Probing Pixar: Part 1

Hello movie fans, it isn't often that great affinity, for content, can exist where finance prevails. This is true for most major studios, where blockbusters are negotiating tools for passion projects to get made. I say most because every so often studios can surprise you with their compassion and investment of quality. Then and only very so rarely are we lucky enough to have innovators, content masters and finance giants co-exist with one goal in mind, create the most spectacular and original content possible. This should be the mantra for Pixar Studios, because it is a mission statement they have followed for over a decade now, and one which only seems to be gaining momentum. In this eight part series I will examine several parts of Pixar, as a company, and as a competitor in 3D animation world. In this first part we will look at the roots of Pixar up to George Lucas' involvement with assembling one of the greatest group of animators the world has ever known.

Pixar begins and ends with John Lasseter, director of Toy Story and Toy Story 2 as well as Cars. He gained prominence, in the animation world, by winning back to back Student Academy Awards for several short animated pieces he did. He was then hired by Disney where he met a number of very influential people (Glen Keane and Randy Cartwright). At the time Disney was pretty desperate for an animated hit, as it had been many years since the success of Disney's Nine Old Men. A problem they kept running into was constant cuts, financial, on animated segments they worked on. They simply weren't given the latitude of creative control that they'd hoped. A change occurred and it was the release of the film Tron (1982) that really sparked Lasseter and his crews' imagination. Now there was this possibility of creating animation using computers and computer generated backgrounds, a fear held by the Disney brass. John and Glenn were given permission to further explore this. This lead to John and crew given permission to develop a feature length version of The Brave Little Toaster, which would have been the first computer animated feature. However, when John told the execs, at the pitch meeting, that the cost would be the same as a "regular" film he was fired, as well as his crew. While this was happening George Lucas began to assemble his own crew of animators from both Utah State and the New York Institute of Technology. Ed Catmull was made head of Lucas' new branch, after he created the first computer generated hand for the film Futureworld. This crew of people began experimenting with integrating art and science together to create things never before imagined. This culminated in a spectacular sequence being created for The Wrath of Khan. John Lasseter became a part of this when he talked with Ed at a conference right after he was released from Disney. John was hired because he was the talented animator that Catmull and his group desperately had been craving. It was from here that Lasseter and Catmull began to explore character creation in the 3D computer generated world. ILM and Lasseter worked on Young Sherlock Holmes to create a stained glass knight that fought with a live action man, garnering industry recognition. This lead to the creation of the Pixar computer and software to edit, however this became a negative because the companies' focus became software sales. Lucas additionally became agitated, and began to step back from the organization. A little over a year later John and his crew were introduced to a man by the name of Steve Jobs, who Catmull and Lasseter enchanted with the idea of the first computer generated feature film. This now gave them most of the financial muscle to begin to work toward their dream. In next weeks segment I will explore the emergence of Pixar into the animated world.