Pixar: Difference between revisions
Added films
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (outdated template) |
(Added films) |
||
(15 intermediate revisions by 7 users not shown) | |||
Line 2:
[[File:pixar-logo-web_profile.jpg|frame]]
{{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
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.
At the same time, John Lasseter continued to use CGI to make short films and showed them around at conventions, specifically the computer-graphics convention SIGGRAPH. While other people were showing landscapes and technical demos, Lasseter's short ''Luxo Jr.'' was a masterpiece in storytelling that established several new CGI tricks and demonstrated the narrative ability of the art. [[Pixar Shorts|Pixar's subsequent shorts]] secured their status as the leader in computer animation.
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
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
Lest you think that they're just a bunch of artists, though, you should know that their first Academy Award wasn't for a movie -- it was for [[wikipedia:PhotoRealistic RenderMan|PhotoRealistic RenderMan]], the software that they make and license to other filmmakers that fuels an innumerable amount of CG in films. It was the first Academy Award given out for ''a piece of software''.
Line 20 ⟶ 21:
They also seem to be a very personal and humble company:
* There's [http://betteronme.blogspot.com/2008/07/hello-luxo.html the case] of the young woman who put a video of herself crying at a trailer of ''[[WALL-E]]'' on the Internet, which tickled the employees to the point where they invited her first to the wrap party, then to a tour, [[Think Nothing of It|without promoting this with any sort of "Look, world, we're awesome!" publicity]].
* 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://
* They did a beautiful video for the ''It Gets Better'' project that really shows the diversity of their staff and their commitment to helping the community.
* Some Pixar employees visited Jason Segel and Nick Stoller for a few days and gave input on the screenplay for ''[[The Muppets (film)|The Muppets]]'', which became a hit.
* 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.)
Pixar itself is located in Emeryville, California on a huge campus of the type more commonly associated with tech companies in nearby Silicon Valley-- complete with a high-quality cafeteria (with dedicated chef), an exercise facility, a soccer field, and hallways lined with concept art, employee projects, and life-size statues of Pixar characters (including a 2-story-tall Luxo lamp). The best part: it is possible (though difficult) to get tours.
Line 29 ⟶ 30:
{{creatorworks||animated}}
* ''[[Toy Story]]'' (1995)
* ''[[A Bug's
* ''[[Toy Story
* ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' (2001
* ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' (2003
* ''[[The Incredibles]]'' (2004)
* ''[[Cars]]'' (2006)
* ''[[Ratatouille]]'' (2007
* ''[[WALL-E]]'' (2008)
* ''[[Up (animation)|Up]]'' (2009)
* ''[[Toy Story
* ''[[Cars
* ''[[Brave]]'' (2012)
* ''[[
* ''[[Inside Out]]'' (2015)
* ''[[The Good Dinosaur]]'' (
* ''[[Finding Dory]]'' (2016) – A sequel to ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' about Dory and her search for her lost parents.
* ''[[Cars 3]]'' (2017)
* ''[[Coco]]'' (2017)
* ''[[Incredibles 2]]'' (2018)
* ''[[Toy Story 4]]'' (2019)
* ''[[Onward]]'' (2020)
* ''[[Soul (2020 film)|Soul]]'' (2020)
* ''[[Luca]]'' (2021)
* ''[[Turning Red]]'' (2022)
* ''[[Lightyear]]'' (2022)
* ''[[Elemental]]'' (2023)
For a list of the studio's shorts, [[Pixar Shorts|go here]].
Line 55 ⟶ 64:
{{creatortropes}}
* [[All CGI Cartoon]]: [[Trope Maker]], with ''[[Toy Story (franchise)|Toy Story]]''.
* [[Arch Enemy|Arch-Competitor:]] With [[Dreamworks Animation]], though greatly exaggerated by Dreamworks' [[Hatedom]].
* [[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]]''
* [[Broken Streak]]: After 11 consecutive films with a Certified Fresh rating on [[Rotten Tomatoes]], ''[[Cars 2]]'' is released to 39% on RT. Cue [[Internet Backdraft]].
** Also, ever since the Academy Awards established the "Best Animated Feature" category in 2001, Pixar films have been inevitably nominated... until ''Cars 2''.
Line 64 ⟶ 73:
* [[Celebrity Voice Actor]]: While Pixar doesn't advertise the celebrities as blatantly as [[Dreamworks Animation]], they're still very guilty of using celebrities for the voices.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: They frequently reference past productions, from shorts ([[Mascot|Luxo Jr.'s]] ball is a frequent sight) to movies ([[Once an Episode|the Pizza Planet truck]] being the most blatant example)
* [[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.
* [[Dueling Movies]]: [[Defied Trope|Averting this trope]] is the reason Pixar stopped production on ''Newt'' (Blue Sky's ''[[Rio]]'' had roughly the same plot).
** Retroactively played straight three times: [[Antz|ant]] [[A Bug's Life|movies]], [[Finding Nemo|fish]] [[Shark Tale|movies]] and [[Ratatouille|rat]] [[Flushed Away|movies]].
Line 76 ⟶ 85:
* [[Not So Above It All]]: Literal example: ''Cars 2'' is the first Pixar movie to ever receive a "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
* [[Once an Episode]]/[[Running Gag]]/[[Early-Bird Cameo]]: The Pizza Planet truck, giving a role to John Ratzenberger in every film, putting a cameo of a character from the next film to be released, and the one listed in [[Shout-Out]].
* [[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]]''.
** Lassetter even flew Japanese girl group [[Perfume (band)|Perfume]] to the premiere of ''Cars 2'' and surprised them with full knowledge of their back catalogue during lunch together. They recorded a J-Pop single for the film in which the characters visit Tokyo.
* [[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.
* [[Production Foreshadowing]]: Happens enough times for a Pixar movie being the page image.
* [[Production Posse]]: See [[Pixar Regulars]] for more info.
** [[True Companions]]: Having worked with each other for nearly twenty years (some having worked even longer beforehand), the Regulars are pretty tight-knit.
* [[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]]).
* [[Scenery Porn]]: ''The Incredibles'''s commentary mentions having ''[[Serious Business|entire meetings]]'' [[Ludicrous Precision|devoted to the placement of the food]] at the dinner table during one scene.
* [[Shout-Out]]: [[wikipedia:A113|A113]] shows up in every Pixar film.
Line 91 ⟶ 100:
** Brenda Chapman's version of ''[[Brave]]''. We may never be sure why she was laid off, but it seems to have disappointed a lot of people in the industry, including some Pixar employees.
*** In fact, anytime Pixar replaces a director on their films (which so far only happened a few times, thank goodness) will get this reaction. [[Brad Bird]] was put on ''Ratatouille'' at the last minute and had to work with revising the script and making the rats less anthropomorphic than what the original director had. Of note, Chef Gusteau was to be alive through the whole movie instead of an imaginary being.
** ''[[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.
{{Template:Films associated with Pixar}}
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Producers]]▼
[[Category:All CGI Cartoon]]
[[Category:index]]
[[Category:Creator]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
|