Как пишется дисней пиксар

This article is about the computer animation studio. For other uses, see Pixar (disambiguation).

Pixar Animation Studios

Logo used since 1995
Headquarters in Emeryville, California
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation
Predecessor	The Graphics Group (1979–1986) Disney Circle 7 Animation (2005-2006)
Founded	February 3, 1986; 37 years ago in Richmond, California
Founders	Edwin Catmull Alvy Ray Smith
Headquarters	1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California , U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jim Morris (general manager & president) Pete Docter (CCO)
Products	Computer animations
Brands	Pixar Image Computer Pixar RenderMan
Owner	Lucasfilm (1979-1986) Steve Jobs (1986–2006) The Walt Disney Company (2006–present)
Number of employees	1,233 (2020)
Parent	Walt Disney Studios (Disney Entertainment) (2006–present)
Website	pixar.com
Footnotes / references [1][2][3]

Pixar Animation Studios () is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, California, United States. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Pixar started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.^[2] Disney purchased Pixar in January 2006 at a valuation of $7.4+ billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock.^[4][5] Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company’s own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. The studio’s mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio’s 1986 short film of the same name.

Pixar has produced 26 feature films, starting with Toy Story (1995), which is the first fully computer-animated feature film; its most recent film was Lightyear (2022). The studio has also produced many short films. As of July 2019, its feature films have earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office,^[6] with an average worldwide gross of $680 million per film.^[7] Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Incredibles 2 being the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross of $1.2 billion; the other three also grossed over $1 billion. Moreover, 15 of Pixar’s films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Pixar has earned 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Its films are frequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since its inauguration in 2001, with eleven winners being Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), Toy Story 4 (2019), and Soul (2020); the five nominated without winning are Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), Incredibles 2 (2018), Onward (2020), and Luca (2021). Up and Toy Story 3 were also nominated for the more competitive and inclusive Academy Award for Best Picture.

On February 10, 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival. The physical award was ceremoniously handed to Lucasfilm’s founder, George Lucas.

History

Early history

Pixar got its start in 1974, when New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) founder, Alexander Schure, who was also the owner of a traditional animation studio, established the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL) and recruited computer scientists who shared his ambitions about creating the world’s first computer-animated film. Edwin Catmull and Malcolm Blanchard were the first to be hired and were soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith and David DiFrancesco some months later, which were the four original members of the Computer Graphics Lab, located in a converted two-story garage acquired from the former Vanderbilt-Whitney estate.^[8][9] Schure kept pouring money into the computer graphics lab, an estimated $15 million, giving the group everything they desired and driving NYIT into serious financial troubles.^[10] Eventually, the group realized they needed to work in a real film studio in order to reach their goal. Francis Ford Coppola then invited Smith to his house for a three-day media conference, where Coppola and George Lucas shared their visions for the future of digital moviemaking.^[11]

When Lucas approached them and offered them a job at his studio, six employees moved to Lucasfilm. During the following months, they gradually resigned from CGL, found temporary jobs for about a year to avoid making Schure suspicious, and joined the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm.^[12][13]
The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Catmull from NYIT,^[14] where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab. He was then reunited with Smith, who also made the journey from NYIT to Lucasfilm, and was made the director of the Graphics Group. At NYIT, the researchers pioneered many of the CG foundation techniques—in particular, the invention of the alpha channel by Catmull and Smith.^[15] Over the next several years, the CGL would produce a few frames of 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 several critical technologies for CG—including particle effects and various animation tools.^[16]

John Lasseter was hired to the Lucasfilm team for a week in late 1983 with the title «interface designer»; he animated the short film The Adventures of André & Wally B.^[17] In the next few years, a designer suggested naming a new digital compositing computer the «Picture Maker». Smith suggested that the laser-based device have a catchier name, and came up with «Pixer», which after a meeting was changed to «Pixar».^[18]

In 1982, the Pixar team began working on special-effects film sequences with Industrial Light & Magic. After years of research, and key milestones such as the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes,^[14] the group, which then numbered 40 individuals, was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 by Catmull and Smith. Among the 38 remaining employees, there were also Malcolm Blanchard, David DiFrancesco, Ralph Guggenheim, and Bill Reeves, who had been part of the team since the days of NYIT. Tom Duff, also an NYIT member, would later join Pixar after its formation.^[2] With Lucas’s 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi, they knew he would most likely sell the whole Graphics Group. Worried that the employees would be lost to them if that happened, which would prevent the creation of the first computer-animated movie, they concluded that the best way to keep the team together was to turn the group into an independent company. But Moore’s Law also suggested that sufficient computing power for the first film was still some years away, and they needed to focus on a proper product until then. Eventually, they decided they should be a hardware company in the meantime, with their Pixar Image Computer as the core product, a system primarily sold to governmental, scientific, and medical markets.^[2][10][19] They also used SGI computers.^[20]

In 1983, Nolan Bushnell founded a new computer-guided animation studio called Kadabrascope as a subsidiary of his Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatres company (PTT), which was founded in 1977. Only one major project was made out of the new studio, an animated Christmas special for NBC starring Chuck E. Cheese and other PTT mascots; known as «Chuck E. Cheese: The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t». The animation movement would be made using tweening instead of traditional cel animation. After the video game crash of 1983, Bushnell started selling some subsidiaries of PTT to keep the business afloat. Sente Technologies (another division, was founded to have games distributed in PTT stores) was sold to Bally Games and Kadabrascope was sold to Lucasfilm. The Kadabrascope assets were combined with the Computer Division of Lucasfilm.^[21] Coincidentally, one of Steve Jobs’s first jobs was under Bushnell in 1973 as a technician at his other company Atari, which Bushnell sold to Warner Communications in 1976 to focus on PTT.^[22] PTT would later go bankrupt in 1984 and be acquired by ShowBiz Pizza Place.^[23]

Independent company (1986–1999)

In 1986, the newly independent Pixar was headed by President Edwin Catmull and Executive Vice President Alvy Ray Smith. Lucas’s search for investors led to an offer from Steve Jobs, which Lucas initially found too low. He eventually accepted after determining it impossible to find other investors. At that point, Smith and Catmull had been declined 45 times, and 35 venture capitalists and ten large corporations had declined.^[24] Jobs, who had been edged out of Apple in 1985,^[2] was now founder and CEO of the new computer company NeXT. On February 3, 1986, he paid $5 million of his own money to George Lucas for technology rights and invested $5 million cash as capital into the company, joining the board of directors as chairman.^[2][25]

In 1985, while still at Lucasfilm, they had made a deal with the Japanese publisher Shogakukan to make a computer-animated movie called Monkey, based on the Monkey King. The project continued sometime after they became a separate company in 1986, but it became clear that the technology was not sufficiently advanced. The computers were not powerful enough and the budget would be too high. So they focused on the computer hardware business for years until a computer-animated feature became feasible according to Moore’s law.^[26][27]

At the time, Walt Disney Studios was interested and eventually bought and used the Pixar Image Computer and custom software written by Pixar as part of its Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) project, to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2D animation process to a more automated method. The company’s first feature film to be released using this new animation method was The Rescuers Down Under (1990).^[28][29]

In a bid to drive sales of the system and increase the company’s capital, Jobs suggested releasing the product to the mainstream market. Pixar employee John Lasseter, who had long been working on not-for-profit short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr. (1986) to show off the device’s capabilities, premiered his creations to great fanfare at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry’s largest convention.^[30]

However, the Image Computer had inadequate sales^[30] which threatened to end the company as financial losses grew. Jobs increased investment in exchange for an increased stake, reducing the proportion of management and employee ownership until eventually, his total investment of $50 million gave him control of the entire company. In 1989, Lasseter’s growing animation department, originally composed of just four people (Lasseter, Bill Reeves, Eben Ostby, and Sam Leffler), was turned into a division that produced computer-animated commercials for outside companies.^[1][31][32] In April 1990, Pixar sold its hardware division, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems, and transferred 18 of Pixar’s approximately 100 employees. That year, Pixar moved from San Rafael to Richmond, California.^[33] Pixar released some of its software tools on the open market for Macintosh and Windows systems. RenderMan is one of the leading 3D packages of the early 1990s, and Typestry is a special-purpose 3D text renderer that competed with RayDream.^{[citation needed]}

During this period, Pixar continued its successful relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. As 1991 began, however, the layoff of 30 employees in the company’s computer hardware department—including the company’s president, Chuck Kolstad,^[34] reduced the total number of employees to just 42, approximately its original number.^[35] Pixar made a historic $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story, the product of the technological limitations that challenged CGI.^[36] By then the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and IceMan, and Lasseter’s animation department, which made television commercials (and four Luxo Jr. shorts for Sesame Street the same year), were all that remained of Pixar.^[37]

Even with income from these projects, the company continued to lose money and Steve Jobs, as chairman of the board and now the full owner, often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies such as Hallmark Cards, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Oracle CEO and co-founder Larry Ellison.^[38] Only after learning from New York critics that Toy Story would probably be a hit—and confirming that Disney would distribute it for the 1995 Christmas season—did he decide to give Pixar another chance.^[39][40] For the first time, he also took an active leadership role in the company and made himself CEO.^{[citation needed]} Toy Story grossed more than $373 million worldwide^[41] and, when Pixar held its initial public offering on November 29, 1995, it exceeded Netscape’s as the biggest IPO of the year. In its first half-hour of trading, Pixar stock shot from $22 to $45, delaying trading because of unmatched buy orders. Shares climbed to US$49 and closed the day at $39.^[42]

The television commercials, which the company had continued to make during the production of Toy Story, came to an end on July 9, 1996, when Pixar announced they would shut down its televion-commercial unit, which counted 18 employees, to focus on longer projects and interactive entertainment.^[43][44]

During the 1990s and 2000s, Pixar gradually developed the «Pixar Braintrust», the studio’s primary creative development process, in which all of its directors, writers, and lead storyboard artists regularly examine each other’s projects and give very candid «notes», the industry term for constructive criticism.^[45] The Braintrust operates under a philosophy of a «filmmaker-driven studio», in which creatives help each other move their films forward through a process somewhat like peer review, as opposed to the traditional Hollywood approach of an «executive-driven studio» in which directors are micromanaged through «mandatory notes» from development executives outranking the producers.^[46][47] According to Catmull, it evolved out of the working relationship between Lasseter, Stanton, Docter, Unkrich, and Joe Ranft on Toy Story.^[45]

As a result of the success of Toy Story, Pixar built a new studio at the Emeryville campus which was designed by PWP Landscape Architecture and opened in November 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Collaboration with Disney (1999–2006)

Pixar and Disney had disagreements over the production of Toy Story 2. Originally intended as a direct-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.^[48] 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 equally, but Disney exclusively owned all story, character, and sequel rights and also collected a 10- to 15-percent distribution fee. The lack of these rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect for Pixar and precipitated a contentious relationship.^{[citation needed]}

The two companies attempted to reach a new agreement for ten months and failed on January 26, 2001, July 26, 2002, April 22, 2003, January 16, 2004, July 22, 2004, and January 14, 2005. The new deal would be only for distribution, as Pixar intended to control production and own the resulting story, character, and sequel rights while Disney would own the right of first refusal to distribute any sequels. Pixar also wanted to finance its own films and collect 100 percent profit, paying Disney only the 10- to 15-percent distribution fee.^[49] More importantly, as part of any distribution agreement with Disney, Pixar demanded control over films already in production under the old agreement, including The Incredibles (2004) and Cars (2006). Disney considered these conditions unacceptable, but Pixar would not concede.^[49]

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 Disney forming Circle Seven Animation and Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney.^[50] Even with this announcement and several talks with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox, Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors,^[51] although a Warner Bros. spokesperson told CNN, «We would love to be in business with Pixar. They are a great company.»^[49] 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 its major releases during the Christmas shopping season. An added benefit of delaying Cars from November 4, 2005, to June 9, 2006, was to extend the time frame remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract, to see how things would play out between the two companies.^[51]

Pending the Disney acquisition of Pixar, the two companies created a distribution deal for the intended 2007 release of Ratatouille, to ensure that if the acquisition failed, this one film would be released through Disney’s distribution channels. In contrast to the earlier Pixar deal, Ratatouille was meant 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.^[52]

Walt Disney Studios subsidiary (2006–present)

On January 24, 2006, Disney ultimately agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.^[53] Following Pixar shareholder approval, the acquisition was completed on May 5, 2006. The transaction catapulted Jobs, who owned 49.65% of total share interest in Pixar, to Disney’s largest individual shareholder with 7%, valued at $3.9 billion, and a new seat on its board of directors.^[5][54] Jobs’s 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.^{[citation needed]}

As part of the deal, John Lasseter, by then Executive Vice President, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting directly to president and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy E. Disney) of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios (including its division DisneyToon Studios), as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company’s theme parks.^[54] Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. Jobs’s position as Pixar’s chairman and chief executive officer was abolished, and instead, he took a place on the Disney board of directors.^[55]

After the deal closed in May 2006, Lasseter revealed that Iger had realized Disney needed to buy Pixar while watching a parade at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005.^[56] Iger noticed that of all the Disney characters in the parade, not one was a character that Disney had created within the last ten years since all the newer ones had been created by Pixar.^[56] Upon returning to Burbank, Iger commissioned a financial analysis that confirmed that Disney had actually lost money on animation for the past decade, then presented that information to the board of directors at his first board meeting after being promoted from COO to CEO, and the board, in turn, authorized him to explore the possibility of a deal with Pixar.^[57] Lasseter and Catmull were wary when the topic of Disney buying Pixar first came up, but Jobs asked them to give Iger a chance (based on his own experience negotiating with Iger in summer 2005 for the rights to ABC shows for the fifth-generation iPod Classic),^[58] and in turn, Iger convinced them of the sincerity of his epiphany that Disney really needed to re-focus on animation.^[56]

Lasseter and Catmull’s oversight of both the Disney Feature Animation 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.^{[59][page needed]} 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).^[60]

Jim Morris, producer of WALL-E (2008), became general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris took charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.^[61]

After a few years, Lasseter and Catmull were able to successfully transfer the basic principles of the Pixar Braintrust to Disney Animation, although meetings of the Disney Story Trust are reportedly «more polite» than those of the Pixar Braintrust.^[62] Catmull later explained that after the merger, to maintain the studios’ separate identities and cultures (notwithstanding the fact of common ownership and common senior management), he and Lasseter «drew a hard line» that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other.^[63][64] That rule ensures that each studio maintains «local ownership» of projects and can be proud of its own work.^[63][64] Thus, for example, when Pixar had issues with Ratatouille and Disney Animation had issues with Bolt (2008), «nobody bailed them out» and each studio was required «to solve the problem on its own» even when they knew there were personnel at the other studio who theoretically could have helped.^[63][64]

Expansion (2010–2018)

On April 20, 2010, Pixar opened Pixar Canada in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[65] The roughly 2,000 square meters studio produced seven short films based on Toy Story and Cars characters. In October 2013, the studio was closed down to refocus Pixar’s efforts at its main headquarters.^[66]

In November 2014, Morris was promoted to president of Pixar, while his counterpart at Disney Animation, general manager Andrew Millstein, was also promoted to president of that studio.^[67] Both continued to report to Catmull, who retained the title of president of both Disney Animation and Pixar.^[67]

On November 21, 2017, Lasseter announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging what he called «missteps» in his behavior with employees in a memo to staff. According to The Hollywood Reporter and The Washington Post, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees.^[68][69][70] On June 8, 2018, it was announced that Lasseter would leave Disney Animation and Pixar at the end of the year, but would take on a consulting role until then.^[71] Pete Docter was announced as Lasseter’s replacement as chief creative officer of Pixar on June 19, 2018.^[72]

Studio resurgence (2018–present)

On October 23, 2018, it was announced that Catmull would be retiring. He stayed in an adviser role until July 2019.^[73] On January 18, 2019, it was announced that Lee Unkrich would be leaving Pixar after 25 years.^[74]

Campus

When Steve Jobs, chief executive officer of Apple Inc. and Pixar, and John Lasseter, then-executive vice president of Pixar, decided to move their studios from a leased space in Point Richmond, California, to larger quarters of their own, they chose a 20-acre site in Emeryville, California,^[75] formerly occupied by Del Monte Foods, Inc. The first of several buildings, the high-tech structure designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson^[76] has special foundations and electricity generators to ensure continued film production, even through major earthquakes. The character of the building is intended to abstractly recall Emeryville’s industrial past. The two-story steel-and-masonry building is a collaborative space with many pathways.^[77]

The digital revolution in filmmaking was driven by applied mathematics, including computational physics and geometry.^[78] In 2008, this led Pixar senior scientist Tony DeRose to offer to host the second Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at the Emeryville campus.^[79]

Feature films and shorts

Traditions

Some of Pixar’s first animators were former cel animators including John Lasseter, and others came from computer animation or were fresh college graduates.^[80] A large number of animators that make up its animation department had been hired around the releases of A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Finding Nemo (2003). The success of Toy Story (1995) made Pixar the first major computer-animation studio to successfully produce theatrical feature films. The majority of the animation industry was (and still is) located in Los Angeles, and Pixar is located 350 miles (560 km) north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Traditional hand-drawn animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.^{[citation needed]}

With the scarcity of Los Angeles-based animators willing to move their families so far north to 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 was designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive.^[80]

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,^[81] Lasseter said that Pixar’s 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.»^[81]

Actor John Ratzenberger, who had previously starred in the television series Cheers, has voiced a character in every Pixar feature film from Toy Story through Onward (2020). At this point, he does not have a role in future Pixar films; however, a non-speaking background character in Soul bears his likeness. Pixar paid tribute to Ratzenberger in the end credits of Cars (2006) by parodying scenes from three of its earlier films (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and A Bug’s Life), replacing all of the characters with motor vehicle versions of them and giving each film an automotive-based title. After the third scene, Mack (his character in Cars) realizes that the same actor has been voicing characters in every film.

Due to the traditions that have occurred within the films and shorts such as anthropomorphic creatures and objects, and easter egg crossovers between films and shorts that have been spotted by Pixar fans, a blog post titled The Pixar Theory was published in 2013 by Jon Negroni, and popularized by the YouTube channel Super Carlin Brothers,^[82] proposing that all of the characters within the Pixar universe were related, surrounding Boo from Monsters Inc. and the Witch from Brave (2012).^[83][84][85]

Additionally, Pixar is known for their films having expensive budgets, ranging from $150–200 million. Some of their films include Ratatouille (2007), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019), Incredibles 2 (2018), Soul (2020), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Onward (2020), Turning Red (2022), and Lightyear (2022).

Sequels and prequels

As of September 2022, six Pixar films have received or will receive sequels or prequels. These films are Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Inside Out.

Toy Story 2 was originally commissioned by Disney as a 60-minute direct-to-video film. Expressing doubts about the strength of the material, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make the sequel their third full-length feature film.

Following the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, Pixar and Disney had a gentlemen’s agreement that Disney would not make any sequels without Pixar’s involvement though retaining a right to do so. After the two companies were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced in 2004 they would plan to move forward on sequels with or without Pixar and put Toy Story 3 into pre-production at Disney’s then-new CGI division Circle Seven Animation. However, when Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006, he put all sequels on hold and Toy Story 3 was canceled. In May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production with a new plot and under Pixar’s control. The film was released on June 18, 2010, as Pixar’s eleventh feature film.

Shortly after announcing the resurrection of Toy Story 3, Lasseter fueled speculation on further sequels by saying, «If we have a great story, we’ll do a sequel.»^[86] Cars 2, Pixar’s first non-Toy Story sequel, was officially announced in April 2008 and released on June 24, 2011, as their twelfth. Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc. (2001), was announced in April 2010 and initially set for release in November 2012;^[87] the release date was pushed to June 21, 2013, due to Pixar’s past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive.^[88]

In June 2011, Tom Hanks, who voiced Woody in the Toy Story series, implied that Toy Story 4 was «in the works», although it had not yet been confirmed by the studio.^[89][90] In April 2013, Finding Dory, a sequel to Finding Nemo, was announced for a June 17, 2016 release.^[91] In March 2014, Incredibles 2 and Cars 3 were announced as films in development.^[92] In November 2014, Toy Story 4 was confirmed to be in development with Lasseter serving as director.^[93] However, in July 2017, Lasseter announced that he had stepped down, leaving Josh Cooley as sole director.^[94] Released in June 2019, Toy Story 4 ranks among the 40 top-grossing films in American cinema.^[95]

After Toy Story 4, Pixar chief Pete Docter said that the studio would take a break from sequels and focus on original projects. However, in a later interview, Docter said the studio would have to return to making sequels at some point as they are more «financially secure and help keep the studio running.»^[96] On September 9, 2022, during the D23 Expo, Docter and Amy Poehler (voice of Joy) confirmed that Inside Out 2 is in the works, scheduled to release on June 14, 2024.^[97]

Adaptation to television

Toy Story is the first Pixar film to be adapted for television as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command film and TV series on the UPN television network, now The CW. Cars became the second with the help of Cars Toons, a series of 3-to-5-minute short films running between regular Disney Channel show intervals and featuring Mater from Cars.^[98] Between 2013 and 2014, Pixar released its first two television specials, Toy Story of Terror!^[99] and Toy Story That Time Forgot. Monsters at Work, a television series spin-off of Monsters, Inc., premiered in July 2021, on Disney+.^[100][101]

On December 10, 2020, it was announced that three series would be released on Disney+. The first is Dug Days (featuring Dug from Up) where Dug explores suburbia. Dug Days premiered on September 1, 2021.^[102] Next, a Cars show, titled Cars on the Road, was announced to come to Disney+ on September 8, 2022^[103] following Mater and Lightning McQueen as they go on a road trip.^[102][104] Lastly, an original show entitled Win or Lose would be released on Disney+ in Fall 2023. The series will follow a middle school softball team the week leading up to the big championship game where each episode will be from a different perspective.^[102]

2D animation and live-action

The Pixar filmography to date has been computer-animated features, but so far, WALL-E (2008) has been the only Pixar film not to be completely animated as it featured a small amount of live-action footage including Hello, Dolly! while Day & Night (2010), Kitbull (2019), Burrow (2020), and Twenty Something (2021) are the only four shorts to feature 2D animation. 1906, the live-action film by Brad Bird based on a screenplay and novel by James Dalessandro about the 1906 earthquake, was in development but has since been abandoned by Bird and Pixar. 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». In June 2018, Bird mentioned the possibility of adapting the novel as a TV series, and the earthquake sequence as a live-action feature film.^[105]

The Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation (2011) also includes the fish and shark as live-action.

Jim Morris, president of Pixar, produced Disney’s John Carter (2012) which Andrew Stanton co-wrote and directed.^[106]

Pixar’s creative heads were consulted to fine tune the script for the 2011 live-action film The Muppets.^[107] Similarly, Pixar assisted in the story development of Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016) as well as providing suggestions for the film’s end credits sequence.^[108] Both Pixar and Mark Andrews were given a «Special Thanks» credit in the film’s credits.^[109] Additionally, many Pixar animators, both former and current, were recruited for a traditional hand-drawn animated sequence for the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns.^[110]

Pixar representatives have also assisted in the English localization of several Studio Ghibli films, mainly those from Hayao Miyazaki.^[111]

In 2019, Pixar developed a live-action hidden camera reality show, titled Pixar in Real Life, for Disney+.^[112]

Upcoming films

Six upcoming films have been announced: Elemental, directed by Peter Sohn, to be released on June 16, 2023,^[113][114] Elio, directed by Adrian Molina, to be released on March 1, 2024,^[115] Inside Out 2, directed by Kelsey Mann, to be released June 14, 2024,^[116][117] and three untitled films on June 13, 2025, March 6, 2026, and June 19, 2026.^[118]

Co-op Program

The Pixar Co-op Program, a part of the Pixar University professional development program, allows their animators to use Pixar resources to produce independent films.^[119][120] The first 3D project accepted to the program was Borrowed Time (2016); all previously accepted films were live-action.^[121]

Franchises

This does not include the Cars spinoffs produced by DisneyToon Studios.

Titles	Films	Short films	TV series	Release Date
Toy Story	5	3	4	1995–present
Monsters, Inc.	2	2	1	2001–present
Finding Nemo	2	1	0	2003–present
The Incredibles	2	4	1	2004–present
Cars	3	4	2	2006–present
Inside Out	2	1	0	2015–present

Exhibitions

Since December 2005, Pixar has held a variety of exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of the organization and its contribution to the world of animation.^[122]

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation

Upon its 20th anniversary, in 2006, Pixar celebrated with the release of its seventh feature film Cars, and held two exhibitions from April to June 2006 at Science Centre Singapore in Jurong East, Singapore and the London Science Museum in London.^[123] It was their first time holding an exhibition in Singapore.^{[citation needed]}

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 four 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.^[123]

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation

Pixar celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011 with the release of its twelfth feature film Cars 2, and held an exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California from July 2010 until January 2011.^[124] The exhibition tour debuted in Hong Kong and was held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin from March 27 to July 11, 2011.^[125][126] In 2013, the exhibition was held in the EXPO in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For 6 months from July 6, 2012, until January 6, 2013, the city of Bonn (Germany) hosted the public showing,^[127]

On November 16, 2013, the exhibition moved to the Art Ludique museum in Paris, France with a scheduled run until March 2, 2014.^[128] The exhibition moved to three Spanish cities later in 2014 and 2015: Madrid (held in CaixaForum from March 21 until June 22),^[129] Barcelona (held also in Caixaforum from February until May) and Zaragoza.^[130]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The Science Behind Pixar

The Science Behind Pixar is a travelling exhibition that first opened on June 28, 2015, at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. It was developed by the Museum of Science in collaboration with Pixar. The exhibit features forty interactive elements that explain the production pipeline at Pixar. They are divided into eight sections, each demonstrating a step in the filmmaking process: Modeling, Rigging, Surfaces, Sets & Cameras, Animation, Simulation, Lighting, and Rendering. Before visitors enter the exhibit, they watch a short video at an introductory theater showing Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo and Roz from Monsters, Inc..^{[citation needed]}

The exhibition closed on January 10, 2016, and was moved to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where it ran from March 12 to September 5. Afterwards, it moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California and was open from October 15, 2016, to April 9, 2017. It made another stop at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota from May 27 through September 4, 2017.^[131]

The exhibition opened in Edmonton, Alberta on July 1, 2017, at the TELUS World of Science – Edmonton (TWOSE).^{[citation needed]}

Pixar: The Design of Story

Pixar: The Design of Story was an exhibition held at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City from October 8, 2015, to September 11, 2016.^[132][133] The museum also hosted a presentation and conversation with John Lasseter on November 12, 2015, entitled «Design By Hand: Pixar’s John Lasseter».^[132]

Pixar: 30 Years of Animation

Pixar celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016 with the release of its seventeenth feature film Finding Dory, and put together another milestone exhibition. The exhibition first opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan from March 5, 2016, to May 29, 2016. It subsequently moved to the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum National Museum of History, Dongdaemun Design Plaza where it ended on March 5, 2018, at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.^[134]

Legacy

Pixar has a strong legacy with its reach on many different generations. Its emotional depth combined with its playfulness integrated in a cutting-edge technology has left it with a lasting legacy among children and adult viewers. With Pixar’s success, many have considered it an integral part of what it means to be a child, which may contribute to its popularity in an often separate adult audience. From the 1990s to the present, Pixar movies have become a central force in animation.^[135] Discover Magazine wrote:

The message hidden inside Pixar’s magnificent films is this: humanity does not have a monopoly on personhood. In whatever form non- or super-human intelligence takes, it will need brave souls on both sides to defend what is right. If we can live up to this burden, humanity and the world we live in will be better for it.^[135]

See also

• The Walt Disney Company
• Disney’s Nine Old Men
• 12 basic principles of animation
• Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life
• Modern animation in the United States: Disney
• Animation studios owned by The Walt Disney Company
• Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Disneytoon Studios
• Blue Sky Studios
• 20th Century Animation
• List of animation studios
• List of Disney theatrical animated feature films

References

External links

• Official website
• Pixar’s channel on YouTube
• Pixar Animation Studios at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• List of the 40 founding employees of Pixar

This article is about the computer animation studio. For other uses, see Pixar (disambiguation).

Pixar Animation Studios

Logo used since 1995
Headquarters in Emeryville, California
Type	Subsidiary
Industry	Animation
Predecessor	The Graphics Group (1979–1986) Disney Circle 7 Animation (2005-2006)
Founded	February 3, 1986; 37 years ago in Richmond, California
Founders	Edwin Catmull Alvy Ray Smith
Headquarters	1200 Park Avenue, Emeryville, California , U.S.
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jim Morris (general manager & president) Pete Docter (CCO)
Products	Computer animations
Brands	Pixar Image Computer Pixar RenderMan
Owner	Lucasfilm (1979-1986) Steve Jobs (1986–2006) The Walt Disney Company (2006–present)
Number of employees	1,233 (2020)
Parent	Walt Disney Studios (Disney Entertainment) (2006–present)
Website	pixar.com
Footnotes / references [1][2][3]

Pixar Animation Studios () is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, California, United States. Since 2006, Pixar has been a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of Disney Entertainment, which owned by The Walt Disney Company.

Pixar started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.^[2] Disney purchased Pixar in January 2006 at a valuation of $7.4+ billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock.^[4][5] Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company’s own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. The studio’s mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio’s 1986 short film of the same name.

Pixar has produced 26 feature films, starting with Toy Story (1995), which is the first fully computer-animated feature film; its most recent film was Lightyear (2022). The studio has also produced many short films. As of July 2019, its feature films have earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office,^[6] with an average worldwide gross of $680 million per film.^[7] Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Incredibles 2 being the fourth-highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross of $1.2 billion; the other three also grossed over $1 billion. Moreover, 15 of Pixar’s films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Pixar has earned 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Its films are frequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since its inauguration in 2001, with eleven winners being Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), Toy Story 4 (2019), and Soul (2020); the five nominated without winning are Monsters, Inc. (2001), Cars (2006), Incredibles 2 (2018), Onward (2020), and Luca (2021). Up and Toy Story 3 were also nominated for the more competitive and inclusive Academy Award for Best Picture.

On February 10, 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival. The physical award was ceremoniously handed to Lucasfilm’s founder, George Lucas.

History

Early history

Pixar got its start in 1974, when New York Institute of Technology’s (NYIT) founder, Alexander Schure, who was also the owner of a traditional animation studio, established the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL) and recruited computer scientists who shared his ambitions about creating the world’s first computer-animated film. Edwin Catmull and Malcolm Blanchard were the first to be hired and were soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith and David DiFrancesco some months later, which were the four original members of the Computer Graphics Lab, located in a converted two-story garage acquired from the former Vanderbilt-Whitney estate.^[8][9] Schure kept pouring money into the computer graphics lab, an estimated $15 million, giving the group everything they desired and driving NYIT into serious financial troubles.^[10] Eventually, the group realized they needed to work in a real film studio in order to reach their goal. Francis Ford Coppola then invited Smith to his house for a three-day media conference, where Coppola and George Lucas shared their visions for the future of digital moviemaking.^[11]

When Lucas approached them and offered them a job at his studio, six employees moved to Lucasfilm. During the following months, they gradually resigned from CGL, found temporary jobs for about a year to avoid making Schure suspicious, and joined the Graphics Group at Lucasfilm.^[12][13]
The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Catmull from NYIT,^[14] where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab. He was then reunited with Smith, who also made the journey from NYIT to Lucasfilm, and was made the director of the Graphics Group. At NYIT, the researchers pioneered many of the CG foundation techniques—in particular, the invention of the alpha channel by Catmull and Smith.^[15] Over the next several years, the CGL would produce a few frames of 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 several critical technologies for CG—including particle effects and various animation tools.^[16]

John Lasseter was hired to the Lucasfilm team for a week in late 1983 with the title «interface designer»; he animated the short film The Adventures of André & Wally B.^[17] In the next few years, a designer suggested naming a new digital compositing computer the «Picture Maker». Smith suggested that the laser-based device have a catchier name, and came up with «Pixer», which after a meeting was changed to «Pixar».^[18]

In 1982, the Pixar team began working on special-effects film sequences with Industrial Light & Magic. After years of research, and key milestones such as the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and the Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes,^[14] the group, which then numbered 40 individuals, was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 by Catmull and Smith. Among the 38 remaining employees, there were also Malcolm Blanchard, David DiFrancesco, Ralph Guggenheim, and Bill Reeves, who had been part of the team since the days of NYIT. Tom Duff, also an NYIT member, would later join Pixar after its formation.^[2] With Lucas’s 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden dropoff in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi, they knew he would most likely sell the whole Graphics Group. Worried that the employees would be lost to them if that happened, which would prevent the creation of the first computer-animated movie, they concluded that the best way to keep the team together was to turn the group into an independent company. But Moore’s Law also suggested that sufficient computing power for the first film was still some years away, and they needed to focus on a proper product until then. Eventually, they decided they should be a hardware company in the meantime, with their Pixar Image Computer as the core product, a system primarily sold to governmental, scientific, and medical markets.^[2][10][19] They also used SGI computers.^[20]

In 1983, Nolan Bushnell founded a new computer-guided animation studio called Kadabrascope as a subsidiary of his Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatres company (PTT), which was founded in 1977. Only one major project was made out of the new studio, an animated Christmas special for NBC starring Chuck E. Cheese and other PTT mascots; known as «Chuck E. Cheese: The Christmas That Almost Wasn’t». The animation movement would be made using tweening instead of traditional cel animation. After the video game crash of 1983, Bushnell started selling some subsidiaries of PTT to keep the business afloat. Sente Technologies (another division, was founded to have games distributed in PTT stores) was sold to Bally Games and Kadabrascope was sold to Lucasfilm. The Kadabrascope assets were combined with the Computer Division of Lucasfilm.^[21] Coincidentally, one of Steve Jobs’s first jobs was under Bushnell in 1973 as a technician at his other company Atari, which Bushnell sold to Warner Communications in 1976 to focus on PTT.^[22] PTT would later go bankrupt in 1984 and be acquired by ShowBiz Pizza Place.^[23]

Independent company (1986–1999)

In 1986, the newly independent Pixar was headed by President Edwin Catmull and Executive Vice President Alvy Ray Smith. Lucas’s search for investors led to an offer from Steve Jobs, which Lucas initially found too low. He eventually accepted after determining it impossible to find other investors. At that point, Smith and Catmull had been declined 45 times, and 35 venture capitalists and ten large corporations had declined.^[24] Jobs, who had been edged out of Apple in 1985,^[2] was now founder and CEO of the new computer company NeXT. On February 3, 1986, he paid $5 million of his own money to George Lucas for technology rights and invested $5 million cash as capital into the company, joining the board of directors as chairman.^[2][25]

In 1985, while still at Lucasfilm, they had made a deal with the Japanese publisher Shogakukan to make a computer-animated movie called Monkey, based on the Monkey King. The project continued sometime after they became a separate company in 1986, but it became clear that the technology was not sufficiently advanced. The computers were not powerful enough and the budget would be too high. So they focused on the computer hardware business for years until a computer-animated feature became feasible according to Moore’s law.^[26][27]

At the time, Walt Disney Studios was interested and eventually bought and used the Pixar Image Computer and custom software written by Pixar as part of its Computer Animation Production System (CAPS) project, to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2D animation process to a more automated method. The company’s first feature film to be released using this new animation method was The Rescuers Down Under (1990).^[28][29]

In a bid to drive sales of the system and increase the company’s capital, Jobs suggested releasing the product to the mainstream market. Pixar employee John Lasseter, who had long been working on not-for-profit short demonstration animations, such as Luxo Jr. (1986) to show off the device’s capabilities, premiered his creations to great fanfare at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry’s largest convention.^[30]

However, the Image Computer had inadequate sales^[30] which threatened to end the company as financial losses grew. Jobs increased investment in exchange for an increased stake, reducing the proportion of management and employee ownership until eventually, his total investment of $50 million gave him control of the entire company. In 1989, Lasseter’s growing animation department, originally composed of just four people (Lasseter, Bill Reeves, Eben Ostby, and Sam Leffler), was turned into a division that produced computer-animated commercials for outside companies.^[1][31][32] In April 1990, Pixar sold its hardware division, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems, and transferred 18 of Pixar’s approximately 100 employees. That year, Pixar moved from San Rafael to Richmond, California.^[33] Pixar released some of its software tools on the open market for Macintosh and Windows systems. RenderMan is one of the leading 3D packages of the early 1990s, and Typestry is a special-purpose 3D text renderer that competed with RayDream.^{[citation needed]}

During this period, Pixar continued its successful relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. As 1991 began, however, the layoff of 30 employees in the company’s computer hardware department—including the company’s president, Chuck Kolstad,^[34] reduced the total number of employees to just 42, approximately its original number.^[35] Pixar made a historic $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story, the product of the technological limitations that challenged CGI.^[36] By then the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and IceMan, and Lasseter’s animation department, which made television commercials (and four Luxo Jr. shorts for Sesame Street the same year), were all that remained of Pixar.^[37]

Even with income from these projects, the company continued to lose money and Steve Jobs, as chairman of the board and now the full owner, often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies such as Hallmark Cards, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, and Oracle CEO and co-founder Larry Ellison.^[38] Only after learning from New York critics that Toy Story would probably be a hit—and confirming that Disney would distribute it for the 1995 Christmas season—did he decide to give Pixar another chance.^[39][40] For the first time, he also took an active leadership role in the company and made himself CEO.^{[citation needed]} Toy Story grossed more than $373 million worldwide^[41] and, when Pixar held its initial public offering on November 29, 1995, it exceeded Netscape’s as the biggest IPO of the year. In its first half-hour of trading, Pixar stock shot from $22 to $45, delaying trading because of unmatched buy orders. Shares climbed to US$49 and closed the day at $39.^[42]

The television commercials, which the company had continued to make during the production of Toy Story, came to an end on July 9, 1996, when Pixar announced they would shut down its televion-commercial unit, which counted 18 employees, to focus on longer projects and interactive entertainment.^[43][44]

During the 1990s and 2000s, Pixar gradually developed the «Pixar Braintrust», the studio’s primary creative development process, in which all of its directors, writers, and lead storyboard artists regularly examine each other’s projects and give very candid «notes», the industry term for constructive criticism.^[45] The Braintrust operates under a philosophy of a «filmmaker-driven studio», in which creatives help each other move their films forward through a process somewhat like peer review, as opposed to the traditional Hollywood approach of an «executive-driven studio» in which directors are micromanaged through «mandatory notes» from development executives outranking the producers.^[46][47] According to Catmull, it evolved out of the working relationship between Lasseter, Stanton, Docter, Unkrich, and Joe Ranft on Toy Story.^[45]

As a result of the success of Toy Story, Pixar built a new studio at the Emeryville campus which was designed by PWP Landscape Architecture and opened in November 2000.^{[citation needed]}

Collaboration with Disney (1999–2006)

Pixar and Disney had disagreements over the production of Toy Story 2. Originally intended as a direct-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.^[48] 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 equally, but Disney exclusively owned all story, character, and sequel rights and also collected a 10- to 15-percent distribution fee. The lack of these rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect for Pixar and precipitated a contentious relationship.^{[citation needed]}

The two companies attempted to reach a new agreement for ten months and failed on January 26, 2001, July 26, 2002, April 22, 2003, January 16, 2004, July 22, 2004, and January 14, 2005. The new deal would be only for distribution, as Pixar intended to control production and own the resulting story, character, and sequel rights while Disney would own the right of first refusal to distribute any sequels. Pixar also wanted to finance its own films and collect 100 percent profit, paying Disney only the 10- to 15-percent distribution fee.^[49] More importantly, as part of any distribution agreement with Disney, Pixar demanded control over films already in production under the old agreement, including The Incredibles (2004) and Cars (2006). Disney considered these conditions unacceptable, but Pixar would not concede.^[49]

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 Disney forming Circle Seven Animation and Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney.^[50] Even with this announcement and several talks with Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, and 20th Century Fox, Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors,^[51] although a Warner Bros. spokesperson told CNN, «We would love to be in business with Pixar. They are a great company.»^[49] 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 its major releases during the Christmas shopping season. An added benefit of delaying Cars from November 4, 2005, to June 9, 2006, was to extend the time frame remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract, to see how things would play out between the two companies.^[51]

Pending the Disney acquisition of Pixar, the two companies created a distribution deal for the intended 2007 release of Ratatouille, to ensure that if the acquisition failed, this one film would be released through Disney’s distribution channels. In contrast to the earlier Pixar deal, Ratatouille was meant 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.^[52]

Walt Disney Studios subsidiary (2006–present)

On January 24, 2006, Disney ultimately agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.^[53] Following Pixar shareholder approval, the acquisition was completed on May 5, 2006. The transaction catapulted Jobs, who owned 49.65% of total share interest in Pixar, to Disney’s largest individual shareholder with 7%, valued at $3.9 billion, and a new seat on its board of directors.^[5][54] Jobs’s 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.^{[citation needed]}

As part of the deal, John Lasseter, by then Executive Vice President, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting directly to president and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy E. Disney) of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios (including its division DisneyToon Studios), as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company’s theme parks.^[54] Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, reporting to Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Studios. Jobs’s position as Pixar’s chairman and chief executive officer was abolished, and instead, he took a place on the Disney board of directors.^[55]

After the deal closed in May 2006, Lasseter revealed that Iger had realized Disney needed to buy Pixar while watching a parade at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005.^[56] Iger noticed that of all the Disney characters in the parade, not one was a character that Disney had created within the last ten years since all the newer ones had been created by Pixar.^[56] Upon returning to Burbank, Iger commissioned a financial analysis that confirmed that Disney had actually lost money on animation for the past decade, then presented that information to the board of directors at his first board meeting after being promoted from COO to CEO, and the board, in turn, authorized him to explore the possibility of a deal with Pixar.^[57] Lasseter and Catmull were wary when the topic of Disney buying Pixar first came up, but Jobs asked them to give Iger a chance (based on his own experience negotiating with Iger in summer 2005 for the rights to ABC shows for the fifth-generation iPod Classic),^[58] and in turn, Iger convinced them of the sincerity of his epiphany that Disney really needed to re-focus on animation.^[56]

Lasseter and Catmull’s oversight of both the Disney Feature Animation 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.^{[59][page needed]} 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).^[60]

Jim Morris, producer of WALL-E (2008), became general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris took charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.^[61]

After a few years, Lasseter and Catmull were able to successfully transfer the basic principles of the Pixar Braintrust to Disney Animation, although meetings of the Disney Story Trust are reportedly «more polite» than those of the Pixar Braintrust.^[62] Catmull later explained that after the merger, to maintain the studios’ separate identities and cultures (notwithstanding the fact of common ownership and common senior management), he and Lasseter «drew a hard line» that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other.^[63][64] That rule ensures that each studio maintains «local ownership» of projects and can be proud of its own work.^[63][64] Thus, for example, when Pixar had issues with Ratatouille and Disney Animation had issues with Bolt (2008), «nobody bailed them out» and each studio was required «to solve the problem on its own» even when they knew there were personnel at the other studio who theoretically could have helped.^[63][64]

Expansion (2010–2018)

On April 20, 2010, Pixar opened Pixar Canada in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[65] The roughly 2,000 square meters studio produced seven short films based on Toy Story and Cars characters. In October 2013, the studio was closed down to refocus Pixar’s efforts at its main headquarters.^[66]

In November 2014, Morris was promoted to president of Pixar, while his counterpart at Disney Animation, general manager Andrew Millstein, was also promoted to president of that studio.^[67] Both continued to report to Catmull, who retained the title of president of both Disney Animation and Pixar.^[67]

On November 21, 2017, Lasseter announced that he was taking a six-month leave of absence after acknowledging what he called «missteps» in his behavior with employees in a memo to staff. According to The Hollywood Reporter and The Washington Post, Lasseter had a history of alleged sexual misconduct towards employees.^[68][69][70] On June 8, 2018, it was announced that Lasseter would leave Disney Animation and Pixar at the end of the year, but would take on a consulting role until then.^[71] Pete Docter was announced as Lasseter’s replacement as chief creative officer of Pixar on June 19, 2018.^[72]

Studio resurgence (2018–present)

On October 23, 2018, it was announced that Catmull would be retiring. He stayed in an adviser role until July 2019.^[73] On January 18, 2019, it was announced that Lee Unkrich would be leaving Pixar after 25 years.^[74]

Campus

When Steve Jobs, chief executive officer of Apple Inc. and Pixar, and John Lasseter, then-executive vice president of Pixar, decided to move their studios from a leased space in Point Richmond, California, to larger quarters of their own, they chose a 20-acre site in Emeryville, California,^[75] formerly occupied by Del Monte Foods, Inc. The first of several buildings, the high-tech structure designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson^[76] has special foundations and electricity generators to ensure continued film production, even through major earthquakes. The character of the building is intended to abstractly recall Emeryville’s industrial past. The two-story steel-and-masonry building is a collaborative space with many pathways.^[77]

The digital revolution in filmmaking was driven by applied mathematics, including computational physics and geometry.^[78] In 2008, this led Pixar senior scientist Tony DeRose to offer to host the second Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival at the Emeryville campus.^[79]

Feature films and shorts

Traditions

Some of Pixar’s first animators were former cel animators including John Lasseter, and others came from computer animation or were fresh college graduates.^[80] A large number of animators that make up its animation department had been hired around the releases of A Bug’s Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), and Finding Nemo (2003). The success of Toy Story (1995) made Pixar the first major computer-animation studio to successfully produce theatrical feature films. The majority of the animation industry was (and still is) located in Los Angeles, and Pixar is located 350 miles (560 km) north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Traditional hand-drawn animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.^{[citation needed]}

With the scarcity of Los Angeles-based animators willing to move their families so far north to 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 was designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive.^[80]

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,^[81] Lasseter said that Pixar’s 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.»^[81]

Actor John Ratzenberger, who had previously starred in the television series Cheers, has voiced a character in every Pixar feature film from Toy Story through Onward (2020). At this point, he does not have a role in future Pixar films; however, a non-speaking background character in Soul bears his likeness. Pixar paid tribute to Ratzenberger in the end credits of Cars (2006) by parodying scenes from three of its earlier films (Toy Story, Monsters, Inc., and A Bug’s Life), replacing all of the characters with motor vehicle versions of them and giving each film an automotive-based title. After the third scene, Mack (his character in Cars) realizes that the same actor has been voicing characters in every film.

Due to the traditions that have occurred within the films and shorts such as anthropomorphic creatures and objects, and easter egg crossovers between films and shorts that have been spotted by Pixar fans, a blog post titled The Pixar Theory was published in 2013 by Jon Negroni, and popularized by the YouTube channel Super Carlin Brothers,^[82] proposing that all of the characters within the Pixar universe were related, surrounding Boo from Monsters Inc. and the Witch from Brave (2012).^[83][84][85]

Additionally, Pixar is known for their films having expensive budgets, ranging from $150–200 million. Some of their films include Ratatouille (2007), Toy Story 3 (2010), Toy Story 4 (2019), Incredibles 2 (2018), Soul (2020), The Good Dinosaur (2015), Onward (2020), Turning Red (2022), and Lightyear (2022).

Sequels and prequels

As of September 2022, six Pixar films have received or will receive sequels or prequels. These films are Toy Story, Cars, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Inside Out.

Toy Story 2 was originally commissioned by Disney as a 60-minute direct-to-video film. Expressing doubts about the strength of the material, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make the sequel their third full-length feature film.

Following the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, Pixar and Disney had a gentlemen’s agreement that Disney would not make any sequels without Pixar’s involvement though retaining a right to do so. After the two companies were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced in 2004 they would plan to move forward on sequels with or without Pixar and put Toy Story 3 into pre-production at Disney’s then-new CGI division Circle Seven Animation. However, when Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following Disney’s acquisition of Pixar in 2006, he put all sequels on hold and Toy Story 3 was canceled. In May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production with a new plot and under Pixar’s control. The film was released on June 18, 2010, as Pixar’s eleventh feature film.

Shortly after announcing the resurrection of Toy Story 3, Lasseter fueled speculation on further sequels by saying, «If we have a great story, we’ll do a sequel.»^[86] Cars 2, Pixar’s first non-Toy Story sequel, was officially announced in April 2008 and released on June 24, 2011, as their twelfth. Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc. (2001), was announced in April 2010 and initially set for release in November 2012;^[87] the release date was pushed to June 21, 2013, due to Pixar’s past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive.^[88]

In June 2011, Tom Hanks, who voiced Woody in the Toy Story series, implied that Toy Story 4 was «in the works», although it had not yet been confirmed by the studio.^[89][90] In April 2013, Finding Dory, a sequel to Finding Nemo, was announced for a June 17, 2016 release.^[91] In March 2014, Incredibles 2 and Cars 3 were announced as films in development.^[92] In November 2014, Toy Story 4 was confirmed to be in development with Lasseter serving as director.^[93] However, in July 2017, Lasseter announced that he had stepped down, leaving Josh Cooley as sole director.^[94] Released in June 2019, Toy Story 4 ranks among the 40 top-grossing films in American cinema.^[95]

After Toy Story 4, Pixar chief Pete Docter said that the studio would take a break from sequels and focus on original projects. However, in a later interview, Docter said the studio would have to return to making sequels at some point as they are more «financially secure and help keep the studio running.»^[96] On September 9, 2022, during the D23 Expo, Docter and Amy Poehler (voice of Joy) confirmed that Inside Out 2 is in the works, scheduled to release on June 14, 2024.^[97]

Adaptation to television

Toy Story is the first Pixar film to be adapted for television as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command film and TV series on the UPN television network, now The CW. Cars became the second with the help of Cars Toons, a series of 3-to-5-minute short films running between regular Disney Channel show intervals and featuring Mater from Cars.^[98] Between 2013 and 2014, Pixar released its first two television specials, Toy Story of Terror!^[99] and Toy Story That Time Forgot. Monsters at Work, a television series spin-off of Monsters, Inc., premiered in July 2021, on Disney+.^[100][101]

On December 10, 2020, it was announced that three series would be released on Disney+. The first is Dug Days (featuring Dug from Up) where Dug explores suburbia. Dug Days premiered on September 1, 2021.^[102] Next, a Cars show, titled Cars on the Road, was announced to come to Disney+ on September 8, 2022^[103] following Mater and Lightning McQueen as they go on a road trip.^[102][104] Lastly, an original show entitled Win or Lose would be released on Disney+ in Fall 2023. The series will follow a middle school softball team the week leading up to the big championship game where each episode will be from a different perspective.^[102]

2D animation and live-action

The Pixar filmography to date has been computer-animated features, but so far, WALL-E (2008) has been the only Pixar film not to be completely animated as it featured a small amount of live-action footage including Hello, Dolly! while Day & Night (2010), Kitbull (2019), Burrow (2020), and Twenty Something (2021) are the only four shorts to feature 2D animation. 1906, the live-action film by Brad Bird based on a screenplay and novel by James Dalessandro about the 1906 earthquake, was in development but has since been abandoned by Bird and Pixar. 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». In June 2018, Bird mentioned the possibility of adapting the novel as a TV series, and the earthquake sequence as a live-action feature film.^[105]

The Toy Story Toons short Hawaiian Vacation (2011) also includes the fish and shark as live-action.

Jim Morris, president of Pixar, produced Disney’s John Carter (2012) which Andrew Stanton co-wrote and directed.^[106]

Pixar’s creative heads were consulted to fine tune the script for the 2011 live-action film The Muppets.^[107] Similarly, Pixar assisted in the story development of Disney’s The Jungle Book (2016) as well as providing suggestions for the film’s end credits sequence.^[108] Both Pixar and Mark Andrews were given a «Special Thanks» credit in the film’s credits.^[109] Additionally, many Pixar animators, both former and current, were recruited for a traditional hand-drawn animated sequence for the 2018 film Mary Poppins Returns.^[110]

Pixar representatives have also assisted in the English localization of several Studio Ghibli films, mainly those from Hayao Miyazaki.^[111]

In 2019, Pixar developed a live-action hidden camera reality show, titled Pixar in Real Life, for Disney+.^[112]

Upcoming films

Six upcoming films have been announced: Elemental, directed by Peter Sohn, to be released on June 16, 2023,^[113][114] Elio, directed by Adrian Molina, to be released on March 1, 2024,^[115] Inside Out 2, directed by Kelsey Mann, to be released June 14, 2024,^[116][117] and three untitled films on June 13, 2025, March 6, 2026, and June 19, 2026.^[118]

Co-op Program

The Pixar Co-op Program, a part of the Pixar University professional development program, allows their animators to use Pixar resources to produce independent films.^[119][120] The first 3D project accepted to the program was Borrowed Time (2016); all previously accepted films were live-action.^[121]

Franchises

This does not include the Cars spinoffs produced by DisneyToon Studios.

Titles	Films	Short films	TV series	Release Date
Toy Story	5	3	4	1995–present
Monsters, Inc.	2	2	1	2001–present
Finding Nemo	2	1	0	2003–present
The Incredibles	2	4	1	2004–present
Cars	3	4	2	2006–present
Inside Out	2	1	0	2015–present

Exhibitions

Since December 2005, Pixar has held a variety of exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of the organization and its contribution to the world of animation.^[122]

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation

Upon its 20th anniversary, in 2006, Pixar celebrated with the release of its seventh feature film Cars, and held two exhibitions from April to June 2006 at Science Centre Singapore in Jurong East, Singapore and the London Science Museum in London.^[123] It was their first time holding an exhibition in Singapore.^{[citation needed]}

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 four 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.^[123]

Pixar: 25 Years of Animation

Pixar celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011 with the release of its twelfth feature film Cars 2, and held an exhibition at the Oakland Museum of California from July 2010 until January 2011.^[124] The exhibition tour debuted in Hong Kong and was held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin from March 27 to July 11, 2011.^[125][126] In 2013, the exhibition was held in the EXPO in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. For 6 months from July 6, 2012, until January 6, 2013, the city of Bonn (Germany) hosted the public showing,^[127]

On November 16, 2013, the exhibition moved to the Art Ludique museum in Paris, France with a scheduled run until March 2, 2014.^[128] The exhibition moved to three Spanish cities later in 2014 and 2015: Madrid (held in CaixaForum from March 21 until June 22),^[129] Barcelona (held also in Caixaforum from February until May) and Zaragoza.^[130]

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.^{[citation needed]}

The Science Behind Pixar

The Science Behind Pixar is a travelling exhibition that first opened on June 28, 2015, at the Museum of Science in Boston, Massachusetts. It was developed by the Museum of Science in collaboration with Pixar. The exhibit features forty interactive elements that explain the production pipeline at Pixar. They are divided into eight sections, each demonstrating a step in the filmmaking process: Modeling, Rigging, Surfaces, Sets & Cameras, Animation, Simulation, Lighting, and Rendering. Before visitors enter the exhibit, they watch a short video at an introductory theater showing Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo and Roz from Monsters, Inc..^{[citation needed]}

The exhibition closed on January 10, 2016, and was moved to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where it ran from March 12 to September 5. Afterwards, it moved to the California Science Center in Los Angeles, California and was open from October 15, 2016, to April 9, 2017. It made another stop at the Science Museum of Minnesota in St. Paul, Minnesota from May 27 through September 4, 2017.^[131]

The exhibition opened in Edmonton, Alberta on July 1, 2017, at the TELUS World of Science – Edmonton (TWOSE).^{[citation needed]}

Pixar: The Design of Story

Pixar: The Design of Story was an exhibition held at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City from October 8, 2015, to September 11, 2016.^[132][133] The museum also hosted a presentation and conversation with John Lasseter on November 12, 2015, entitled «Design By Hand: Pixar’s John Lasseter».^[132]

Pixar: 30 Years of Animation

Pixar celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2016 with the release of its seventeenth feature film Finding Dory, and put together another milestone exhibition. The exhibition first opened at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, Japan from March 5, 2016, to May 29, 2016. It subsequently moved to the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum National Museum of History, Dongdaemun Design Plaza where it ended on March 5, 2018, at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.^[134]

Legacy

Pixar has a strong legacy with its reach on many different generations. Its emotional depth combined with its playfulness integrated in a cutting-edge technology has left it with a lasting legacy among children and adult viewers. With Pixar’s success, many have considered it an integral part of what it means to be a child, which may contribute to its popularity in an often separate adult audience. From the 1990s to the present, Pixar movies have become a central force in animation.^[135] Discover Magazine wrote:

The message hidden inside Pixar’s magnificent films is this: humanity does not have a monopoly on personhood. In whatever form non- or super-human intelligence takes, it will need brave souls on both sides to defend what is right. If we can live up to this burden, humanity and the world we live in will be better for it.^[135]

See also

• The Walt Disney Company
• Disney’s Nine Old Men
• 12 basic principles of animation
• Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life
• Modern animation in the United States: Disney
• Animation studios owned by The Walt Disney Company
• Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Disneytoon Studios
• Blue Sky Studios
• 20th Century Animation
• List of animation studios
• List of Disney theatrical animated feature films

References

External links

• Official website
• Pixar’s channel on YouTube
• Pixar Animation Studios at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• List of the 40 founding employees of Pixar

  (Redirected from Disney Pixar)This article is about the animation company owned by Disney. For information on the .pxr file format or the graphics designing computer, see Pixar Image Computer.

Pixar Animation Studios

[1] 1986–present logo
Type	Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
Industry	*CGI animation Motion pictures
Predecessor(s)	The Graphics Group of Lucasfilm Computer Division (1979–1986)
Founded	*February 3, 1986
Founder(s)	*Edwin Catmull Steve Jobs John Lasseter[1]
Headquarters	Emeryville, California, United States
Key people	*Edwin Catmull (President) John Lasseter (CCO) Jim Morris (General Manager and Executive VP of Production)
Products	Pixar Image Computer, RenderMan, Marionette
Parent	Lucasfilm (1979–1986) Independent (1986–2006) The Walt Disney Studios (2006–present)
Subsidiaries	Pixar Canada (Closed)
Website	www.pixar.com

Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar (/ˈpɪksɑr/), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio 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 its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.^[1] The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction which made Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder. Luxo Jr., a character from an early Pixar film, is the mascot of the studio.

Pixar has produced fourteen feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), and its most recent being Monsters University (2013). All of the films have received both critical and financial success, with the notable exception being Cars 2, which, while commercially successful, received substantially less praise than Pixar’s other productions.^[2] All fourteen films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least «A-«, indicating a very positive reception with audiences.^[3] The studio has also produced several short films. As of December 2013, its feature films have made over $8.5 billion worldwide,^[4] with an average worldwide gross of $607 million per film.^[5] Both Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and all of Pixar’s films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films, with Toy Story 3 being the 2nd all-time highest, just behind Disney’s Frozen, grossing over $1 billion worldwide.

The studio has earned 27 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and eleven Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Since the award’s inauguration in 2001, most of Pixar’s films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, with seven winning: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Brave (with Monsters, Inc. and Cars being the only two just being nominated for the award). Up and Toy Story 3 were the second and third animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (the first being Beauty and the Beast). 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.

Early history[]

[2][3]Pixar’s studio lot in Emeryville. The studio opened in November 2000.[4][5]A Pixar Computer photographed at the Computer History Museum with the 1986-1995 logo on it.Pixar was founded as The Graphics Group, which was 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),^[6] 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);^[7] 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.^[6] 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,^[6] the group, which numbered 40 individuals back then,^[1] was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 with investment by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer.^[1] Jobs paid $5 million to George Lucas for technology rights and put them and $5 million cash as capital into the company.^[1] 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 Dr. Edwin Catmull as President and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith as Executive Vice President. They were joined on the Board of Directors by Steve Jobs who was Chairman.^[1]

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 Walt Disney Studios, which was using it as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software written by Pixar to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated method. The Image Computer never sold well.^[8] 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.^[8]

Inadequate sales of Pixar’s computers threatened to put the company out of business as financial losses grew. Jobs invested more and more money in exchange for an increasing portion of the company, reducing the fraction of ownership by the management and employees until after several years he owned essentially all the company for a total investment of $50 million. Lasseter’s animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and Life Savers.^[9] In April 1990 Pixar sold its 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.^[10] During this period, Pixar continued its successful 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 were dismissed (including the company’s president, Chuck Kolstad),^[11] which reduced the total number of employees to just 42, essentially its original number,^[12] 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, some 3-D Stings for Nickelodeon, and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar.^[13]

Despite the total income of these products, the company was still losing money, and Jobs, still chairman of the board and now the full owner, often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies, among them Microsoft. Only after learning from New York critics that Toy Story was probably going to be a success and confirming that Disney would distribute it for the 1995 Christmas season did he decide to give Pixar another chance.^[14] He also began then for the first time to take an active direct leadership role in the company, making himself its CEO. The film went on to gross more than $361 million worldwide.^[15] 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.^[16]

Pixar built a new studio in Emeryville which opened in November 2000.

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.^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19] 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.^[19]

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.^[20] Despite this announcement, 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.^[21]

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.^[22]

Disney ultimately agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.^[23] 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.^[24] 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 E. Disney) of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios (including its division, DisneyToon Studios), as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company’s theme parks.^[24] 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.^[25]

After the deal closed in May, Lasseter revealed that Iger had realized Disney needed to buy Pixar while watching a parade at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005.^[26] Iger noticed that of all the Disney characters in the parade, not one was a character that Disney had created within the last ten years, since all the newer ones had been created by Pixar.^[26] Lasseter and Catmull were understandably wary when the topic of Disney buying Pixar first came up, but Jobs asked them to give Iger a chance (based on his own experience negotiating with Iger in summer 2005 for the rights to ABC shows for the fifth-generation iPod Classic),^[27] and in turn, Iger convinced them of the sincerity of his epiphany that Disney really needed to re-focus on animation.^[26]
[6][7]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.^[28] 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).^[29]

Jim Morris, producer of WALL-E, became general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris took charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.^[30]

Catmull later explained that after the merger, to maintain the studios’ separate identities and cultures (notwithstanding the fact of common ownership and common senior management), he and Lasseter «drew a hard line» that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other.^[31][32] That rule ensures that each studio maintains «local ownership» of projects and can be proud of its own work.^[31][32] Thus, for example, when Pixar had issues with Ratatouille (2007) and Disney had issues with Bolt (2008), «nobody bailed them out» and each studio was required «to solve the problem on its own» even when they knew there were personnel at the other studio who theoretically could have helped.^[31][32]

Expansion[]

On April 20, 2010, Pixar Animation Studios opened Pixar Canada in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[33] The roughly 2,000 square meters studio produced seven short films based on Toy Story and Cars characters. In October 2013, the studio was closed down in order to refocus Pixar’s efforts at its main headquarters.^[34]

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.^[6] 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.^[6]

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,^[35] 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.»^[35]

One particular tradition has been a part of every Pixar feature film produced for Disney—John Ratzenberger (formerly of Cheers) has voiced characters (even if it’s a cameo) from Toy Story to Monsters University. Pixar paid tribute to their «good luck charm» in the end credits of Cars where internal parodies of three of their films are seen with Ratzenberger voicing the respective characters. His punchline in the epilogue was «What kind of cut-rate production is this?»

Due to the traditions that have occurred within the film, such anthropomorphic animals and Easter Egg crossovers between movies that have been spotted by fans, in 2013 a blog post by the name The Pixar Theory was published making the argument that all of the characters within the Pixar universe were related.^[36][37][38]

Sequels and prequels[]

Toy Story 2 was originally commissioned by Disney as a 60-minute direct-to-video release. Expressing doubts about the strength of the material, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make the sequel their third full-length feature film.

Following the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, 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 Disney and Pixar were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced plans to move forward on sequels with or without Pixar, and put Toy Story 3 into pre-production at Disney’s new CGI division, Circle 7 Animation. However, when Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following the 2006 merger of the companies, he put all sequels on hold and Toy Story 3 was cancelled. In May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production, with a new plot and under Pixar’s control. The film was released on June 18, 2010.

Shortly after announcing the resurrection of Toy Story 3, Lasseter fueled speculation on further sequels by saying, «If we have a great story, we’ll do a sequel.»^[39] Cars 2, Pixar’s first non-Toy Story sequel, was officially announced in April 2008 and released on June 24, 2011. Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc., was announced in April 2010 and initially set for release in November 2012;^[40] the release date was pushed to June 21, 2013, due to Pixar’s past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive.^[41] In June 2011, Toy Story star Tom Hanks implied that Toy Story 4 was in the works, but this has not been confirmed by the studio.^[42][43] In April 2013, a sequel to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, was announced for June 17, 2016.^[44] In March 2014, The Incredibles 2 and Cars 3 were announced as films in development.^[45]

Adaptation to television[]

Toy Story was the first Pixar film to be adapted onto television, with the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command film and TV series. Cars was adapted to television via Cars Toons, a series of three-to-five-minute short films running between regular Disney Channel shows and featuring Mater (the tow truck voiced by comedian Larry the Cable Guy).^[46] In 2013, Pixar released its first television special, Toy Story of Terror!.^[47]

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 based on a screenplay and novel by James Dalessandro about the 1906 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.»

Upcoming projects[]

Inside Out[]

Main article: Inside Out (2015 film)Citing a U.S. release date of June 19, 2015, Pixar’s web site has included this since the summer of 2013: «From director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Jonas Rivera (Up), the inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind.»^[48][49] Reportedly, the film setting is «the brain space of a little girl. Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Joy are some of the main characters» and characters/emotions are designed as dynamic figures “made up of particles that actually move.”^[50]

At the 2013 D23 Expo, the film’s primary cast was announced in the roles of the young girl’s emotions; Amy Poehler as Joy, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Lewis Black as Anger, Bill Hader as Fear, and Phyllis Smith as Sadness.^[51]

The Good Dinosaur[]

Main article: The Good DinosaurThe Good Dinosaur will be released on November 25, 2015.^[44] It was going to be co-directed by Bob Peterson and Peter Sohn. Bob Peterson was removed from the project, and is currently developing another film at Pixar. A new director has yet to be announced.^[52] Enrico Casarosa, director of La Luna, will be head of story.^[53]

Finding Dory[]

Main article: Finding DoryOn April 2, 2013, a sequel to Finding Nemo was announced. The film, titled Finding Dory, will star Ellen DeGeneres reprising her role as Dory, and will be directed by Finding Nemo director, Andrew Stanton.^[54] It is due to be released on June 17, 2016.^[44]

Other future projects[]

In April 2012, Pixar announced their intention to create a film centered on the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos^[55] which is to be directed by Lee Unkrich.^[56] Both an official title and release date have yet to be announced. Michael Wallis, the voice of Sheriff from the Cars franchise and a Route 66 consultant for the first two films, said in August 2013 in an interview with WGBZ radio that Pixar will make a third film in the series, which will go back to Route 66 and will also include Route 99.^[57] Cars 3, along with The Incredibles 2, were announced in March 2014.^[45]

Exhibitions[]

Since December 2005, Pixar has held exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of Pixar, over their first twenty years in animation.^[58]

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation[]

Pixar celebrated 20 years in 2006 with the release of Pixar’s seventh feature film, Cars, and held two exhibitions, from April to June 2010, at Science Centre Singapore, in Jurong East, Singapore, and the London Science Museum, London.^[59] 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.^[59]

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.^[60] 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.^[61][62] In 2013 the exhibition was held in the EXPO in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On November 16, 2013 the exhibition moved to the Art Ludique museum in Paris, France, with a scheduled run until March 2, 2014.^[63] The exhibition will move to three Spanish cities later in 2014: Madrid (where it will be held in CaixaForum from March 21 until June 22^[64]), Barcelona and Zaragoza.

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

  (Redirected from Disney Pixar)This article is about the animation company owned by Disney. For information on the .pxr file format or the graphics designing computer, see Pixar Image Computer.

Pixar Animation Studios

[1] 1986–present logo
Type	Subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company
Industry	*CGI animation Motion pictures
Predecessor(s)	The Graphics Group of Lucasfilm Computer Division (1979–1986)
Founded	*February 3, 1986
Founder(s)	*Edwin Catmull Steve Jobs John Lasseter[1]
Headquarters	Emeryville, California, United States
Key people	*Edwin Catmull (President) John Lasseter (CCO) Jim Morris (General Manager and Executive VP of Production)
Products	Pixar Image Computer, RenderMan, Marionette
Parent	Lucasfilm (1979–1986) Independent (1986–2006) The Walt Disney Studios (2006–present)
Subsidiaries	Pixar Canada (Closed)
Website	www.pixar.com

Pixar Animation Studios, or simply Pixar (/ˈpɪksɑr/), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio 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 its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder.^[1] The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction which made Jobs Disney’s largest shareholder. Luxo Jr., a character from an early Pixar film, is the mascot of the studio.

Pixar has produced fourteen feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), and its most recent being Monsters University (2013). All of the films have received both critical and financial success, with the notable exception being Cars 2, which, while commercially successful, received substantially less praise than Pixar’s other productions.^[2] All fourteen films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least «A-«, indicating a very positive reception with audiences.^[3] The studio has also produced several short films. As of December 2013, its feature films have made over $8.5 billion worldwide,^[4] with an average worldwide gross of $607 million per film.^[5] Both Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3 are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, and all of Pixar’s films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated films, with Toy Story 3 being the 2nd all-time highest, just behind Disney’s Frozen, grossing over $1 billion worldwide.

The studio has earned 27 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and eleven Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Since the award’s inauguration in 2001, most of Pixar’s films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, with seven winning: Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, and Brave (with Monsters, Inc. and Cars being the only two just being nominated for the award). Up and Toy Story 3 were the second and third animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture (the first being Beauty and the Beast). 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.

Early history[]

[2][3]Pixar’s studio lot in Emeryville. The studio opened in November 2000.[4][5]A Pixar Computer photographed at the Computer History Museum with the 1986-1995 logo on it.Pixar was founded as The Graphics Group, which was 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),^[6] 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);^[7] 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.^[6] 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,^[6] the group, which numbered 40 individuals back then,^[1] was spun out as a corporation in February 1986 with investment by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer.^[1] Jobs paid $5 million to George Lucas for technology rights and put them and $5 million cash as capital into the company.^[1] 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 Dr. Edwin Catmull as President and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith as Executive Vice President. They were joined on the Board of Directors by Steve Jobs who was Chairman.^[1]

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 Walt Disney Studios, which was using it as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software written by Pixar to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated method. The Image Computer never sold well.^[8] 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.^[8]

Inadequate sales of Pixar’s computers threatened to put the company out of business as financial losses grew. Jobs invested more and more money in exchange for an increasing portion of the company, reducing the fraction of ownership by the management and employees until after several years he owned essentially all the company for a total investment of $50 million. Lasseter’s animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and Life Savers.^[9] In April 1990 Pixar sold its 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.^[10] During this period, Pixar continued its successful 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 were dismissed (including the company’s president, Chuck Kolstad),^[11] which reduced the total number of employees to just 42, essentially its original number,^[12] 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, some 3-D Stings for Nickelodeon, and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar.^[13]

Despite the total income of these products, the company was still losing money, and Jobs, still chairman of the board and now the full owner, often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies, among them Microsoft. Only after learning from New York critics that Toy Story was probably going to be a success and confirming that Disney would distribute it for the 1995 Christmas season did he decide to give Pixar another chance.^[14] He also began then for the first time to take an active direct leadership role in the company, making himself its CEO. The film went on to gross more than $361 million worldwide.^[15] 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.^[16]

Pixar built a new studio in Emeryville which opened in November 2000.

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.^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19] 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.^[19]

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.^[20] Despite this announcement, 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.^[21]

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.^[22]

Disney ultimately agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.^[23] 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.^[24] 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 E. Disney) of both Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios (including its division, DisneyToon Studios), as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company’s theme parks.^[24] 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.^[25]

After the deal closed in May, Lasseter revealed that Iger had realized Disney needed to buy Pixar while watching a parade at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland in September 2005.^[26] Iger noticed that of all the Disney characters in the parade, not one was a character that Disney had created within the last ten years, since all the newer ones had been created by Pixar.^[26] Lasseter and Catmull were understandably wary when the topic of Disney buying Pixar first came up, but Jobs asked them to give Iger a chance (based on his own experience negotiating with Iger in summer 2005 for the rights to ABC shows for the fifth-generation iPod Classic),^[27] and in turn, Iger convinced them of the sincerity of his epiphany that Disney really needed to re-focus on animation.^[26]
[6][7]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.^[28] 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).^[29]

Jim Morris, producer of WALL-E, became general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris took charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.^[30]

Catmull later explained that after the merger, to maintain the studios’ separate identities and cultures (notwithstanding the fact of common ownership and common senior management), he and Lasseter «drew a hard line» that each studio was solely responsible for its own projects and would not be allowed to borrow personnel from or lend tasks out to the other.^[31][32] That rule ensures that each studio maintains «local ownership» of projects and can be proud of its own work.^[31][32] Thus, for example, when Pixar had issues with Ratatouille (2007) and Disney had issues with Bolt (2008), «nobody bailed them out» and each studio was required «to solve the problem on its own» even when they knew there were personnel at the other studio who theoretically could have helped.^[31][32]

Expansion[]

On April 20, 2010, Pixar Animation Studios opened Pixar Canada in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.^[33] The roughly 2,000 square meters studio produced seven short films based on Toy Story and Cars characters. In October 2013, the studio was closed down in order to refocus Pixar’s efforts at its main headquarters.^[34]

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.^[6] 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.^[6]

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley,^[35] 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.»^[35]

One particular tradition has been a part of every Pixar feature film produced for Disney—John Ratzenberger (formerly of Cheers) has voiced characters (even if it’s a cameo) from Toy Story to Monsters University. Pixar paid tribute to their «good luck charm» in the end credits of Cars where internal parodies of three of their films are seen with Ratzenberger voicing the respective characters. His punchline in the epilogue was «What kind of cut-rate production is this?»

Due to the traditions that have occurred within the film, such anthropomorphic animals and Easter Egg crossovers between movies that have been spotted by fans, in 2013 a blog post by the name The Pixar Theory was published making the argument that all of the characters within the Pixar universe were related.^[36][37][38]

Sequels and prequels[]

Toy Story 2 was originally commissioned by Disney as a 60-minute direct-to-video release. Expressing doubts about the strength of the material, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make the sequel their third full-length feature film.

Following the release of Toy Story 2 in 1999, 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 Disney and Pixar were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced plans to move forward on sequels with or without Pixar, and put Toy Story 3 into pre-production at Disney’s new CGI division, Circle 7 Animation. However, when Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following the 2006 merger of the companies, he put all sequels on hold and Toy Story 3 was cancelled. In May 2006, it was announced that Toy Story 3 was back in pre-production, with a new plot and under Pixar’s control. The film was released on June 18, 2010.

Shortly after announcing the resurrection of Toy Story 3, Lasseter fueled speculation on further sequels by saying, «If we have a great story, we’ll do a sequel.»^[39] Cars 2, Pixar’s first non-Toy Story sequel, was officially announced in April 2008 and released on June 24, 2011. Monsters University, a prequel to Monsters, Inc., was announced in April 2010 and initially set for release in November 2012;^[40] the release date was pushed to June 21, 2013, due to Pixar’s past success with summer releases, according to a Disney executive.^[41] In June 2011, Toy Story star Tom Hanks implied that Toy Story 4 was in the works, but this has not been confirmed by the studio.^[42][43] In April 2013, a sequel to Finding Nemo, Finding Dory, was announced for June 17, 2016.^[44] In March 2014, The Incredibles 2 and Cars 3 were announced as films in development.^[45]

Adaptation to television[]

Toy Story was the first Pixar film to be adapted onto television, with the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command film and TV series. Cars was adapted to television via Cars Toons, a series of three-to-five-minute short films running between regular Disney Channel shows and featuring Mater (the tow truck voiced by comedian Larry the Cable Guy).^[46] In 2013, Pixar released its first television special, Toy Story of Terror!.^[47]

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 based on a screenplay and novel by James Dalessandro about the 1906 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.»

Upcoming projects[]

Inside Out[]

Main article: Inside Out (2015 film)Citing a U.S. release date of June 19, 2015, Pixar’s web site has included this since the summer of 2013: «From director Pete Docter (Up, Monsters, Inc.) and producer Jonas Rivera (Up), the inventive new film will take you to a place that everyone knows, but no one has ever seen: the world inside the human mind.»^[48][49] Reportedly, the film setting is «the brain space of a little girl. Anger, Sadness, Disgust and Joy are some of the main characters» and characters/emotions are designed as dynamic figures “made up of particles that actually move.”^[50]

At the 2013 D23 Expo, the film’s primary cast was announced in the roles of the young girl’s emotions; Amy Poehler as Joy, Mindy Kaling as Disgust, Lewis Black as Anger, Bill Hader as Fear, and Phyllis Smith as Sadness.^[51]

The Good Dinosaur[]

Main article: The Good DinosaurThe Good Dinosaur will be released on November 25, 2015.^[44] It was going to be co-directed by Bob Peterson and Peter Sohn. Bob Peterson was removed from the project, and is currently developing another film at Pixar. A new director has yet to be announced.^[52] Enrico Casarosa, director of La Luna, will be head of story.^[53]

Finding Dory[]

Main article: Finding DoryOn April 2, 2013, a sequel to Finding Nemo was announced. The film, titled Finding Dory, will star Ellen DeGeneres reprising her role as Dory, and will be directed by Finding Nemo director, Andrew Stanton.^[54] It is due to be released on June 17, 2016.^[44]

Other future projects[]

In April 2012, Pixar announced their intention to create a film centered on the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos^[55] which is to be directed by Lee Unkrich.^[56] Both an official title and release date have yet to be announced. Michael Wallis, the voice of Sheriff from the Cars franchise and a Route 66 consultant for the first two films, said in August 2013 in an interview with WGBZ radio that Pixar will make a third film in the series, which will go back to Route 66 and will also include Route 99.^[57] Cars 3, along with The Incredibles 2, were announced in March 2014.^[45]

Exhibitions[]

Since December 2005, Pixar has held exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of Pixar, over their first twenty years in animation.^[58]

Pixar: 20 Years of Animation[]

Pixar celebrated 20 years in 2006 with the release of Pixar’s seventh feature film, Cars, and held two exhibitions, from April to June 2010, at Science Centre Singapore, in Jurong East, Singapore, and the London Science Museum, London.^[59] 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.^[59]

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.^[60] 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.^[61][62] In 2013 the exhibition was held in the EXPO in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. On November 16, 2013 the exhibition moved to the Art Ludique museum in Paris, France, with a scheduled run until March 2, 2014.^[63] The exhibition will move to three Spanish cities later in 2014: Madrid (where it will be held in CaixaForum from March 21 until June 22^[64]), Barcelona and Zaragoza.

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

Pixar Animation Studios (или просто Pixar) — американская студия по созданию компьютерных анимационных фильмов, базирующаяся в городе Эмеривилл, штат Калифорния, США. За время своего существования, студия заработала двадцать шесть статуэток «Оскар», семь «Золотых глобусов», три премии «Грэмми» и множество других наград.

История

Ранний период. Формирование студии

В 1979 году, Pixar, которая тогда носила название «The Graphics Group», основывает Джордж Лукас, как одно из компьютерных подразделений Lucasfilm. За время существования The Graphics Group создаёт ряд визуальных компьютерных эффектов для таких фильмов как «Звёздный путь 2: Гнев Хана» и «Молодой Шерлок Холмс», а также, создаёт ряд своих CG-эффектов.

В 1986 году у Лукаса, Стив Джобс, после создания своего Apple I, приобретает The Graphics Group, заплатив за неё 5 миллионов долларов. Изначально, Лукас ставит цену в размере 30 миллионов долларов, но из-за развода с женой, раздела имущества и большой потребностью в денежных средствах он был вынужден согласиться на цену Джобса. Тогда руководителем компании становиться Элви Рей Смит, который и предлагает новое название «Pixar». В 2001 новым президентом Pixar становиться Эд Кэтмелл.

На путь к компьютерной анимации

В 1984 году, в The Graphics Group присоединяется Джон Лассетер, который, имея опыт и навыки в компьютерной анимации с фильма Трон, с командой аниматоров создаёт первый короткометражный 3D-мультфильм за всю историю компании — «Приключения Андрэ и пчёлки Уэлли». Мультфильм имел передовую графику для своего времени, благодаря чему смог разогреть интерес в сфере 3D-анимации. Мультфильм был показан на выставке SIGGRAPH в Миннеаполисе.

После смены президента Pixar изначально занимался продажей собственных компьютеров «Pixar Image Computer». Продажи компьютеров были весьма плохими, и для привлечения интереса в системном оборудовании, на новой выставке SIGGRAPH в Далласе была продемонстрирована первая полноценная короткометражка Pixar — «Люксо Младший». Данный мультфильм имел более проработанную графику, а также детализированную работу над светом и тенями, а также костной анимации персонажей. Мультфильм вызвал бурю положительных эмоций, а сам Люксо стал официальным талисманом Pixar на всё дальнейшее время.

Несмотря на провал продаж компьютеров, Pixar стал строить свой основной бизнес именно на компютерной анимации. Одним из примеров работ Pixar стала графика в фильме «Терминатор 2: Судный день». В 1991 году, Pixar заключает контракт с Walt Disney Company, и принимается создавать свой первый полнометражный компьютерный мультфильм — История игрушек. На создание мультфильма ушло около 4 лет работы и 30 миллионов долларов. После своего релиза 22 ноября 1995 года мультфильм собирает 350 миллионов долларов по всему миру, и в итоге становиться одним из самых успешных фильмов за всю историю мультипликации.

Дальнейшее сотрудничество с Disney

После кассового успеха Истории игрушек, Pixar начинает активно развивать свои отношения со студией Disney. Pixar берёт на себя технологическую составляющую, а также на все творческие аспекты их мультипликационных проектов, в то время, как сами Disney берут на себя материальную составляющую.

Успех второго фильма, Приключения Флика оказался не менее удачным, чем Истории игрушек, собрав более 360 миллионов долларов. В последующих мультфильмах: История игрушек 2, Корпорация монстров, В поисках Немо, Суперсемейка создатели уделяли ещё большее внимание деталям и анимации, в результате которого, они заслужили авторитет в сфере компьютерной анимации.

В 2006 году, Стив Джобс, после долгих договоров с Disney, продаёт студию Pixar за сумму в размере 7,4 миллиарда долларов.

Традиции студии

У Pixar есть одна интересная особенность — соблюдать те или иные правила или клише для своих фильмов. Ниже приведёны их примеры.

Джон Ратценбергер

Джон Ратценбергер является одним из актёров озвучивания в фильмах Pixar. Его особенность заключается в том, что он озвучивал некоторых второстепенных персонажей в абсолютно всех фильмах студии. Ниже представлен список ролей и фильмов:

• История игрушек, История игрушек 2, История игрушек 3 — Хэм
• Приключения Флика — Эмиль Блох
• Корпорация монстров, Университет монстров — Снежный человек
• В поисках Немо, В поисках Дори — Рыба-Луна
• Суперсемейка — Шахтёр Подрывашкин
• Тачки — Мак
• Рататуй — Мустафа
• ВАЛЛ-И — Джон
• Вверх — Том
• Храбрая сердцем — Гордон
• Головоломка — Фриц
• Хороший динозавр — Эрл

Джо Рэнфт

Также, как и Джон Ратценбергер, Джо Рэнфт озвучивал несколько второстепеных персонажей во всех фильмах Pixar, до своей смерти в автокатастрофе.

• История игрушек — Ленни
• Приключения Флика — Хаймлих
• История игрушек 2 — Хрипун
• Корпорация монстров — эпизодические персонажи
• В поисках Немо — Жак
• Суперсемейка — эпизодические персонажи
• Тачки — Грузовик Peterbilt (посмертно)

A113

В каждом мультфильме Pixar можно заметить странную комбинацию символов — «A113». Это является отсылкой на номер класса искусств из CalArts, где училось несколько аниматоров студии.

Грузовик «Планеты Пицца»

Ещё одна пасхалка во всех фильмах Pixar. Представляет из себя небольшой внедорожник, принадлежащий сети ресторанов «Планета Пицца».

Отсылки к своим проектам

Часто, в мультфильмах Pixar проскакивают отсылки к другим своим-же мультфильмам: в ВАЛЛ-И и Корпорации монстров можно видеть Рэкса из Истории игрушек, а в Рататуе можно заметить мима, сильно напоминающего Бомб Вояжа из Суперсемейки.

Нередко, в фильмах Pixar можно найти и отсылки к мультфильмам, которые ещё не вышли на большие экраны. Так например, в Корпорации монстров (2001) можно видеть, как Бу дарит Салли игрушку Немо из В поисках Немо (2003); а в мультфильме Вверх (2009) в комнате девочки, рядом с окном которой пролетает дом Карла Фредриксена лежит Лотсо из Истории игрушек 3 (2010).

Фильмография

Bнешние ссылки

• Pixar Вики

Эта статья про студию компьютерной анимации. Для использования в других целях см. Pixar (значения).

Студия Pixar Animation

Штаб-квартира Pixar в Эмеривилл, Калифорния
Тип	Филиал из Студия Уолта Диснея
Промышленность	Компьютерная анимация кинофильмы
Предшественник	Графическая группа Лукасфильм Компьютерный отдел (1979–1986)
Основан	1979; 41 год назад (как Graphics Group) 3 февраля 1986 г.; 34 года назад в Ричмонд, Калифорния, Соединенные Штаты (как Pixar)
Учредители	Эдвин Кэтмелл Элви Рэй Смит
Штаб-квартира	1200 Парк Авеню, Emeryville, Калифорния , Соединенные Штаты
Обслуживаемая площадь	по всему миру
Ключевые люди	Джим Моррис (Президент ) Пит Доктер (CCO )
Продукты	Компьютер Pixar Image Pixar Renderman Система анимации Presto Анимационные фильмы
Владелец	Компания Уолта Диснея (2006 – настоящее время)
Количество работников	44 (1986)
Родитель	Студия Уолта Диснея
Интернет сайт	Pixar.com
Сноски / ссылки [1][2][3]

Студия Pixar Animation, широко известный как Pixar (), американец компьютер анимационная студия основанный в Эмеривилл, Калифорния, а филиал из Студия Уолта Диснея принадлежит Компания Уолта Диснея. Pixar начал свою деятельность в 1979 году как часть Лукасфильм компьютерное подразделение, известное как Графическая группа, до его выделение как корпорация 3 февраля 1986 г. при финансовой поддержке яблоко соучредитель Стив Джобс, который стал ее мажоритарный акционер.^[2] Disney приобрела Pixar в 2006 г. оценка 7,4 миллиарда долларов путем конвертации каждой акции Pixar в 2,3 акции Disney,^[4][5] сделка, в результате которой Джобс стал крупнейшим акционером Disney в то время. Pixar известен своими художественные фильмы технологически поддерживается RenderMan, собственная реализация отраслевого стандарта Спецификация интерфейса RenderMan рендеринг изображений интерфейс прикладного программирования. Люксо младший, а настольная лампа из короткометражного фильма студии 1986 года с таким же названием, это студия талисман.

Pixar произвел 22 художественных фильма, начиная с История игрушек (1995), который стал первым в истории компьютерным анимационным художественным фильмом; его последний фильм был Душа (2020). Все фильмы студии дебютировали с CinemaScore рейтинг не ниже «A-«, что указывает на положительный прием зрителей.^[6] Студия также произвела десятки короткометражных фильмов. По состоянию на июль 2019 г., его полнометражные фильмы собрали около 14 миллиардов долларов на мировых Театральная касса,^[7] со средним мировым брутто 680 миллионов долларов за фильм.^[8] История игрушек 3 (2010), В поисках Дори (2016), Суперсемейка 2 (2018) и История игрушек 4 (2019) входят в 50 самых кассовых фильмов всех времен, с участием Суперсемейка 2 третий самый кассовый анимационный фильм всех времен с общим объемом продаж 1,2 миллиарда долларов; остальные три также собрали более 1 миллиарда долларов. Более того, 15 фильмов Pixar находятся в 50 самых кассовых анимационных фильмов всех времен.

Студия заработала 21 Оскар, 9 Золотой глобус, и 11 премия Грэмми наряду с многочисленными другие награды и благодарности. Многие фильмы Pixar были номинированы на Премия Оскар за лучший анимационный фильм, с момента его открытия в 2001 году, десять победителей Pixar стали В поисках Немо (2003), Неимоверные (2004), Рататуй (2007), ВАЛЛ-И (2008), Вверх (2009), История игрушек 3 (2010), Храбрый (2012), Наизнанку (2015), Коко (2017), и История игрушек 4; трое, которые были номинированы на премию, но не выиграли ее, являются Корпорация монстров. (2001), Легковые автомобили (2006), и Суперсемейка 2. В дополнение к этой награде, Вверх и История игрушек 3 были также вторым и третьим анимационными фильмами, соответственно, которые были номинированы на более инклюзивный Премия Оскар за лучший фильм (первое существо Анимационные студии Уолта Диснея ‘ Красавица и Чудовище в 1991 г.).

6 сентября 2009 г. руководители Pixar Джон Лассетер, Брэд Берд, Пит Доктер, Эндрю Стэнтон, и Ли Ункрич были представлены Золотой лев награда за Жизненные достижения посредством Венецианский кинофестиваль. В рамках церемонии награда была вручена основателю Lucasfilm, Джордж Лукас.

История

История ранних веков

Pixar начал свою деятельность в 1974 году, когда Нью-Йоркский технологический институт основатель (NYIT), Александр Шуре, который также был владельцем традиционной анимационной студии, основал Лаборатория компьютерной графики (CGL), набрана компьютерные ученые который поделился своими амбициями по созданию первого в мире компьютерного анимационного фильма. Эдвин Кэтмелл и Малкольм Бланшар были первыми, кого наняли, и вскоре к ним присоединились Элви Рэй Смит и Дэвид ДиФранческо несколько месяцев спустя это были четыре первоначальных члена Лаборатории компьютерной графики, расположенной в переоборудованном двухэтажном гараже, приобретенном у бывшего поместья Вандербильтов-Уитни.^[9][10] Шуре продолжал вкладывать деньги в лабораторию компьютерной графики, примерно 15 миллионов долларов, давая группе все, что они желали, и доводя NYIT до серьезных финансовых проблем.^[11] В конце концов, группа поняла, что им нужно работать в реальном киностудия чтобы достичь своей цели. Фрэнсис Форд Коппола затем пригласил Смита к себе домой на трехдневную пресс-конференцию, на которой Коппола и Джордж Лукас поделились своим видением будущего цифрового кинопроизводства.^[12]

Когда Лукас подошел к ним и предложил им работу в своей студии, шесть сотрудников решили переехать в Лукасфильм. В течение следующих месяцев они постепенно уволились из CGL, нашли временную работу примерно на год, чтобы не вызывать подозрений у Шуре, прежде чем присоединиться к Graphics Group в Lucasfilm.^[13][14]Graphics Group, которая составляла треть компьютерного подразделения Lucasfilm, была основана в 1979 году с привлечением Кэтмалла из NYIT,^[15] где он руководил лабораторией компьютерной графики. Затем он воссоединился со Смитом, который также совершил путешествие из NYIT в Lucasfilm, и стал директором Graphics Group. В Нью-Йоркском технологическом институте исследователи впервые применили многие методы создания компьютерной графики, в частности, изобретение альфа-канал (Катмулл и Смит).^[16] В течение следующих нескольких лет CGL выпустит несколько кадров экспериментального фильма под названием Работы. После перехода в Lucasfilm команда работала над созданием предшественника RenderMan под названием REYES («отображает все, что вы когда-либо видели») и разработал несколько важных технологий для компьютерной графики, включая эффекты частиц и различные инструменты анимации.

Джон Лассетер был нанят на неделю в команду Lucasfilm в конце 1983 года с титулом «дизайнер интерфейсов»; он анимировал короткометражный фильм Приключения Андре и Уолли Б.^[17] В следующие несколько лет дизайнер предложил назвать новый компьютер для цифрового композитинга «Picture Maker». Смит предположил, что у лазерного устройства будет более запоминающееся название, и придумал «Пиксер», которое после встречи было изменено на «Пиксар».^[18]

В 1982 году команда начала работать над эпизодами фильма со спецэффектами с Промышленный свет и магия. После многих лет исследований и ключевых вех, таких как Эффект Бытия в Звездный путь II: Гнев Хана и витражный рыцарь в Шерлок Холмс в молодости,^[15] группа, которая тогда насчитывала 40 человек, была преобразована в корпорацию в феврале 1986 года Катмаллом и Смитом. Среди 38 оставшихся сотрудников были также Малькольм Бланшар, Дэвид ДиФранческо, Ральф Гуггенхайм и Билл Ривз, который был частью команды со времен NYIT. Том Дафф, также являющийся членом NYIT, позже присоединится к Pixar после его создания.^[2] С разводом Лукаса в 1983 году, который совпал с внезапным падением доходов от Звездные войны лицензий после выпуска Возвращение джедая, они знали, что он, скорее всего, продаст всю Graphics Group. Обеспокоенные тем, что в этом случае сотрудники будут потеряны для них, что помешает созданию первого компьютерного анимационного фильма, они пришли к выводу, что лучший способ сохранить команду — превратить группу в независимую компанию. Но Закон Мура также сказал, что до выхода первого фильма осталось еще несколько лет, и им нужно сосредоточиться на правильном продукте, ожидая, пока компьютеры станут достаточно мощными. В конце концов, они решили, что тем временем им следует заниматься производством оборудования. Компьютер Pixar Image В качестве основного продукта система в основном продается государственным учреждениям, а также научному и медицинскому сообществу.^[2][11][19] Они также использовали SGI компьютеры.

В 1983 г. Нолан Бушнелл основал новую анимационную студию с компьютерным управлением под названием Kadabrascope в качестве дочерней компании своего Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theaters компании (PTT), которая была основана в 1977 году. Из новой студии был сделан только один крупный проект — анимационный рождественский фильм, специально предназначенный для NBC в главной роли Чак Э. Сыр и другие талисманы PTT; известный как «Чак Э. Сыр: Рождество, которого почти не было «. Движение анимации будет выполняться с помощью твининг вместо традиционной чел-анимации. После авария видеоигры 1983 года, Бушнелл начал продавать несколько дочерних компаний PTT, чтобы сохранить бизнес на плаву. Sente Technologies (другое подразделение, основанное для распространения игр в магазинах PTT) было продано Bally Games и Kadabrascope был продан Lucasfilm. Активы Kadabrascope были объединены с компьютерным отделом Lucasfilm.^[20] По совпадению, одна из первых должностей Стива Джобса была при Бушнелле в 1973 году в качестве техника в другой его компании. Atari, которую Бушнелл продал Warner Communications в 1976 году сосредоточился на PTT.^[21] PTT позже обанкротилась в 1984 году и была приобретена ShowBiz Pizza Place.

Независимая компания

Недавно независимый Pixar (1986) возглавил Эдвин Кэтмелл как президент и Элви Рэй Смит в качестве исполнительного вице-президента. Ищу инвесторов, Стив Джобс проявил интерес, но сначала Лукас счел его предложение слишком низким. Тем не менее, он в конце концов согласился, когда оказалось невозможным найти других инвесторов. На тот момент Смиту и Катмаллу отказывали 45 раз; тридцать пять венчурных капиталистов и 10 крупных корпораций отказались.^[22] Джобса, которого недавно уволили из яблоко,^[2] и теперь был основателем и генеральным директором новой компьютерной компании Следующий. 3 февраля 1986 года он заплатил Джорджу Лукасу 5 миллионов долларов из собственных денег за права на технологию и вложил 5 миллионов долларов в качестве капитала в компанию, войдя в совет директоров в качестве председателя.^[2][23]

В 1985 году, еще работая в Lucasfilm, они заключили сделку с японским издателем. Shogakukan сделать компьютерный анимационный фильм под названием Обезьяна, на основе Король обезьян. Проект продолжался через некоторое время после того, как в 1986 году они стали отдельной компанией, но в конце концов стало ясно, что технологии просто еще нет. Компьютеры были недостаточно мощными, и бюджет был бы слишком высок. Поэтому было решено сосредоточиться на бизнесе компьютерного оборудования еще несколько лет, ожидая, пока Закон Мура сделал возможным создание компьютерной анимации.^[24][25]

В это время Студия Уолта Диснея был заинтересован и в конце концов купил и использовал Pixar Image Computer и специальное программное обеспечение, написанное Pixar как часть их Система производства компьютерной анимации (CAPS), чтобы перенести трудоемкую часть процесса рисования и рисования 2D-анимации на более автоматизированный метод.

Стремясь повысить продажи системы и увеличить капитал компании, Джобс предложил сделать систему доступной для основных пользователей и выпустил продукт на рынок. Сотрудник Pixar Джон Лассетер, который долгое время работал над некоммерческими короткими демонстрационными анимациями, такими как Люксо младший (1986), чтобы продемонстрировать возможности устройства, представил свои творения на СИГГРАФ, крупнейшее собрание индустрии компьютерной графики, с большой помпой.^[26]

Однако Image Computer никогда не продавался хорошо.^[26] Недостаточные продажи угрожали вывести компанию из бизнеса из-за роста финансовых потерь. Джобс вкладывал все больше и больше денег в обмен на увеличение доли в компании, сокращая долю владения менеджментом и сотрудниками до тех пор, пока в конечном итоге его общие инвестиции в размере 50 миллионов долларов не дали ему контроль над всей компанией. В 1989 году растущий анимационный отдел Лассетера первоначально состоял всего из четырех человек (Лассетер, Билл Ривз, Эбен Остби, и Сэм Леффлер ), было преобразовано в подразделение, производившее компьютерную анимацию рекламных роликов для сторонних компаний.^[1][27][28] В апреле 1990 года Pixar продала свое аппаратное подразделение, включая все проприетарные аппаратные технологии и программное обеспечение для обработки изображений, компании Vicom Systems и перевела 18 из примерно 100 сотрудников Pixar. В том же году Pixar переехал из Сан-Рафаэль к Ричмонд, Калифорния.^[29] Pixar выпустила некоторые из своих программных инструментов на открытый рынок для систем Macintosh и Windows. RenderMan был одним из ведущих 3D-пакетов в начале 1990-х годов, и Typestry был специальным средством визуализации 3D-текста, которое конкурировало с RayDream для добавления глубины.

В этот период Pixar продолжила успешные отношения с Анимационные студии Уолта Диснея, студия, материнская компания которой в конечном итоге станет ее самым важным партнером. Однако в начале 1991 года в отделе компьютерного оборудования компании были уволены 30 сотрудников, включая президента компании Чака Колстада.^[30] сократила общее количество сотрудников до 42 человек, по сути, от первоначального количества.^[31] Тем не менее Pixar заключила историческую сделку на 26 миллионов долларов с Disney на производство трех компьютерных анимационных художественных фильмов, первый из которых История игрушек, концепция, которая была продуктом технологических ограничений, с которыми CGI боролась в то время.^[32] К тому времени программисты, которые делали RenderMan и IceMan, и отдел анимации Лассетера, снявший телевизионные рекламные ролики (и четыре короткометражки Luxo Jr. для Улица Сезам того же года), вот и все, что осталось от Pixar.^[33]

Несмотря на общий доход от этих проектов, компания продолжала терять деньги, и Джобс, как председатель совета директоров, а теперь и полноправный владелец, часто рассматривал возможность ее продажи. Еще в 1994 году Джобс подумывал о продаже Pixar другим компаниям, таким как Карты клейма, Microsoft соучредитель Пол Аллен, и Oracle Генеральный директор и соучредитель Ларри Эллисон.^[34] Только узнав от критиков из Нью-Йорка, что История игрушек вероятно, станет хитом — и, подтвердив, что Disney будет распространять его в течение рождественского сезона 1995 года, — решил ли он дать Pixar еще один шанс.^[35][36] Впервые он также взял на себя активную руководящую роль в компании и стал генеральным директором.^{[нужна цитата ]} История игрушек заработал более 373 миллионов долларов по всему миру^[37] и когда Pixar держал первичное публичное размещение акций 29 ноября 1995 г. он превысил Netscape это крупнейшее IPO года. Только за первые полчаса торговли акции Pixar подскочили с 22 до 45 долларов, задерживая торги из-за несогласованных заявок на покупку. Акции поднялись до 49 долларов перед закрытием дня на 39 долларов.^[38]

В течение 1990-х и 2000-х Pixar постепенно развивал «Pixar Braintrust», основной процесс творческого развития студии, в котором все режиссеры, сценаристы и ведущие художники по раскадровке в студии регулярно смотрят проекты друг друга и дают друг другу очень откровенные «заметки» (отраслевой термин для конструктивная критика ).^[39] Braintrust действует в соответствии с философией «студии, управляемой кинематографистами», в которой творческие работники помогают друг другу продвигать свои фильмы вперед через такой процесс, как экспертная оценка, в отличие от традиционного голливудского подхода «студии, управляемой руководителями», в которой директора микроуправляемый через «обязательные записки» от руководителей разработчиков, которые стоят выше производителей.^[40][41] По словам Катмулла, он возник в результате рабочих отношений между Лассетером, Стэнтоном, Доктером, Ункричем и Джо Ранфт на История игрушек.^[39]

В результате успеха История игрушекКомпания Pixar построила новую студию в кампусе Эмеривилля, спроектированная PWP Landscape Architecture и открытая в ноябре 2000 года.

Сотрудничество с Disney

У Pixar и Disney были разногласия по поводу производства История игрушек 2. Первоначально задуманный как выпуск непосредственно для видео (и, следовательно, не являющийся частью сделки Pixar с тремя картинками), фильм в конечном итоге был преобразован в театральный выпуск во время производства. Pixar потребовала, чтобы фильм был засчитан в соглашении о трех картинах, но Дисней отказался.^[42] Хотя это было выгодно обоим, Pixar позже жаловался, что договоренность не была справедливой. Pixar отвечал за создание и производство, а Disney — за маркетинг и распространение. Прибыль и производственные затраты были разделены 50 на 50, но Disney полностью владела всеми правами на сюжет, персонажей и сиквел, а также собирала 10–15 процентов платы за распространение. Отсутствие сюжета, персонажей и прав на продолжение было, пожалуй, самым обременительным аспектом для Pixar и подготовило почву для спорных отношений.^[43]

Обе компании пытались достичь нового соглашения в течение десяти месяцев, прежде чем оно сорвалось в январе 2004 года. Новая сделка предназначалась только для распространения, поскольку Pixar намеревалась контролировать производство и владеть полученными правами на сюжет, персонажей и продолжение, в то время как Disney будет владеть право преимущественной покупки сиквелов. Pixar также хотела финансировать свои фильмы самостоятельно и собирать 100 процентов прибыли, платя Disney лишь 10-15 процентов платы за распространение.^[44] Что еще более важно, в рамках любого дистрибьюторского соглашения с Disney Pixar требовала контроля над фильмами, которые уже производятся в соответствии с их старым соглашением, включая Неимоверные (2004) и Легковые автомобили (2006). Disney посчитал эти условия неприемлемыми, но Pixar не уступила.^[44]

Разногласия между Стив Джобс а затем председатель и генеральный директор Disney Майкл Эйснер сделали переговоры более трудными, чем они могли бы быть в противном случае. Они полностью распались в середине 2004 года, когда Disney сформировала Круг 7 Анимация и Джобс заявил, что Pixar активно ищет партнеров помимо Disney.^[45] Несмотря на это объявление и несколько переговоров с Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, и 20 век Фокс, Pixar не вела переговоры с другими дистрибьюторами,^[46] хотя представитель Warner Bros. сказал CNN «Мы хотели бы сотрудничать с Pixar. Это отличная компания».^[44] После длительного перерыва переговоры между двумя компаниями возобновились после ухода Эйснера из Disney в сентябре 2005 года. Готовясь к потенциальным конфликтам между Pixar и Disney, Джобс объявил в конце 2004 года, что Pixar больше не будет выпускать фильмы в кинотеатре, продиктованном Disney в ноябре. сроки, но в более прибыльные ранние летние месяцы. Это также позволит Pixar выпускать DVD со своими основными релизами во время сезона рождественских покупок. Дополнительное преимущество отсрочки Легковые автомобили с 4 ноября 2005 г. по 9 июня 2006 г. предполагалось продлить срок действия контракта Pixar-Disney, чтобы посмотреть, как будут развиваться дела между двумя компаниями.^[46]

В ожидании приобретения Disney компании Pixar обе компании заключили сделку по распространению запланированного выпуска в 2007 г. Рататуй, если приобретение не состоится, чтобы гарантировать, что этот фильм все еще будет выпущен через каналы распространения Disney. В отличие от более ранней сделки с Pixar, Рататуй должен был оставаться собственностью Pixar, и Disney получал бы только плату за распространение. Однако завершение приобретения Disney Pixar аннулировало эту договоренность о распространении.^[47]

Дочерняя компания Disney

В январе 2006 года Disney в конечном итоге согласилась купить Pixar примерно за 7,4 миллиарда долларов США. сделка с акциями.^[48] После Pixar акционер После одобрения сделка была завершена 25 января 2006 года. В результате сделки Джобс, владевший 49,65% от общей доли в Pixar, стал крупнейшим индивидуальным акционером Disney с 7% на сумму 3,9 миллиарда долларов и получил новое место в совете директоров. .^[5][49] Новые холдинги Диснея Джобса превысили активы бывшего генерального директора Майкл Эйснер, предыдущий крупнейший акционер, которому по-прежнему принадлежало 1,7%; и почетный директор Disney Рой Э. Дисней, которому принадлежал почти 1% акций корпорации. Акционеры Pixar получили 2,3 обыкновенных акций Disney за каждую выкупленную обыкновенную акцию Pixar.

В рамках сделки Джон Лассетер, в то время исполнительный вице-президент, стал Главный креативный директор (подчиняется непосредственно президенту и генеральному директору Роберт Айгер и консультации с директором Disney Роем Э. Дисней) из Pixar и Анимационные студии Уолта Диснея (включая его подразделение Студия DisneyToon ), а также главный креативный советник в Уолт Дисней Imagineering, который проектирует и строит Тематические парки.^[49] Кэтмелл сохранил свой пост президента Pixar, а также стал президентом Walt Disney Animation Studios, подчиняясь Айгеру и Дик Кук, председатель Студия Уолта Диснея. Должность Джобса как председателя и главного исполнительного директора Pixar была упразднена, и вместо этого он занял место в совете директоров Disney.^[50]

После того, как сделка была закрыта в январе 2006 года, Лассетер сообщил, что Айгер понял, что Disney необходимо купить Pixar, наблюдая за парадом на открытии Гонконгский Диснейленд в сентябре 2005 г.^[51] Айгер заметил, что из всех персонажей Диснея на параде ни один не был персонажем, созданным Диснеем за последние десять лет, поскольку все новые персонажи были созданы Pixar.^[51] Вернувшись в Бербанк, Айгер заказал финансовый анализ, который подтвердил, что Disney фактически потерял деньги на анимации за последнее десятилетие, а затем представил эту информацию совету директоров на своем первом заседании совета директоров после повышения от главного операционного директора до генерального директора и правлению. , в свою очередь, уполномочил его изучить возможность сделки с Pixar.^[52] Лассетер и Катмалл настороженно отнеслись к теме покупки Disney Pixar, но Джобс попросил их дать Айгеру шанс (основываясь на его собственном опыте переговоров с Айгером летом 2005 г. о правах на ABC шоу для пятого поколения iPod Classic ),^[53] и, в свою очередь, Айгер убедил их в искренности своего прозрения, что Диснею действительно нужно переориентировать внимание на анимацию.^[51]

Однако надзор Лассетера и Катмулла за студиями Disney Feature Animation и Pixar не означал, что эти две студии объединяются. Фактически, в рамках сделки были сформулированы дополнительные условия, чтобы Pixar оставался отдельным организация аналитики выразили обеспокоенность по поводу сделки с Disney.^{[54][страница нужна ]} Некоторые из этих условий заключались в том, что Pixar HR политика останется неизменной, в том числе отсутствие трудовых договоров. Кроме того, название Pixar гарантированно сохранится, и студия останется в своем нынешнем виде. Эмеривилл, Калифорния, локация со знаком «Pixar». Наконец, брендинг фильмов, снятых после слияния, будет «Disney • Pixar» (начиная с Легковые автомобили).^[55]

Джим Моррис, производитель ВАЛЛ-И (2008), стал генеральным менеджером Pixar. На этой новой должности Моррис отвечал за повседневное управление оборудованием и продуктами студии.^[56]

Через несколько лет Лассетер и Катмелл смогли успешно передать основные принципы Pixar Braintrust в Disney Animation Studio, хотя, как сообщается, собрания Disney Story Trust, как сообщается, «более вежливы», чем собрания Pixar Braintrust.^[57] Позже Катмелл объяснил, что после слияния, чтобы сохранить отдельные идентичности и культуру студий (несмотря на факт общей собственности и общего высшего руководства), он и Лассетер «провели жесткую линию», согласно которой каждая студия несет полную ответственность за свои собственные проекты и не будет разрешено одалживать персонал или отдавать задания другому.^[58][59] Это правило гарантирует, что каждая студия сохраняет «местную собственность» над проектами и может гордиться своей собственной работой.^[58][59] Так, например, когда у Pixar были проблемы с Рататуй и у Disney Animation были проблемы с Болт (2008), «никто не выручил их», и от каждой студии требовалось «решать проблему самостоятельно», даже когда они знали, что в другой студии есть персонал, который теоретически мог бы помочь.^[58][59]

В ноябре 2014 года Моррис был назначен президентом Pixar, в то время как его коллега из Disney Animation, генеральный менеджер Эндрю Миллстайн, также был назначен президентом этой студии.^[60] Оба продолжают отчитываться перед Кэтмаллом, который сохраняет за собой титул президента Disney Animation и Pixar.^[60]

21 ноября 2017 года Лассетер объявил, что уходит в отпуск на шесть месяцев после того, как в служебной записке для сотрудников признал то, что он назвал «ошибками» в своем поведении с сотрудниками. Согласно с Голливудский репортер и Вашингтон Пост, Лассетер имел историю предполагаемых сексуальных домогательств по отношению к сотрудникам.^[61][62][63] 8 июня 2018 года было объявлено, что Лассетер покинет Disney Animation и Pixar в конце года, но до тех пор возьмет на себя роль консультанта.^[64] Пит Доктер была объявлена ​​заменой Лассетера на посту креативного директора Pixar 19 июня 2018 года.^[65]

23 октября 2018 года было объявлено, что Кэтмелл уходит на пенсию. Он оставался в роли советника до июля 2019 года.^[66] 18 января 2019 года было объявлено, что Ли Ункрич покинет Pixar через 25 лет.^[67]

Расширение

20 апреля 2010 года открылся Pixar. Pixar Canada в центре города Ванкувер, Британская Колумбия, Канада.^[68] На студии площадью около 2000 квадратных метров было снято семь короткометражных фильмов по мотивам История игрушек и Легковые автомобили символы. В октябре 2013 года студия была закрыта, чтобы переориентировать усилия Pixar на свою главную штаб-квартиру.^[69]

Кампус

Когда Стив Джобс, главный исполнительный директор Apple Inc. и Pixar, а также Джон Лассетер, тогдашний исполнительный вице-президент Pixar, решили перенести свои студии из арендованного помещения в Пойнт Ричмонд, Калифорния, а для своих больших кварталов они выбрали 20-акр сайт в Эмеривилл, Калифорния,^[70] ранее занимал Del Monte Foods, Inc. Первое из нескольких зданий, высокотехнологичное здание, спроектированное Болин Цивински Джексон,^[71] имеет особые основы и генераторы для обеспечения непрерывного производства фильмов даже в крупных землетрясения. Характер здания призван абстрактно напомнить индустриальное прошлое Эмеривилля. Двухэтажное здание из стали и кирпича представляет собой пространство для совместной работы с множеством дорожек.

Цифровая революция в кинопроизводстве была вызвана Прикладная математика, в том числе вычислительная физика и геометрия.^[72] В 2008 году это привело к тому, что старший научный сотрудник Pixar Тони ДеРоуз предложил провести вторую Математический фестиваль Джулии Робинсон в кампусе Эмеривилля.^[73]

Художественные фильмы и короткометражки

Традиции

Хотя некоторые из первых аниматоров Pixar были бывшими чел аниматоры включая Джона Лассетера, они также пришли из компьютерная анимация или были только что окончившими колледж.^[74] Большое количество аниматоров, составляющих отдел анимации Pixar, были наняты примерно в то время, когда студия выпустила. Жизнь жуков (1998), Корпорация монстров. (2001) и В поисках Немо (2003). Несмотря на то что История игрушек (1995) был успешным фильмом, это был первый полнометражный фильм Pixar в то время, став первой крупной студией компьютерной анимации, которая успешно произвела театральные художественные фильмы. Большая часть анимационной индустрии была (и остается) в Лос-Анджелесе, в то время как Pixar находится в 350 милях (560 км) к северу от Область залива Сан-Франциско. Кроме того, традиционная рисованная анимация по-прежнему оставалась доминирующей средой для художественных анимационных фильмов.

Из-за нехватки аниматоров в Лос-Анджелесе, желающих переместить свои семьи так далеко на север, чтобы отказаться от традиционной анимации и попробовать компьютерную анимацию, новые сотрудники Pixar в это время либо пришли непосредственно из колледжа, либо работали вне художественной анимации. Для тех, кто обладал традиционными навыками анимации, программа анимации Pixar Марионетка был разработан таким образом, чтобы традиционным аниматорам требовалось минимальное обучение, прежде чем они стали продуктивными.^[74]

В интервью с PBS ведущий ток-шоу Тэвис Смайли,^[75] Лассетер сказал, что фильмы Pixar следуют той же теме самосовершенствования, что и сама компания: с помощью друзей или семьи персонаж выходит в реальный мир и учится ценить своих друзей и семью. По сути, Лассетер сказал: «Это должно быть о росте главного героя и о том, как он меняется».^[75]

По состоянию на 2020 год, в каждом художественном фильме Pixar есть персонаж, озвученный актером Джон Ратценбергер, который снялся в телешоу Ура (1982–93). Pixar отдает дань уважения их «амулету удачи» в финальных титрах Легковые автомобили (2006), пародируя сцены из трех своих более ранних фильмов, заменяя всех персонажей автомобилями. После третьей сцены Мак (его персонаж в Легковые автомобили) понимает, что один и тот же актер озвучивал персонажей в каждом фильме.

Из-за традиций, которые сложились в фильмах и короткометражках, таких как антропоморфный существа и предметы, а также пасхальное яйцо кроссоверы между фильмами и короткометражками, замеченные фанатами Pixar, в блоге под названием Теория Pixar был опубликован в 2013 году Джоном Негрони, предполагающим, что все персонажи во вселенной Pixar связаны между собой. Все это окружено Бу из Корпорация монстров. и ведьма из Храбрый (2012).^[76][77][78]

Сиквелы и приквелы

История игрушек 2 изначально был заказан Disney как 60-минутный прямо на видео фильм. Выражая сомнения в прочности материала, Джон Лассетер убедил команду Pixar начать с нуля и сделать продолжение третьим полнометражным художественным фильмом.

После выпуска История игрушек 2 в 1999 году у Pixar и Disney была джентльменское соглашение что Disney не будет делать никаких сиквелов без участия Pixar, несмотря на свои собственные права на это. После того, как две компании не смогли договориться о новой сделке, Disney объявил в 2004 году, что они планируют продвигать сиквелы с Pixar или без него и История игрушек 3 в пре-продакшн в тогда еще новом подразделении компьютерной графики Disney Круг 7 Анимация. Однако, когда Лассетер был назначен ответственным за всю анимацию Disney и Pixar после приобретения Disney компании Pixar в 2006 году, он приостановил производство всех сиквелов и История игрушек 3 был отменен. В мае 2006 г. было объявлено, что История игрушек 3 вернулся в пре-продакшн с новым сюжетом и под контролем Pixar. Фильм был выпущен 18 июня 2010 года как одиннадцатый полнометражный фильм Pixar.

Вскоре после объявления о воскресении История игрушек 3, Лассетер подогревал слухи о дальнейших сиквелах, сказав: «Если у нас будет отличная история, мы сделаем продолжение».^[79] Автомобили 2, Первая не-История игрушек сиквел был официально анонсирован в апреле 2008 года и выпущен 24 июня 2011 года как их двенадцатый. Университет монстров, приквел к Корпорация монстров. (2001), о котором было объявлено в апреле 2010 года, а релиз изначально был запланирован на ноябрь 2012 года;^[80] По словам одного из руководителей Disney, дата релиза была перенесена на 21 июня 2013 года из-за прошлых успехов Pixar с летними выпусками.^[81]

В июне 2011 г. Том Хэнкс, кто озвучивал Вуди в История игрушек серии, подразумевает, что История игрушек 4 находился «в разработке», хотя еще не подтвержден студией.^[82][83] В апреле 2013 г. В поисках Дори, продолжение В поисках Немо, было объявлено о выпуске 17 июня 2016 г.^[84] В марте 2014 г. Суперсемейка 2 и Тачки 3 были объявлены фильмами в разработке.^[85] В ноябре 2014 г. История игрушек 4 Было подтверждено, что разработка ведется под руководством Лассетера.^[86] Однако в июле 2017 года Лассетер объявил, что ушел в отставку, оставив Джош Кули в качестве единственного директора.^[87] Выпущено в июне 2019 г. История игрушек 4 входит в число 40 самых кассовых фильмов в Американское кино.^[88]

Адаптация к телевидению

История игрушек был первым фильмом Pixar, адаптированным для телевидения в качестве Базз Лайтер из Star Command фильм и телевизионный сериал на UPN телевизионная сеть, сейчас CW. Легковые автомобили стал вторым с помощью Автомобили Мультфильмы, серия короткометражных фильмов продолжительностью от 3 до 5 минут, которые проходят между обычными канал Диснея показать интервалы и особенности Матер (эвакуатор озвучивает комик Ларри Кабельщик ).^[89] В период с 2013 по 2014 год Pixar выпустила два первых телевизионных выпуска: История игрушек ужаса!^[90] и История игрушек, которую забыло время. Монстры за работой, спин-офф телесериала Корпорация монстров., в настоящее время разрабатывается для Дисней +.^[91][92]

Анимация и живое действие

Все фильмы и короткометражки Pixar на сегодняшний день являются компьютерными анимационными фильмами, но пока ВАЛЛ-И (2008 г.) был единственным фильмом Pixar, который не был полностью анимирован, поскольку в нем было задействовано небольшое количество живых кадров, в то время как День Ночь (2010) и Китбулл (2019) — единственные два короткометражных фильма, в которых есть 2D-анимация. 1906, игровой фильм Брэд Берд по сценарию и роману Джеймса Далессандро о Землетрясение 1906 г., находился в разработке, но с тех пор Bird и Pixar отказались от него. Бёрд заявил, что он «был заинтересован в том, чтобы перейти в сферу живых выступлений с некоторыми проектами», «оставаясь в Pixar [потому что] это очень удобная среда для меня, чтобы работать». В июне 2018 года Берд упомянул о возможности адаптации романа как сериала, а сюжета о землетрясении — как художественного художественного фильма.^[93]

В История игрушек Мультфильмы короткая Гавайские каникулы (2011) также включает в себя рыбу и акулу как живые существа.

Джим Моррис, президент Pixar, продюсировал Дисней с Джон Картер (2012) который Эндрю Стэнтон соавтор и режиссер.^[94]

С творческими руководителями Pixar были проведены консультации по доработке сценария игрового фильма 2011 года. Маппеты.^[95] Точно так же Pixar помогала в разработке сюжета Disney’s Книга джунглей (2016), а также предлагает предложения по поводу финальных титров фильма.^[96] И Pixar, и Марк Эндрюс получили «Особую благодарность» в титрах фильма.^[97] Кроме того, многие аниматоры Pixar, как бывшие, так и нынешние, были наняты для создания традиционной рисованной анимации для фильма 2018 года. Мэри Поппинс возвращается.^[98]

Представители Pixar также помогли с английской локализацией нескольких Студия Ghibli фильмы, в основном из Хаяо Миядзаки.^[99]

Pixar разработала живую игру скрытая камера реалити-шоу под названием Pixar в реальной жизни, для Дисней +.^[100]

Предстоящие проекты

Душа, режиссер Пит Доктер, выйдет 25 декабря 2020 года.^[101] В заявлении студии говорится: «Фильм отправляет вас в путешествие по улицам Нью-Йорк в космические миры, чтобы найти ответы на самые важные вопросы жизни ».^[102]

Были объявлены еще четыре фильма, подробности которых еще не сообщаются. Первый под названием Лука, режиссер Энрико Касароса, выйдет 18 июня 2021 года.^[103] с последующими запланированными релизами 11 марта, 17 июня 2022 г.^[104] и 16 июня 2023 г.^[105]

Франшизы

Титулы	Даты выпуска
История игрушек	22 ноября 1995 г. — 21 июня 2019 г.
Корпорация монстров.	2 ноября 2001 г. — 21 июня 2013 г.
В поисках Немо	30 мая 2003 г. — 17 июня 2016 г.
Неимоверные	5 ноября 2004 г. — 15 июня 2018 г.
Легковые автомобили	9 июня 2006 г. — 16 июня 2017 г.

Кооперативная программа

Программа Pixar Co-op, часть программы профессионального развития Pixar University, позволяет аниматорам использовать ресурсы Pixar для создания независимых фильмов.^[106][107] Первым принятым в программу 3D-проектом был Одолженное время (2016); все ранее принятые фильмы были игровыми.^[108]

Реклама

Pixar Animation Studios занималась рекламой Тропикана пришел первым, кто использовал анимацию Pixar. В Леви Страусс и компания Рекламный ролик «Женщина получает то, что хочет» был анимирован Pixar, а Luxo Ball использовался как один из Marble. это не было бы бесчисленным множеством других объявлений. В Компания Pillsbury была использована реклама печенья. Kellogg реклама для Все отруби Келлога хлопья использовались Pixar.

Выставки

С декабря 2005 года Pixar проводит выставки прославляя искусство и художников за их первые двадцать лет в анимации.^[109]

Pixar: 20 лет анимации

Pixar отпраздновал свое 20-летие в 2006 году выпуском седьмого художественного фильма. Легковые автомобили, и провел две выставки с апреля по июнь 2010 г. Научный центр Сингапура в Джуронг Ист, Сингапур и Лондонский музей науки в Лондон.^[110] Это их первая выставка в Сингапуре.

Основные экспонаты выставки — это незавершенные эскизы из различных постановок Pixar, глиняные скульптуры их персонажей и автостереоскопический короткометражка, демонстрирующая трехмерную версию экспонатов, проецируемую через четыре проектора. Еще одним важным моментом является Zoetrope, где посетителям выставки демонстрируют фигурки История игрушек персонажи «анимированы» в реальной жизни через зоотроп.^[110]

Pixar: 25 лет анимации

В 2011 году Pixar отпраздновал свое 25-летие выпуском двенадцатого художественного фильма. Автомобили 2, и провел выставку в Оклендский музей Калифорнии с июля 2010 г. по январь 2011 г.^[111] Выставочный тур дебютировал в Гонконге и проходил в Музей наследия Гонконга в Ша Тин с 27 марта по 11 июля 2011 г.^[112][113] В 2013 году выставка проходила в EXPO в Амстердаме, Нидерланды. В течение 6 месяцев с 6 июля 2012 г. по 6 января 2013 г. в городе Бонн (Германия) проходил публичный показ,^[114]

16 ноября 2013 года выставка переехала в Art Ludique музей в Париже, Франция, который будет работать до 2 марта 2014 года.^[115] Позже в 2014 и 2015 годах выставка переехала в три испанских города: Мадрид (проходил в CaixaForum с 21 марта по 22 июня),^[116] Барселона (также проводится в Caixaforum с февраля по май) и Сарагоса.^[117]

Pixar: 25 лет анимации включает в себя все работы из Pixar: 20 лет анимации, плюс искусство от Рататуй, ВАЛЛ-И, Вверх и История игрушек 3.

Наука за Pixar

Наука за Pixar это передвижная выставка который впервые открылся 28 июня 2015 г. в Музей науки в Бостон, Массачусетс. Он был разработан Музеем науки в сотрудничестве с Pixar. На выставке представлены сорок интерактивных элементов, которые объясняют производственный процесс в Pixar. Они разделены на восемь разделов, каждая из которых демонстрирует шаг в кинопроизводство процесс: моделирование, Такелаж, Поверхности, наборы и камеры, Анимация, Моделирование, Освещение, и Рендеринг. Перед тем, как посетители войдут на выставку, они смотрят короткий видеоролик в вводном зале, где мистер Рэй из В поисках Немо и Роз из Корпорация монстров..

Выставка закрылась 10 января 2016 г. и была перенесена в Институт Франклина в Филадельфия, Пенсильвания где он работал с 12 марта по 5 сентября. Затем он переехал в Калифорнийский научный центр в Лос-Анджелес, Калифорния и был открыт с 15 октября 2016 года по 9 апреля 2017 года. Он сделал еще одну остановку в Музей науки Миннесоты в св. Павел, Миннесота с 27 мая по 4 сентября 2017 г.^[118]

Выставка открылась в Канаде 1 июля 2017 г. TELUS World of Science — Эдмонтон (ДВА).

Pixar: дизайн истории

Pixar: дизайн истории была выставка в Купер Хьюитт, Смитсоновский музей дизайна в Нью-Йорк с 8 октября 2015 г. по 11 сентября 2016 г.^[119][120] 12 ноября 2015 года в музее также состоялась презентация и беседа с Джоном Лассетером под названием «Дизайн вручную: Джон Лассетер от Pixar».^[119]

Pixar: 30 лет анимации

Pixar отметила свое 30-летие в 2016 году выпуском семнадцатого полнометражного фильма. В поисках Дори, и собрали еще одну знаковую выставку. Впервые выставка открылась в Музей современного искусства в Токио, Япония с 5 марта по 29 мая 2016 года. Впоследствии он переехал в Художественный музей префектуры Нагасаки. Национальный исторический музей, Dongdaemun Design Plaza где он закончился 5 марта 2018 г. Музей наследия Гонконга.^[121]

использованная литература

внешние ссылки

• Официальный веб-сайт
• Канал Pixar на YouTube
• Студия Pixar Animation на IMDb
• Студия Pixar Animation в База данных Big Cartoon
• Список 40 сотрудников-основателей Pixar

Координаты: 37 ° 49′58 ″ с.ш. 122 ° 17′02 ″ з.д. / 37,8327 ° с.ш.122,2838 ° з.д.

Walt Disney Pictures
Тип	дочерняя компания Walt Disney Studios (Disney)
Год основания	1983
Расположение	США: Бербанк, Калифорния
Отрасль	киноиндустрия
Продукция	кинофильмы
Материнская компания	Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group
Сайт	disneypictures.com

Walt Disney Pictures (Уо́лт Ди́сней Пи́кчерз) — американская кинокомпания, имеющая подразделения в Японии и на территории США. Это основная кинематографическая студия развлекательного медиаконгломерата The Walt Disney Company со штаб-квартирой в городе Бербанк, штат Калифорния. Walt Disney Pictures является дочерней компанией из развлекательного сектора компании Дисней. Кинокомпания Walt Disney Pictures была основана как подразделение Дисней в 1983 году, и до этого момента фильмы Дисней выходили под лейблом материнской компании, тогда называвшейся Walt Disney Productions.

Walt Disney Pictures также включает в себя Walt Disney Feature Animation, в которую, в свою очередь, входят студии DisneyToon Studios и приобретённая в 2006 году Pixar, а также является подразделением Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group.

Логотип компании представляет собой силуэт замка Спящей красавицы в Диснейленде. Наиболее известной версии логотипа, существовавшей с 1985 года, в 2006 году пришёл на смену новый объёмный логотип, созданный новозеландской студией компьютерной графики Weta Digital, впервые демонстрировавшийся в 2006 году в фильме «Пираты Карибского моря: Сундук мертвеца»^[1][2].

На протяжении всего XX века компания Дисней была лидером мультипликации и пробивала себе путь почти во всех аспектах мультипликационных техник.

Дисней исторически делает продукцию с рейтингами G и PG, но все фильмы серии «Пираты Карибского моря» получили рейтинг PG-13. Фильмы «Принц Персии: Пески времени» и «Джон Картер» также получили рейтинг PG-13.

Примечания

Ссылки

• Walt Disney Pictures website (англ.)
• Walt Disney Pictures (англ.) на сайте Internet Movie Database (англ.)

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Прочие активы Buena Vista Buena Vista International (Франция) · Buena Vista International (Индия) · Buena Vista International (Италия) Студии The Muppets Studio · The Prospect Studios · Times Square Studios Другое Golden Oak Ranch · Hulu (27%) · Reedy Creek Energy · UTH Russia(Семёрка)(50%)
Годовой доход: ▲ $63.1 миллиардов USD (2010) · Сотрудники: 150,000 (2008) · Акции: NYSE: DIS · Веб-сайт: corporate.disney.go.com

Студийная система классического Голливуда
Мейджоры: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer • Paramount Pictures • 20th Century Fox • Warner Bros. • RKO Pictures Малые студии: Universal Studios • Columbia Pictures • United Artists