Everything about Pixar Animation Studios totally explained
Pixar Animation Studios is an
American CGI animation studio based in
Emeryville, California,
United States, and is notable for its eight
Academy Awards. It is best known for its
CGI-animated
feature films, including
Toy Story,
Finding Nemo,
The Incredibles, and
Cars, which are created with
PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard
Renderman image
rendering API, used to generate high-quality images.
The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in
2006 from majority shareholder
Steve Jobs—who had previously acquired it from
Lucasfilm—through an
all-stock transaction worth
US$7.4 billion.
History
Early history
Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, 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). At NYIT, the researchers worked on an experimental film called
The Works. When the group moved to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to
RenderMan, called Motion Doctor, which allowed traditional
cel animators to use computer animation with minimal training. He paid $5 million to
George Lucas and put $5 million as capital into the company, and the Computer Division was renamed Pixar, a fake Spanish word that means "to make pictures", "to make pixels"
(External Link
)(External Link). A contributing factor to the sale was an increase in cash flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden drop off in revenues from
Star Wars licenses following the release of and the disastrous box office performance of
Howard the Duck.
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 leading 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 2D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well.
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, and
LifeSavers. 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 substantial layoffs in the company's computer department, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was
Toy Story. Despite this, the company was costing Jobs so much money that he considered selling it. Only after confirming that Disney would distribute Toy Story for the 1995 holiday season did he decide to give it another chance. Pixar was
re-incorporated on
December 9,
1995.
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. 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. Though profitable for both, Pixar later complained that the arrangement wasn't 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 were perhaps the most onerous to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.
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. 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. These conditions were unacceptable to Disney, but Pixar wouldn't concede.
Disagreements between Steve Jobs and 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. However, Pixar didn't enter negotiations with other distributors, since other partners saw Pixar's terms as too demanding. After a lengthy hiatus, negotiations between the two companies resumed following the departure of Eisner from Disney in September of 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.
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.
Acquired 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. 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. Jobs' new Disney holdings outpace 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. Roy Disney's criticisms of Eisner included the soured Pixar relationship and accelerated Eisner's ouster.
As part of the deal, Lasseter, Pixar Executive
Vice President and co-founder, became
Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and
CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at
Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's
theme parks. 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).
Today,
Edwin Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and
John Lasseter serves as the studios'
Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to
Robert Iger as well as
Walt Disney Studios chairman
Dick Cook. Lasseter, who has
greenlight authority on all new films, also reports to Iger as well as consulting with
Roy E. Disney.
Feature films
Traditions
While some of Pixar's first animators were former
cel animators, including
John Lasseter, they also came from
stop motion animation,
computer animation, or had recently graduated from college. Pixar films follow the same theme of self improvement. 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, according to John Lasseter, "it's gotta be about the growth of the main character, and how he changes." Every Pixar film has included
cameo appearances of characters or objects from Pixar's other movies or short films, as well as characters voiced by
John Ratzenberger.
Ratzenberger has been called "Pixar's good luck charm" since he's
played a role in each Pixar feature.
Locations
Pizza Planet is a fictional
pizza restaurant that appears in
Toy Story. It is a large, sci-fi themed restaurant with arcade games. There is a reference to Pizza Planet in every Pixar film to date, either the restaurant itself or the Pizza Planet delivery truck which is stolen by the toys in
Toy Story 2 and has a ride hitched on it by Buzz and Woody in Toy Story. It can also be seen in
A Bug's Life, in the scene where one insect tells another not to touch the motorhome light, and
Monsters, Inc., when Randall is getting beat up with the shovel, it can be seen on the far left. The company runs a fleet of beat up
Toyota Hilux pickup trucks, as seen in Toy Story 1 and 2 (though in
Toy Story 2, the truck model is called a "Gyoza"). In
Finding Nemo, while Gill is explaining his plan to escape from the office, a yellow Pizza Planet truck drives by. In the movie
Cars, there's a Pizza Planet truck in the end at the stadium. Pizza Planet restaurants at
Walt Disney World's
Disney's Hollywood Studios and
Disneyland Paris are named after the site in the film and are designed to resemble it as much as possible.
Dinoco is a fictional
oil company that first appeared in
Toy Story as a small gas station and later had more prominent visibility in
Cars. Dinoco is a sponsor of the Piston cup, and is the main sponsor of
The King, a veteran racer on the verge of retirement. The company's lavish
sponsorship is highly sought after by the main character
Lightning McQueen and rival
Chick Hicks. The Dinoco brand has also been featured in much
Cars-related merchandise.
Further Information
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