Pixar: Difference between revisions

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{{quote|''Story is king.''|'''Pixar company motto'''}}

Once upon a time, [[George Lucas]] used some of his money to form a new division at Lucasarts known as "Graphics Group". The company originally did this and that for a while, most notably the Genesis planet simulation from ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan|Star Trek II the Wrath of Khan]]'' and the stained-glass knight from ''[[Young Sherlock Holmes]]''. Working there was one John Lasseter, who created a CGI short entitled ''The Adventures of Andre and Wally B'' in his downtime, with the assistance of computer genius Ed Catmull.

Seeking money for his divorce costs (and also because of the failure known as ''[[Howard the Duck (film)|Howard the Duck]]''), Lucas eventually sold it to [[Apple Macintosh|Steve Jobs]] for ten million dollars. The company was named '''Pixar''' after their first product, a video rendering computer for medical use. Though it didn't sell very well, Steve Jobs continued to pour money into it, and Pixar repurposed itself as a firm creating computer-animated commercials for companies such as Listerine Mouthwash and Lifesavers candies.

In short order, Pixar moved away from medical imaging, instead continuing to refine their RenderMan digital rendering software while making commercials even as they set out to accomplish a very lofty goal -- to make the [[Toy Story (franchise)|first ever feature-length all-CGI film]]. The rest is history: Pixar signs a distribution deal with [[Disney Animated Canon|Disney]], Pixar makes a lot of hits, Pixar and Disney have issues, Disney gets a new boss, Pixar and Disney kiss and make up, Disney buys Pixar (for more than '''seven billion dollars''', making Jobs' ten-million-dollar purchase a real steal), and all is well.

When Pixar makes a movie, you can pretty much expect it to be critically well received. 11 out of the 12 films released so far{{when}} (''[[Cars]] 2]]'' being the odd one out) have been nominated for at least one Oscar; in 2010, ''[[Up (animation)|Up]]'' became the second animated film (and first CGI film) to be nominated for Best Picture, and the next year, ''[[Toy Story 3]]'' became the third animated (and second CGI film) to get that nomination. Only one of the studio's films (''[[Cars]] 2]]'') has really failed critically; on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the first two ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' films have ''perfect scores'' (the third has a 99% rating) and their third-lowest rated movie (''[[A Bug's Life|A Bugs Life]]'') has a 91% rating. Many of their films sit on the Internet Movie Database's "top 250 films" list, and Pixar is usually topping that site's "50 best animated films" list. Nearly all of their films take their subjects and [[Deconstruction|turn them]] [[Reconstruction|on their heads]] ([[Monsters, Inc.|friendly monsters who only scare for their day jobs]], [[Cars (franchise)|race cars who learn to take it slow and that there's more to life than winning]], [[WALL-E|robots who teach humans how to feel emotions again]], etc.) and in doing so pack them full of humor (including [[Pixar/Radar|jokes that go way over the heads of kids]]) and drama.

Of course, if you think they're not business-minded, keep in mind that their films have never failed financially, either. Of their first ten films, only two (''[[Toy Story]]'' and ''[[A Bug's Life|A Bugs Life]]'') have failed to break the $200 million dollar mark in the US, and none of them failed to break the $200 million mark in foreign box office take; the studio's highest-grossing film, ''[[Toy Story]] 3]]'' made over a billion dollars worldwide (becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the first animated film to earn a billion). The average domestic box office take of a Pixar film is around $250 million, and all of their films have made over six billion dollars in combined domestic and foreign box office take. Also worth noting: every single Pixar film has opened at the #1 spot in the weekend box office. All of Pixar's films are among the top ten highest-grossing films of the year they've been released.

* Then there's 10-year old Colby Curtin, a young girl who was dying of vascular cancer; her dying wish was to see the movie ''[[Up (animation)|Up]]'', so a family friend cold-called Pixar, [https://web.archive.org/web/20130105030044/http://wwwwww2.ocregister.com/articles/pixar-up-movie-2468059-home-show which eventually led to them flying out an employee with a specially-pressed DVD for a private screening of the film] just hours before the young girl passed away. Again, Pixar did this [[Humble Hero|without any promotion or comments to the press]] in any way. This simple event is simultaneously selfless and [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|heartwarming]].

* Some of them also worked with some of the artists (and one of the creators) of ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' and the team from [[Gainax]] behind ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' to make an artbook about ''Gurren Lagann'', the proceeds of which will go towards helping survivors of the 2011 earthquake/tsunami/disaster in Japan. You can buy it [https://web.archive.org/web/20120508043158/http://www2.gainax.co.jp/shop/index.cgi?rm=detail&id=3994&genre=53_gurren_lagann&page=&key=&price_class=&8%A1%E04=2%A1%DE0 here] on Gainax's store, if you're so inclined. (And have some help from a Japanese friend.)

{{creatorworks|Pixar's filmography:|animated}}

* ''[[A Bug's Life|A Bugs Life]]'' (1998)

* ''[[Toy Story]] 2]]'' (1999)

* ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' (2001) (To be re-released [[3D Movie|in 3-D]] in theaters Jan. 18, 2013)

* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' (2003) (Same thing on Sep. 14, 2012 with a Blu-Ray release soon after)

* ''[[Ratatouille]]'' (2007) (To be re-released in 3-D, date TBD)

* ''[[Toy Story]] 3]]'' (2010)

* ''[[Cars]] 2]]'' (2011)

* ''[[Brave]]'' (2012) --– Pixar's first foray into the [[Fantasy]] genre (of the [[Fairy Tale]] kind) and first film with a [[Action Girl|female lead]] (see "Most Writers Are Male" below)

* ''[[Monsters, Inc.|Monsters University]]'' (2013) --– A [[Prequel]] to ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]''; Mike and Sulley are Academy rivals and must learn to become friends.

* ''[[The Good Dinosaur]]'' (20142015) --– Explores [[What If|what would have happened if]] [[Everything's Better with Dinosaurs|the asteroid had not driven the dinosaurs to extinction]], and they instead have survived to the present day where they can even talk to humans. Directed by Bob Peterson.

* [[All CGI Cartoon]]: [[Trope Maker]], with ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''.

* [[Black and White Morality]]: All Pixar films thus far except the original ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' and ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' (and arguably ''[[WALL-E]]'', as the villain there was [[Punch Clock Villain|just following his programming]] [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|way too seriously]]).

* [[Breakthrough Hit]]: ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''

* [[Doing It for the Art]]: Steve Jobs spent a fortune on this small company that no one knew about for a decade ''before'' they exploded into fame.

* [[Otaku]]: Watch some of their movies and just look at how many references they make to Japan. Lassetter is a long time admirer of [[Hayao Miyazaki]], they've become professional friends, and Miyazaki's stamp of approval was instrumental in helping ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' catch on in Japan. Disney, under the direction of a Pixar-related employee, is the only studio Miyazaki blesses with English dubs of his work. Miyazaki's [[My Neighbor Totoro|Totoro]] has even made a cameo in ''[[Toy Story 3]]''.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: About half of Pixar's male leads are fathers ([[The Incredibles|Bob Parr]], [[Finding Nemo|Marlin]]) or substitute fathers ([[Monsters, Inc.|Sulley]], [[Up|Carl]], arguably [[Toy Story (franchise)|Woody and Buzz]]) whose main conflict in their respective movies is both protecting their children (or just being there for them, as with Woody's case) as well as dealing with the physical and emotional baggage of that responsibilty. Considering that many of Pixar's Regulars were starting to have families of their own during Pixar's earlier filmmaking years, it makes more than enough sense.

* [[Serendipity Writes the Plot]]: By the early 1990s, everything CG was kinda plastic... so Pixar did [[Toy Story (franchise)|a film starring plastic characters]]. Then computer technology allowed to depict living animals better ([[A Bug's Life|bugs]], [[Monsters, Inc.|furry/scaly creatures]], [[Finding Nemo|fish]], and then [[The Incredibles|humans]]).

** ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'' was almost the victim of [[Executive Meddling]] thanks to Jeffrey Katzenberg. Katzenberg continually pushed for a [[Darker and Edgier|more adult, cynical]] ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]'', making Woody even more of a jerkass and relying heavily on insult humor. The result backfired horribly; at a screening for the Disney execs, Roy Disney declared it the worst thing he'd ever seen, and Disney was ready to scrap the whole project until the writers were finally left alone to write the story they wanted to write. The rest is history.

** Later on, Pixar also had to deal with Michael Eisner. During the Disney v. Pixar negotiations, Eisner created Circle 7 Animation, which would have churned out horrible Disney Brand Cheapquels to Pixar films including ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]] 3'' which would have seen Buzz Lightyear recalled to Europe. Thankfully, he was fired, the studio got shut down, and Disney purchased Pixar.

[[Category:Film/NightmareProduction FuelCompanies]]