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Pixar

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Pixar Animation Studios
Type Subsidiary of Buena Vista Motion Pictures Group (Disney)
Founded February 3, 1986
Headquarters Emeryville, California, USA
Key people Ed Catmull, President, Disney and Pixar Animation Studios
John Lasseter, Chief Creative Officer, Disney and Pixar Animation Studios
Industry CGI animation
Products RenderMan, Marionette
Parent The Walt Disney Company
Website Pixar.com

Pixar Animation Studios is an American computer animation studio based in Emeryville, California (USA) notable for its eight Academy Awards. It is best known for its CGI animated feature films—such as Toy Story, Cars, and Ratatouille—achieved through PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard Renderman image rendering API, which is used to generate high-quality images.

On January 24, 2006, The Walt Disney Company agreed to buy Pixar for $7.4 billion from Steve Jobs - who had previously acquired it from Lucasfilm - through an all-stock transaction. The acquisition was completed on May 5, 2006 (swapping one Pixar share for 2.3 shares of Disney), making Pixar a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney.

Contents

History

Early history

Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull[1] from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT)[2]. At NYIT, the researchers worked on an experimental film called The Works, though it was never released. When the group moved to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called Motion Doctor, which allowed traditional cel animators to use computer animation with minimal training.

Eventually, the team began working on film sequences, produced by Lucasfilm, or worked collectively with Industrial Light and Magic on special effects[2]. After years of remarkable research success, and key milestones in films such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan[2] and Young Sherlock Holmes[2], the group was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer (the company he founded with Steve Wozniak) and was looking for something to do with his money (Jobs would later return to Apple in 1997, following Apple's acquisition of NeXT). He paid US$5 million to George Lucas and put US$5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected George Lucas' desire to stop the cash flow losses associated with his 7 year research projects associated with new entertainment technology tools, as well as his company's new focus on creating entertainment products rather than tools. A contributing factor was cash flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce concurrent with the sudden drop off in revenues from Star Wars licenses following the release of Return of the Jedi and the disastrous box office performance of Howard the Duck. The newly independent company was headed by Dr. Edwin Catmull, President and CEO, and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith, Executive Vice President and Director. Jobs served as Chairman of the Board.

Image:Pixar animation studios1.png
Pixar's studio lot in Emeryville

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 leading buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious Ink and Paint part of the 2D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well. 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.

Business in transition

As poor sales of Pixar's computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter's animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and LifeSavers. During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. In 1991, after substantial layoffs in the company's computer department, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story. Pixar was re-incorporated on December 9, 1995.

Disney and Pixar

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.

Pixar's first five feature films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion, equivalent to the highest per-film average gross in the industry. 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 were perhaps the most onerous to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.

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. Pixar wanted complete financial freedom; they 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. 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. These conditions were unacceptable to Disney, but Pixar would not concede.

Bad blood 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 Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney. However, Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors, since other partners saw Pixar's terms as too demanding. After a lengthy hiatus, negotiations between the two companies resumed following the departure of Eisner from Disney in September of 2005.

In preparation for potential fallout between Pixar and Disney, Jobs announced in late 2004[3] that Pixar would no longer release movies at the Disney-dictated November timeframe, 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 timeframe remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract to see how things would play out between the two companies.

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.

Disney's acquisition of Pixar

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On January 24, 2006, Disney announced that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. 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. Jobs' new Disney holdings outpace holdings belonging to ex-CEO 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. Roy Disney's criticisms of Eisner included the soured Pixar relationship and accelerated Eisner's ouster.

As part of the deal, Lasseter, Pixar Executive Vice President and co-founder, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Disney and Pixar Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks. Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Disney Studios, reporting to Bob Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment.

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 remains a separate entity, a concern that many analysts had about the Disney deal.[4]

Some other points of interest concerning the deal:

  • If Pixar had pulled out of the deal, they would have been required to pay Disney a penalty of US$210 million.
  • John Lasseter has the authority to approve films for both Disney and Pixar studios, with Bob Iger and Roy Disney carrying final approving authority.
  • The deal required that Pixar's primary directors and creative executives must also join the combined company. This includes Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Brad Bird, Bob Peterson, Brenda Chapman, Lee Unkrich, and Gary Rydstrom.
  • There will be a steering committee that will oversee animation for both Disney and Pixar studios, with a mission to maintain and spread the Pixar culture. This committee will consist of Catmull, Lasseter, Jobs, Iger, Cook and Tom Staggs. They will meet at Pixar headquarters at least once every two months.
  • Pixar HR policies will remain intact, including the lack of employment contracts.
  • Ensures the Pixar name will continue, and that the studio will remain in its current Emeryville, California location with the "Pixar" sign.
  • Branding of films made post-merger will be "Disney•Pixar" (starting with Cars).

Executive leadership

Steve Jobs served as Pixar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until May 2006, when the company was bought by Disney. Jobs then took a place on the Disney board of directors (also becoming Disney's largest individual shareholder). Today, Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and Lasseter serves as the studios' Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman Cook. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority on all new films, also reports to Iger as well as consulting with Roy E. Disney.

A summary list of notable Pixar employees (directors, producers, and writers) is also available.

Feature films

See also: List of awards won or nominated by Pixar
Film Year Worldwide Gross Metacritic Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Awards
Toy Story
1995
$361,958,736
91
100
8.0 Academy Special Achievement Award winner, Best Song Oscar nominee, Best Original or Musical Comedy Score Oscar nominee, Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominee
A Bug's Life
1998
$363,398,565
77
91
7.3 Best Original Score Oscar nominee
Toy Story 2
1999
$485,015,179
87
100
8.0 Best Song Oscar nominee, Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical Golden Globe winner
Monsters, Inc.
2001
$525,366,597
78
95
7.9 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee, Best Song Oscar Winner
Finding Nemo
2003
$864,625,978
89
98
8.2 Best Animated Feature Oscar winner
The Incredibles
2004
$631,442,092
90
97
8.2 Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, Best Sound Editing Oscar winner, Best Original Screenplay nominee
Cars
2006
$461,981,604
73
76
7.6 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee, Best Song Oscar nominee, Inaugural Best Animated Feature Golden Globe winner
Ratatouille
2007
$620,261,049
96
97
8.3 Best Animated Feature Oscar winner, Best Original Screenplay nominee, Best Original Score nominee, Best Sound Mixing nominee, Best Sound Editing nominee, Best Animated Feature Golden Globe winner

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