding for production and promotional costs, owning the marketing and licensing fees of the films and their characters. Though Disney retained the lion's share of revenue and profit, Pixar negotiated for a slice of the gross revenues from the box office and subsequent video sales. At this juncture, neither Disney nor Pixar knew the potential of their alliance--one that proved successful beyond their wildest expectations.

In 1992, the joint project between Pixar and Disney, called CAPS (computer animated production system) was another stellar development, winning Pixar's second Academy Award (shared with Disney). The following year, Jobs's NeXT Inc., like Pixar before it, was forced to lay off workers and sell its hardware division to concentrate on software development and applications. Yet 1993 was a banner year for Pixar, with RenderMan winning the company's third Academy Award and a Gold Clio (for advertising excellence) for the funky animated Listerine 'Arrows' commercial. The next year, Pixar won its second Gold Clio for the Lifesavers 'Conga' commercial, a colorful romp with a contagious beat. Despite such heavy accolades from critics and peers, Pixar still had not managed a profit since its spinoff in 1986, and reported a loss of $2.4 million on revenue of $5.6 million for 1994.

The following year, in 1995, Pixar was wrapping up its work on Toy Story and everyone was anxious for the finished result to hit theaters in November. Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, and Annie Potts had signed on to voice major characters, and Randy Newman was composing the film's musical score. By the end of the third quarter with more than 100,000 copies of RenderMan sold and a huge licensing deal with Bill Gates and Microsoft, Pixar announced its first-ever profit of $3.1 million on revenues of $10.6 million.

For Pixar, 1995 was a string of accelerating successes: first came Toy Story's pre-Thanksgiving release, grossing over $40 million its first weekend, with rave reviews from critics and families alike. Leading box office receipts, both Disney and Pixar hoped Toy Story could best Pochahontas's $140 million take earlier in the year. Next came Pixar's IPO of 6.9 million shares in November on the NASDAQ; the market closed at $22 per share, up from its initial offering of $12 to $14 each, giving Pixar a market value of some $800 million. Jobs, who since his purchase of Pixar for $10 million had sunk an additional $50 million into the enterprise, recouped a handsome paper profit of more than $600 million for his 80 percent stake (the shares eventually hit a high of $45.50 on November 30th).

Another boon came when Toy Story garnered several award nominations, including Randy Newman's score for two Golden Globes and an Oscar; an Oscar for Catmull and Thomas Porter, director of effects animation or digital scanning technology; and an additional Special Achievement Oscar for Lasseter's writing, direction, and technical wizardry for Toy Story.

After the release of Toy Story while part of Pixar's crew worked on a CD-ROM game of the animated film, others were busy working on several Coca-Cola commercials for the Creative Arts Agency, hired by Michael Ovitz. Pixar was also immersed in its next Disney film, A Bug's Life, which was scheduled for release in two years. By February 1996, Toy Story had grossed over $177 million at the box office and in March Lasseter attended the Academy Awards to receive his Oscar. He brought along Woody and Buzz Lightyear, who were part of several sketches and fodder for running gags during the live telecast. Pixar completed the year with a huge leap in revenues, up to $38.2 million (from 1995's $12.1 million), extraordinary net income of $25.3 million, and stock prices hitting a high of $49 per share in the fourth quarter.

Though it had been said by Bob Bennett of Autodesk, Inc., a client and competitor of Pixar, that 'Pixar is the best in the world at what it does,' continued advances in computer and graphics technology brought considerable competition. Everyone it seemed--from Digital Domain and Industrial Light & Magic to Microsoft and Silicon Graphics--was trying their hand at graphics software development. After the stellar success of Toy Story, all the major motion picture studios were creating computerized animation, including DreamWorks SKG, Turner Broadcasting, Warner Bros., and even Disney.

Other developments surrounded Jobs, as Apple stumbled horribly and the company came close to financial ruin. Still attached to the company he had cofounded and brought to enormous success, Jobs came to its rescue in 1997 shortly after Apple bought his NeXT Inc. Few doubted Jobs's ability to juggle both Pixar and Apple, and they were right. Not only did Jobs bring Apple back to the forefront of the computer industry with the flashy iMac, but Pixar went on to rule the box office with A Bug's Life. During the magic 'holiday' window of October, November, and December 1997, A Bug's Life was up against four animated films, including another insect-related story by Dreamworks SKG, entitled Antz. Dreamworks had also released The Prince of Egypt and Nickelodeon brought The Rugrats Movie to the big screen as well. Yet Pixar beat the pack and went on to ring up over $360 million in worldwide box office receipts, even topping Toy Story.

Once again Pixar was nominated for and won big at the Academy Awards: two separate awards for Scientific and Technical Achievement (for the Marionette 3D Animation System, and for digital painting), as well as another for Best Animated Short Film (Geri's Game). Pixar also finally received a sizeable financial boost in 1997, as revenues and net income reached $34.7 million and $22.1 million, respectively. The box office and critical triumphs of both Toy Story and A Bug's Life also brought a new deal with Disney to produce an additional five pictures within the next ten years, with both companies as equal partners. The agreement eclipsed the previous deal; the former's remaining two films became the first two of the new five-picture negotiation. Lastly, Pixar would sell Disney up to five percent of its common stock at $15 per share.

In early 1998 A Bug's Life was released on video and DVD simultaneously and Pixar's top guns worked feverishly on the sequel to Toy Story, slated for release in November. The sequel was a gamble, since only one animated feature film had ever spawned a theater-released follow-up, Disney's The Rescuers Down Under. Most sequels or prequels were released directly to video; Pixar was ready to buck the trend. Dollars from its venture with Disney continued to slowly trickle in and Pixar finished the year with $14.3 million in revenue and net earnings of $7.8 million.

The last year of the century brought more kudos for Pixar: David DiFrancesco won the company's ninth Academy Award (for Technical Achievement), Toy Story 2 opened in November to sweeping box office dominance (even higher receipts than Star Wars: The Phantom Menace's first few weeks of release the year before), and the company celebrated its fifth consecutive profitable year, with revenues of $121 million and earnings topping $50 million.

Pixar was as busy as ever in the 21st century: the company was preparing to move into its new 225,000-square-foot headquarters in Emeryville, California, due for completion in mid-2000 and were hard at work on its next full-length animated film in collaboration with Disney. The new feature was scheduled for release in 2001, under the working title of 'Monsters, Inc.' The company's fifth film was tentatively slated for release in 2002, was a top-secret project to be directed by Andrew Stanton, who had worked on both Toy Story and A Bug's Life. Despite a slow, financially difficult beginning, Pixar Animation Studios had landed on the fast track and was known throughout the world. With its technological breakthroughs and brilliantly crafted animated films, the sky was the limit in the coming decade and beyond. As stated in its 1996 annual report, Pixar succeeded because it was well aware of the pitfalls of filmmaking: 'Though Pixar is the pioneer of computer animation, the essence of our business is to create compelling stories and memorable characters. It is chiseled in stone at our studios that no amount of technology can turn a bad story into a good one.'

Principal Competitors

DreamWorks SKG; Fox Entertainment; Lucasfilm, Ltd.; Warner Bros.

Further Reading

Baker, Molly, and Thomas R. King, 'Pixar Share Offering, Hyped by Toy Story, Is Looking Good,' Wall Street Journal, November 29, 1995, pp. C1,C2.

Bernard, Diane, 'Pixar to Bring 3-D Rendering to the Macintosh,' PC Week, February 12, 1990, pp. 33-34.

Brown, Ivy, 'The Man Behind the (Computer) Mouse,' Los Angeles Times, November 13, 1996, p. F1.

Carlsen, Clifford, 'Pixar Corp. to Sell Hardware Division to Vicom Systems,' San Francisco Business Times, April 30, 1990, pp. 1,13.

Cortino, Judy, 'Pixar Expects Profits to Rise with Success of Graphics Program,' PC Week, January 8, 1990, p. 120.

Deutschman, Alan, 'Into Every Life a Little Rain,' Fortune, May 6, 1991, p. 111.

Gelman, Eric, et al., 'Showdown in Silicon Valley,' Newsweek, September 30, 1985, pp. 46-50.

Giles, Jeff, and Corie Brown, 'This Bug's for You,' Newsweek, November 16, 1998, pp. 79-80.

Goldrich, Robert, 'Colossal, Pixar Ink Production/Sales Agreement,' Backstage, July 14, 1989, pp. 1, 25.

------, 'Pixar Produces Its First Commercial, for Life Savers Holes and FCB/Leber Katz,' Backstage, March 23, 1990, pp. 6, 34.

'The Great Leap of Computer Graphics,' Fortune, April 27, 1987, p. 7.

Krantz, Michael, 'Animators, Sharpen Your Pixels,' Time, November 30, 1998, pp. 109-10.

Lohr, Steve, 'Woody and Buzz, the Untold Story,' New York Times, February 24, 1997.

Markoff, John, 'Apple Computer Co-Founder Strikes Gold with New Stock,' New York Times, November 30, 1995, pp. A1, D7.

Patterson, William Pat, 'Out to Pasture at 30,' Industry Week, June 24, 1985, p. 22.

Reeves, Scott, 'Pixar's Initial Offering Gives Investors a Chance to Bet on Animated Films,' Wall Street Journal, November 3, 1995, p. A9E.

Schlender, Brent, 'Steve Jobs' Amazing Movie Adventure,' Fortune, September 18, 1995, pp. 154-72.

Schlender, Brent, and Steve Jobs, 'The Three Faces of Steve Jobs,' Fortune, November 9, 1998, p. 96.

Siwolop, Sana, 'Picture Perfect,' FW, February 6, 1990, pp. 76-77.

Tracy, Eleanor John, 'Droids for Sale,' Fortune, August 5, 1985, pp. 63-64.

'Two Cheers for Apple,' Fortune, February 17, 1986, p. 9.

— Nelson Rhodes

This article is about the animation company. For information on the file format .pxr or the graphics designing computer, see Pixar Image Computer.

Pixar Animation Studios

Pixar Company Logo (1995–present)
Type	Subsidiary of Walt Disney Pictures
Industry	CGI animation motion pictures software
Predecessor(s)	Graphics Group of Lucasfilm Computer Division (1979–86)
Founded	1979 (1979) as Graphics Group February 3, 1986 (February 3, 1986) as Pixar
Founder(s)	Ed Catmull Alvy Ray Smith Steve Jobs (incorporation as Pixar)[1]
Headquarters	Emeryville, California, US
Key people	Ed Catmull, President, Walt Disney Animation Studios & Pixar Animation Studios John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney Animation Studios & Pixar Animation Studios Jim Morris, General Manager, Pixar Animation Studios
Products	Pixar Image Computer, RenderMan, Marionette
Owner(s)	The Walt Disney Company
Parent	Walt Disney Pictures
Divisions	Pixar Canada
Website	www.pixar.com

Pixar Animation Studios, pronounced /ˈpɪksɑr/, is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned twenty-six Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. It is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was acquired by Apple Computer co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion; the transaction made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.

Pixar has produced twelve feature films, beginning with Toy Story in 1995. It was followed by A Bug's Life in 1998, Toy Story 2 in 1999, Monsters, Inc. in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003, The Incredibles in 2004, Cars in 2006, Ratatouille in 2007, WALL-E in 2008, Up in 2009, Toy Story 3 (to date, the highest-grossing animated film of all-time, grossing over $1 billion worldwide) in 2010, and Cars 2 in 2011. Eleven of the films have received critical and financial success, with the notable exception being Cars 2, which received substantially less praise than Pixar's previous films.^[2] As of February 2012, its films have made over $7 billion worldwide,^[3] with its $602 million average gross by far the highest of any studio in the industry.^[4] In addition, all of the films produced by Pixar are among the top 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time, with Finding Nemo (#27), Up (#44), and Toy Story 3 (#8) all in the top 50 highest-grossing films of all time.

Since the award's inauguration in 2001, most of Pixar's films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, with six winning; Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up and Toy Story 3. Up and Toy Story 3 are two of only three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

On September 6, 2009, executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The award was presented by Lucasfilm founder George Lucas.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Early history 1.2 Disney 1.3 Acquisition by Disney 1.4 Expansion 2 Feature films and shorts 2.1 Traditions 2.2 Sequels and prequels 2.3 Expansion to television 2.4 Animation and live-action 2.5 Product pipeline 3 Exhibitions 3.1 Pixar: 20 Years of Animation 3.2 Pixar: 25 Years of Animation 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

History

Early history

Pixar's studio lot in Emeryville.

Pixar was founded as The Graphics Group, which is one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT),^[5] where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL). At NYIT, the researchers pioneered many of the CG foundation techniques—in particular the invention of the "alpha channel" (by Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith); years later the CGL produced an experimental film called The Works. After moving to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called REYES (for "renders everything you ever saw"); and developed a number of critical technologies for CG—including "particle effects" and various animation tools.

In 1982 the team began working on film sequences with Industrial Light & Magic on special effects.^[5] After years of research, and key milestones in films such as the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes,^[5] the group, which numbered about 45 individuals back then,^[6] was purchased in Feb 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer.^[7] Jobs paid $5 million to George Lucas and put $5 million as capital into the company.^[8][9][10] A factor contributing to Lucas' sale was an increase in cash flow difficulties following his 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi. The newly independent company was headed by Jobs, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar. Dr. Edwin Catmull served as Chief Technology Officer^[11] and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith as Executive Vice President and Director.^[12] In 2001, Edwin Catmull was named President of Pixar.^[13]

Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. One of the buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney Studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well.^[14] In a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter—who had long been creating short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr., to show off the device's capabilities—premiered his creations at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry's largest convention, to great fanfare.^[14]

As poor sales of Pixar's computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter's animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, Life Savers and Terminator 2: Judgment Day.^[15] In April 1990 Jobs sold Pixar's hardware division, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems, and transferred 18 of Pixar's approximately 100 employees. The same year Pixar moved from San Rafael to Richmond, California.^[16] During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. In 1991, after a tough start of the year when about 30 employees in the company's computer department had to go (including the company's president, Chuck Kolstad),^[17] which reduced the total number of employees to just 42,^[18] Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story. At that point, the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and CAPS, and Lasseter’s animation department, who made television commercials and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar.^[19]

William Reeves, CTE at Pixar, on rendering algorithms, raytracing and global illumination, 1995, after the release of Toy Story.

Despite the total income of these products, the company was still losing money, and Jobs often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies, among them Microsoft. Only after confirming that Disney would distribute Toy Story for the 1995 holiday season did he decide to give it another chance.^[20] The film went on to gross more than $350 million worldwide.^[21] Later that year, Pixar held its initial public offering on November 29, 1995, and the company's stock was priced at US$22 per share.^[22]

Disney

Pixar and Disney had disagreements after the production of Toy Story 2. Originally intended as a straight-to-video release (and thus not part of Pixar's three-picture deal), the film was eventually upgraded to a theatrical release during production. Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the three-picture agreement, but Disney refused.^[23] Pixar's first five feature films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion, equivalent to the highest per-film average gross in the industry.^{[citation needed]} Though profitable for both, Pixar later complained that the arrangement was not equitable. Pixar was responsible for creation and production, while Disney handled marketing and distribution. Profits and production costs were split 50-50, but Disney exclusively owned all story and sequel rights and also collected a distribution fee. The lack of story and sequel rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.^[24]

The two companies attempted to reach a new agreement in early 2004. The new deal would be only for distribution, as Pixar intended to control production and own the resulting film properties themselves. The company also wanted to finance their films on their own and collect 100 percent of the profits, paying Disney only the 10 to 15 percent distribution fee.^[25] More importantly, as part of any distribution agreement with Disney, Pixar demanded control over films already in production under their old agreement, including The Incredibles and Cars. Disney considered these conditions unacceptable, but Pixar would not concede.^[25]

Disagreements between Steve Jobs and then Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner made the negotiations more difficult than they otherwise might have been. They broke down completely in mid-2004, with Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney.^[26] Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors. After a lengthy hiatus, negotiations between the two companies resumed following the departure of Eisner from Disney in September 2005. In preparation for potential fallout between Pixar and Disney, Jobs announced in late 2004 that Pixar would no longer release movies at the Disney-dictated November time frame, but during the more lucrative early summer months. This would also allow Pixar to release DVDs for their major releases during the Christmas shopping season. An added benefit of delaying Cars was to extend the time frame remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract to see how things would play out between the two companies.^[27]

Pending the Disney acquisition of Pixar, the two companies created a distribution deal for the intended 2007 release of Ratatouille, in case the acquisition fell through, to ensure that this one film would still be released through Disney's distribution channels. (In contrast to the earlier Disney/Pixar deal Ratatouille was to remain a Pixar property and Disney would have received only a distribution fee.) The completion of Disney's Pixar acquisition, however, nullified this distribution arrangement.^[28]

Acquisition by Disney

Disney announced on January 24, 2006 that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.^[29] Following Pixar shareholder approval, the acquisition was completed May 5, 2006. The transaction catapulted Steve Jobs, who was the majority shareholder of Pixar with 50.1%, to Disney's largest individual shareholder with 7% and a new seat on its board of directors.^[30] Jobs' new Disney holdings exceeded holdings belonging to ex-CEO Michael Eisner, the previous top shareholder, who still held 1.7%; and Disney Director Emeritus Roy E. Disney, who held almost 1% of the corporation's shares.

Pixar shareholders received 2.3 shares of Disney common stock for each share of Pixar common stock redeemed.

As part of the deal, John Lasseter, by then Executive Vice President, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Pixar and the Walt Disney Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks.^[30] Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, reporting to Bob Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment. Steve Jobs' position as Pixar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was also removed, and instead he took a place on the Disney board of directors.^[31]

John Lasseter appears with characters from Up at the 2009 Venice Film Festival.

Lasseter and Catmull's oversight of both the Disney and Pixar studios did not mean that the two studios were merging, however. In fact, additional conditions were laid out as part of the deal to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity, a concern that analysts had expressed about the Disney deal.^[32] Some of those conditions were that Pixar HR policies would remain intact, including the lack of employment contracts. Also, the Pixar name was guaranteed to continue, and the studio would remain in its current Emeryville, California location with the "Pixar" sign. Finally, branding of films made post-merger would be "Disney•Pixar" (beginning with Cars).^[33]

Jim Morris, producer of WALL-E, has been named general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris is in charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.^[34]

Expansion

On April 20, 2010, Pixar Animation Studios opened a new studio in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[35] The roughly 2,000 square meters studio is primarily producing shorts and TV specials based on characters from Pixar's feature films. The studio's first production was the Cars Toons episode, "Air Mater".^[36]

Feature films and shorts

See also: List of Pixar films, List of Pixar shorts, and List of Pixar awards and nominations

Traditions

While some of Pixar's first animators were former cel animators, including John Lasseter, they also came from stop motion animation and/or computer animation or were fresh college graduates.^[5] A large number of animators that make up the animation department at Pixar were hired around the time Pixar released A Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. Although Toy Story was a successful film, it was Pixar's only feature film at the time. The majority of the animation industry was, and is still located in Los Angeles, California, while Pixar is located 350 miles (560 km) north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Also, traditional 2-D animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.

With the dearth of Los Angeles–based animators willing to move their families so far north, give up traditional animation, and try computer animation, Pixar's new-hires at this time either came directly from college, or had worked outside feature animation. For those who had traditional animation skills, the Pixar animation software (Marionette) is designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive.^[5]

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,^[37] Lasseter said that Pixar films follow the same theme of self improvement as the company itself has: with the help of friends or family, a character ventures out into the real world and learns to appreciate his friends and family. At the core, Lasseter said, "it's gotta be about the growth of the main character, and how he changes."^[37]

Pixar has been criticized for its lack of female protagonists.^[38][39] Brave, Pixar's 13th cinema release, will be the studio's first with a female lead (voiced by Kelly Macdonald).

By the MPAA, most of the films are rated G, while three of them are rated PG (The Incredibles, Up, and Brave). However, the G-Rated Cars 2 contains violence and rude humor, which was a controversy in 2011.

Sequels and prequels

Toy Story 2 was commissioned by Disney as a direct-to-video, 60-minute film. Feeling the material was not very good, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make that their third full-length feature film. Toy Story 3 was the second big-screen sequel when it was released on June 18, 2010. Cars 2, the studio's third theatrical sequel, was released on June 24, 2011. On June 27, 2011 Tom Hanks implied that a fourth Toy Story movie was in the works, but this has not been confirmed by the studio.^[40][41]

Pixar states that they believe that sequels should only be made if they can come up with a story as good as the original. Following the release of Toy Story 2, Pixar and Disney had a gentlemen's agreement that Disney would not make any sequels without Pixar's involvement, despite their right to do so. In 2004, after Pixar announced they were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced that they would go ahead with sequels to Pixar's films with or without Pixar. Toy Story 3 was put into pre-production at the new CGI division of Walt Disney Feature Animation, Circle 7 Animation.

When Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following the merger, he immediately put all sequels on hold; Disney stated that Toy Story 3 had been cancelled. However, in May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production, under Pixar's control when a new plot had been conceived.

Lasseter further fueled speculation on future sequels when he stated, "If we have a great story, we'll do a sequel".^[42] Cars 2, Pixar's first sequel not based on Toy Story, was officially announced on April 8, 2008. Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters, Inc. and Pixar's first prequel, was announced on April 22, 2010, for release on November 2, 2012.^[43] However, on April 5, 2011, it was announced that the film's release date had been pushed back to June 21, 2013 due to the success of Pixar films that are released in the summer, according to Disney distribution executive Chuck Viane.^[44]

Expansion to television

Toy Story was the first Pixar film to be extended into television, with the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command film and TV series. Cars was expanded to television via Cars Toons, a series of shorts (three to five minutes) running between regular Disney Channel shows and featuring Mater (the tow truck voiced by comedian Larry the Cable Guy).^[45]

Animation and live-action

All Pixar films to date have been computer-animated features (WALL-E has so far been the only Pixar film not to be completely animated, featuring a small live-action element). 1906, the live action film by Brad Bird about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, is currently in development. Bird has stated that he was "interested in moving into the live action realm with some projects" while "staying at Pixar [because] it's a very comfortable environment for me to work in."

Product pipeline

In 2008, Pixar announced Newt, a story about the last two blue-footed newts in existence destined to mate to save their species from extinction,^[46] scheduled for release in June 2012. This project was to be followed by the fantasy film The Bear and the Bow.^[47]

In April 2010, Disney/Pixar announced that, instead, The Bear and the Bow would be released first, under the new name Brave, followed by a sequel to the 2001 Pixar feature Monsters, Inc. later that year.^[48] Also, Newt was removed from the official Disney A to Z Encyclopedia supplement by chief archivist Dave Smith,^[49] who confirmed that the film had been cancelled.^[50][51] In May 2011, Pixar CCO John Lasseter implied that Newt had been shelved due to it having a similar plotline to Blue Sky Studios' film Rio.^[52]

The upcoming Monsters University film, a prequel to the 2001 film Monsters, Inc., will be followed by one film "about the inside of a girl's mind",^[53] and The Good Dinosaur, a film about a world in which dinosaurs never became extinct.^[54]

In April 2012, Pixar announced their intention to create a film centered on the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos^[55] and to be directed by Lee Unkrich.^[56]

Exhibitions

Since December 2005, Pixar has held exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of Pixar, over their first twenty years in animation.^[57]

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation

Pixar held one such exhibition, from April to June 2010, at Science Centre Singapore, in Jurong East, Singapore.^[58] It was their first time holding an exhibition in Singapore.

The exhibition highlights consist of work-in-progress sketches from various Pixar productions, clay sculptures of their characters, and an autostereoscopic short showcasing a 3D version of the exhibition pieces which is projected through 4 projectors. Another highlight is the Zoetrope, where visitors of the exhibition are shown figurines of Toy Story characters "animated" in real-life through the zoetrope.^[58]

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation

Pixar celebrated 25 years of animation in 2011 with the release of its twelfth feature film, Cars 2. Pixar had celebrated its 20th anniversary with the first Cars. The Pixar: 25 Years of Animation exhibition was held at the Oakland Museum of California from July 2010 until January 2011.^[59] The exhibition tour debuts in Hong Kong, and was held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin, between March 27 and July 11, 2011.^[60][61]

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation includes all of the artwork from Pixar: 20 Years of Animation, plus art from Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and Toy Story 3.

See also

	Animation portal
	Film portal

• List of Pixar staff
• The organization of the artist

References

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External links

• Official website
• Pixar's channel on YouTube
• Pixar Animation Studios at the Internet Movie Database
• Pixar Animation Studios at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• List of the 40 founding employees of Pixar

v t e The Walt Disney Company Company officials Company founders Walter Elias Disney Roy Oliver Disney Executive management Robert Iger Jay Rasulo Alan N. Braverman Ronald L. Iden Brent Woodford Jayne Parker Zenia Mucha Preston Padden Christine M. McCarthy Kevin Mayer Board of directors Susan Arnold John S. Chen Judith Estrin Robert Iger (Chairman and CEO) Fred Langhammer Aylwin Lewis Robert Matschullat Sheryl Sandberg Orin C. Smith Walt Disney Studios Disney Music Group · Disney Theatrical Productions Group Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Disney Studio Services (Walt Disney Studios (Burbank) Golden Oak Ranch The Prospect Studios) Media Networks Disney-ABC Television Group ESPN Inc. (80%) Disney Interactive Media Group ABC Owned Television Stations Radio Disney Times Square Studios Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Disneyland Resort Walt Disney World Resort Tokyo Disney Resort Disneyland Paris Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Shanghai Disney Resort Disney Cruise Line Disney Vacation Club Adventures by Disney Disney Regional Entertainment Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Creative Entertainment Disney Consumer Products Disney Publishing Worldwide Disney Store Disney Interactive Media Group Disney Interactive Studios Disney Online Miscellaneous assets Buena Vista Buena Vista International France Buena Vista International India Buena Vista International Italy Hulu (27%) · Marvel Entertainment The Muppets Studio Reedy Creek Energy UTV Software Communications Annual revenue  USD 63.1 billion (2010) Employees 150,000 (2008) Stock symbol NYSE: DIS Website thewaltdisneycompany.com

v t e Pixar Feature films Released Toy Story (1995) A Bug's Life (1998) Toy Story 2 (1999) Monsters, Inc. (2001) Finding Nemo (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Cars (2006) Ratatouille (2007) WALL-E (2008) Up (2009) Toy Story 3 (2010) Cars 2 (2011) Upcoming Brave (2012) Monsters University (2013) The Good Dinosaur (2014) Untitled Pixar Movie that Takes You Inside the Mind (2015) Dia de los Muertos themed movie (2015) Shorts Original Luxo Jr. (1986) Red's Dream (1987) Tin Toy (1988) Knick Knack (1989) Geri's Game (1997) For the Birds (2000) Boundin' (2003) One Man Band (2005) Lifted (2006) Presto (2008) Partly Cloudy (2009) Day & Night (2010) La Luna (2011) Feature-related Mike's New Car (2002) Jack-Jack Attack (2005) Mater and the Ghostlight (2006) Your Friend the Rat (2007) BURN-E (2008) Dug's Special Mission (2009) Hawaiian Vacation (2011) Small Fry (2011) Short series Cars Toons (2008–) Toy Story Toons (2011–) Franchises Toy Story (1995–) Cars (2006–) Associated productions The Adventures of André and Wally B. (1984) 1906 (TBA) Compilations Tiny Toy Stories (1996) Pixar Short Films Collection – Volume 1 (2007) Documentaries The Pixar Story (2007) Products Pixar Image Computer RenderMan Marionette People John Lasseter Edwin Catmull Steve Jobs Alvy Ray Smith Jim Morris Pete Docter Andrew Stanton Brad Bird Lee Unkrich Gary Rydstrom Brenda Chapman Brad Lewis Bob Peterson Joe Ranft Mark Andrews Doug Sweetland Ronnie del Carmen Dan Scanlon See also List of Pixar characters List of Pixar awards and nominations (feature films shorts) List of Pixar film references Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (The Adventure Begins) Lucasfilm Animation Circle 7 Animation A Computer Animated Hand

v t e John Lasseter Directed Feature films Toy Story (1995) A Bug's Life (1998) Toy Story 2 (1999) Cars (2006) Cars 2 (2011) Short films Luxo Jr. (1986) Red's Dream (1987) Tin Toy (1988) Knick Knack (1989) Mater and the Ghostlight (2006) Tokyo Mater (2008) Produced Feature films Monsters, Inc. (2001) Spirited Away (2002) Finding Nemo (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Howl's Moving Castle (2005) Meet the Robinsons (2007) Ratatouille (2007) WALL-E (2008) Tinker Bell (2008) Bolt (2008) Up (2009) Ponyo (2009) Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure (2009) The Princess and the Frog (2009) Toy Story 3 (2010) Tales from Earthsea (2010) Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (2010) Tangled (2010) Cars 2 (2011) Winnie the Pooh (2011) The Secret World of Arrietty (2012) Brave (2012) Wreck-It Ralph (2012) Secret of the Wings (2012) Planes (2013) Monsters University (2013) Short films Luxo Jr. (1986) Geri's Game (1997) For the Birds (2000) Mike's New Car (2002) Jack-Jack Attack (2005) One Man Band (2006) Lifted (2006) Your Friend the Rat (2007) How to Hook Up Your Home Theater (2007) Presto (2008) Glago's Guest (2008) BURN-E (2008) Super Rhino (2008) Partly Cloudy (2009) Dug's Special Mission (2009) Day & Night (2010) Hawaiian Vacation (2011) The Ballad of Nessie (2011) Small Fry (2011) Television Cars Toons (2008-present) Prep & Landing (2009) Prep & Landing: Operation: Secret Santa (2010) Pixie Hollow Games (2011) Prep & Landing: Naughty vs. Nice (2011) Other Lady and the Lamp (1979) Nitemare (1980) The Fox and the Hound (1981) Mickey's Christmas Carol (1983) The Adventures of André and Wally B. (1984) Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) The Brave Little Toaster (1987) Porco Rosso (2005) The Muppets (2011) Studios Walt Disney Animation Studios Pixar DisneyToon Studios

v t e List of movie studios in the United States and Canada The Big 6 News Corporation (Fox/Searchlight) Sony (Columbia/TriStar) Viacom (Paramount/Vantage) Comcast (Universal/Focus) Walt Disney Co. (Walt Disney/Touchstone) Time Warner (Warner Bros./New Line) Mini-Majors Full Moon Features Castle Rock Entertainment Sony Pictures Classics/Stage 6 Films/Screen Gems/Sony Pictures Animation/Triumph Films CBS Films Disneynature/Pixar Pacific Data Images/DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks/Go Fish FilmDistrict/GK Films Insurge Pictures/MTV Films/Paramount Animation IMAX Pictures/3D entertainment Lionsgate/Summit Entertainment MGM Holdings (MGM/UA) Miramax Films Open Road Films RKO Pictures/Roseblood Pictures Image Entertainment Relativity Media/Rogue Pictures The Weinstein Company/Dimension Films Other independent film studios The Kerner Entertainment Company Samuel Goldwyn Films Magnolia Pictures Myriad Pictures IFC Films Newmarket Films Freestyle Releasing Roadside Attractions THINKFilm Hasbro Studios Marvel Studios DC Entertainment Palm Pictures Palisades Tartan Films Icon Productions Troma Entertainment Morgan Creek Productions Mandalay Pictures Millennium Entertainment Vivendi Entertainment Music Box Films Anchor Bay Films Indian Paintbrush Lucasfilm Imagine Entertainment The Kennedy/Marshall Company Spyglass Entertainment The Montecito Picture Company Mandate Pictures Radar Pictures Media Rights Capital Even more independent film studios Illumination Entertainment Regency Enterprises Blue Sky Studios Jim Henson Pictures Alliance Films Jerry Bruckheimer Films Overture Films Legendary Pictures Amblin Entertainment Bad Robot Productions Crystal Sky Pictures Skydance Productions Centropolis Entertainment Ghost House Pictures Momentum Pictures/Vertigo Films Dark Castle Entertainment/Silver Pictures ImageMovers CJ Entertainment Phoenix Pictures Mr. Mudd Infinitum Nihil Nickelodeon Movies Walden Media Alphaville American Zoetrope Blinding Edge Pictures Bryanston Pictures Temple Hill Entertainment Platinum Dunes Sean S. Cunningham Films WingNut Films Hyperion Pictures The Zanuck Company Bristol Bay Productions Portal:Film

v t e Animation studios (list)   Americas   United States 20th Century Fox Animation 4Kids Entertainment Aesop's Film Fables Amblimation Animation Collective Animation Lab Animation Magic The Animation Picture Company Animax Entertainment Anzovin Studio Asterisk animation Augenblick Studios Bagdasarian Productions Barré Studio Bento Box Entertainment Big Idea Entertainment Blue Sky Studios Boss Film Studios Bray Productions Buzzco Associates Cambria Productions Cartoon Network Studios Cartoon Pizza Charlex Circle 7 Animation Classic Media Creative Capers Entertainment Crest Animation Productions Curious Pictures DIC Entertainment Disney Television Animation DisneyToon Studios DNA Productions DreamWorks Animation Fox Animation Studios Hanna-Barbera Happy Trails Animation Illumination Entertainment Janimation Jetix Animation Concepts Lucasfilm Animation Marvel Animation MTV Animation Mike Young Productions Nickelodeon Animation Studio Pixar Renegade Animation Sony Pictures Animation Terrytoons Toonzone Entertainment Tradition Studios United Productions of America Universal Animation Studios Vanguard Animation Walt Disney Animation Studios Walter Lantz Productions Warner Bros. Animation Y. R. Studio   Canadian 9 Story Entertainment Arc Productions Atomic Cartoons Breakthrough Films & Television CinéGroupe Clyde Henry Productions Cuppa Coffee Studio Funbag Animation Studios Global Mechanic Guru Studio House of Cool March Entertainment Megafun Nelvana Phoenix Animation Studios PiP Animation Services Pixar (Canada) Rainmaker Entertainment Yowza! Animation   Asia   Chinese Hong Ying Animation   Japanese A-1 Pictures A.C.G.T Ajia-do Anime International Company Arms Corporation Artland Bee Train Bones Brain's Base Daume David Production Diomedea Dogakobo Eiken Feel Gainax Gallop Gonzo Group TAC Hal Film Maker Imagin J.C.Staff Khara Kyoto Animation Madhouse Magic Bus Manglobe Mook Animation Mushi Production Nippon Animation Nomad Oh! Production OLM Ordet P.A. Works Pierrot Production I.G Production Reed Radix Satelight Seven Arcs Shaft Shin-Ei Animation Studio 4°C Studio APPP Studio Comet Studio Deen Studio Fantasia Studio Ghibli Studio Hibari Sunrise SynergySP Tatsunoko Production Tezuka Productions TMS Entertainment TNK Triangle Staff Toei Animation Tsuchida Production Ufotable Xebec White Fox Zexcs   South Korean AKOM Dong Woo Animation DR Movie EMation   Europe   British Aardman Animations Animation Forum West Midlands Astley Baker Davies Bird Studios Blue-Zoo Productions Bolexbrothers BreakThru Films Cake Entertainment Calon (TV production company) Cartoon Network Development Studio Europe Collingwood O'Hare Cosgrove Hall Films Fine Arts Films Hot Animation Illuminated Film Company King Rollo Films LTL Production Melendez Films Mike Young Productions Passion Pictures PEW36 Animation Studios Qurios Entertainment Ragdoll Productions Renga Media Sherbet Animation Spider Eye Productions Spite Your Face Productions Spy Pictures   Luxembourgian LuxAnimation   Russian Melnitsa Animation Studio Pilot (studio) Soyuzmultfilm Toondra   Italian Mondo TV Rainbow S.r.l.   Oceania   Australian Act3animation Animal Logic The People's Republic of Animation

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