A Brief History of Pixar Animation Studios

Follow Skyway to Wonderland on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

 

This week’s post is a brief history of Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar’s history is complicated and actually quite messy so this is only a brief history, focusing on the key events. I recommend watching The Pixar Story, a documentary produced by Leslie Iwerks in 2007. Leslie Iwerks is the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks, who played a very important role in the beginnings of the Walt Disney Studios in the 1920s.

Though the origins of Pixar dates back to 1974 at the New York Institute of Technology, this retelling of Pixar’s history is going to start in 1979 at Lucasfilm.

George Lucas wanted to expand his computer division at Lucasfilm and so he hired the head of the Computer Graphics Lab at the New York Institute of Technology, Ed Catmull. Ed Catmull formed the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm which focused on CGI special effects with the sister division Industrial Light & Magic. The Graphics Group also wanted to try animation and storytelling, but no one on their team was an animator so John Lasseter was hired. John Lasseter was an animator at the Walt Disney Animation Studios but had recently been fired for being too enthusiastic about computer animation. Ed Catmull’s team also created the Pixar Image Computer and REYES (standing for Render Everything You Ever Saw). The Pixar Image Computer was essential in the development of CAPS (which I talked about in The Rescuers Down Under) and REYES ended up being a precursor to RenderMan, a software that is Pixar’s pride and joy. It is a way to digitally create photorealistic images.

As a result of George Lucas’ divorce in 1983, Lucasfilm was having some financial difficulties and in fear of cutbacks and layoffs, the Graphic Group decided to became their own corporation. They needed someone to buy them out from Lucasfilm and in 1986 that person ended up being Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs had been looking for a new project after being ousted from his own company, Apple. See, I told you this history is messy! They decided to call this new company Pixar after their Pixar Image Computer. Pixar still had a dream to create computer animated stories, but the technology was not there yet. And being a computer guy and not a storyteller, Steve Jobs wanted to focus on making and selling hardware, like the Pixar Image Computer, instead of animation. However, John Lasseter was still focused on the creativity aspect and produced Luxo Jr., the first computer animated film to win an Academy Award. Luxo Jr. was so significant for Pixar that the lamp from the film became their mascot. But the Pixar Image Computer did not sell well, nor did the animated shorts like Luxo Jr., and the company was in financial trouble. They started to do the animation of commercials to stay in business and hired two new animators to help out, Pete Doctor and Andrew Stanton.

During all of this, the Walt Disney Company wanted John Lasseter to come back and direct a film for them. John Lasseter refused and instead pitched them the idea of Toy Story. Disney then offered them a deal where Pixar would produce three computed animated feature films, completely in charge of creativity, and Disney would take care of distribution and marketing. The two companies would split the production costs 50/50. Sounds like a great deal but part of the agreement would be that Pixar would receive less than 10% of the sales of each of their films and Disney would own all of their characters and stories and have all rights to merchandising. Pixar could also not seek out any other company to distribute their films. Disney and Pixar came head to head again during the production of Toy Story 2. Disney wanted this sequel to be a direct to home video film and to not be included in their three picture deal, but Pixar thought that it should be a theatrical release and part of the deal. The film did end up being a theatrical film and the contract was renegotiated between Disney and Pixar. They would be 50/50 partners and Pixar would produce five more films under this new contract.

Pixar produced hit after hit while maintaining their constant innovation in the computer animation industry. They tackled animating fur in Monsters, Inc. and water effects in Finding Nemo. But tensions between Disney and Pixar were still there. In 2004, as the end of their contract was drawing closer, Pixar even publically started looking for new companies to partner with. In retaliation, Disney created the Circle 7 Animation studios and began production on Toy Story 3 because they had the rights to these characters, despite Pixar having originally created them. During this time, the leadership at Disney was under distress with the rivalries between Roy E. Disney and Michael Eisner (another story for another time). Both men ended up leaving the Walt Disney Company and Michael Eisner’s replacement, Bob Iger, wanted to mend ties with Pixar. In the end, Disney bought Pixar for $7.4 billion dollars in an all-stock deal in 2006. Steve Jobs became the Walt Disney Company’s largest single shareholder and even though Pixar was now under a parent company, they remained their own studio with their own creativity. The first film to be released after this purchase was Ratatouille in 2007. As part of the deal, John Lasseter became head of both Pixar Animation and Disney Animation. He held that position up until recently when it was announced that Pete Doctor would be heading up Pixar Animation and Jennifer Lee would be heading up Disney Animation.

Pixar has continued to produce many amazing films. They create characters and stories that capture audiences’ hearts and all twenty feature films have a CinemaScore of A- or higher (yes, even Cars 2).

My top 5 Pixar films are Toy Story 2, Up, Inside Out, Incredibles 2, and Monsters, Inc. Which Pixar films are your favourite?