A Quick History Lesson: The Beginning of Pixar Studios
What would the world be like if we never met Woody, Andy’s favorite deputy? What about Boo’s life changing encounter with Sulley? And if we never find out how Marlin found Nemo? All of these stories stem from the same roots, the roots that continue to give us elevated animation styles and stories to pull at our heartstrings. All of these stories started right here, in 1979, with Pixar.
Ed Catmull, a computer scientist, was involved in the beginning of the creation of computer graphics. He worked with Lucasfilm Ltd., which we all know now to be George Lucas’s company, one that famously created Star Wars. He was hired along with other computer scientists from the New York Institute of Technology to create a computer that could develop and deliver high-resolution 3D images. This computer, created in February of 1986, they named after a “faux-Spanish word meaning “to make pictures””: Pixar.
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Image from: https://www.pixar.com/our-story-pixar
In 1982, the first ever appearance of a computer animated sequence in a feature film is shown in “Star Trek II”, with the Genesis Sequence. 2 years later, just before the release of the computer, “The Adventures of Andre & Wally B.” is shown at a conference, and it is the first short film to be created by the studio.
Image from: https://www.pixar.com/andre-wally-b
In 1986, Lucas divided his company so that Pixar could become it’s own independent business, solely to work on computer graphics and animation. Ed Catmull became the CEO and Steve Jobs became one of the investors and leaders of this business, with the intention of selling the new “Pixar Image Computer” and softwares. This is when they created “Luxo Jr.”, which is the first fully finished computer animated short to be released and awarded with a nomination for two Oscars. “Knick Knack” followed shortly after this in 1989. Selling the computer didn’t become profitable and wasn’t doing well, so Pixar’s hardware operations was sold in 1990. However, just a year before this, Pixar began creating short animated commercials for different companies, and landed a 3-movie deal with Disney.
Image from: https://www.pixar.com/luxo-jr
Image from: https://letterboxd.com/film/knick-knack/
John Lasseter, a familiar name to Pixar-lovers now, was hired in 1984 and was extremely interested in the innovations of animation. He made his own short-films on the side using the Pixar Image Computer, including 1988’s “Tin Toy”. After making the deal with Disney, the company worked toward the debut of the world’s first ever full-length computer animated film: Toy Story (1995).
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Image from: http://madeinatlantis.com/movies_central/2009/toy_story.htm
After the successful release of Toy Story and the beginning to a new era of film, Steve Jobs took over as CEO with Catmull still remaining in an executive role, and they signed off on a 10-year, 5 movie deal with Disney. They continued on to make more Pixar films such as “A Bug’s Life” (1998), “Toy Story 2” (1999), and “Monsters Inc.” (2001). Lasseter stepped up as the role of director for the first 2 Toy Story’s, A Bug’s Life, and later both Cars and Cars 2.
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Image from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tMoJgFNz2U
In 2006, Pixar was sold by Steve Jobs to the Walt Disney Company as a whole, and Ed Catmull remained a part of it all, becoming the president of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios. Catmull remained in this position until 2019, when he retired.
Pixar started off as a way to innovate software and graphic design, and it’s intention didn’t change until they realized all of the story-telling they were able to accomplish with their short films, and later Toy Story. Since then, they have become one of the lead companies in animation still, and have spread their work out into new themed attractions for the Disney parks, exploring different themes for films, and bringing on new animators and directors. Pixar has helped Disney become what it is today, so we were able to find out that Marlin finds Nemo.
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