http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/Pixar

Assassinating "I"s and making us cry since 1995.

— Pixar company motto "Story is king."

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Pixar is an animation studio based in Emeryville, California. It began in 1979 when George Lucas used some of his money to form a new division at Lucasfilm 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 and the stained-glass knight from Young Sherlock Holmes. Working there was one John Lasseter, a former Disney animator who got fired for trying to push the company to experiment with computer animation. He created a CGI short entitled The Adventures of Andre & 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), Lucas eventually sold it to Steve Jobs for $10 million. 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.

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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'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 first ever feature-length all-CGI film. The rest is history: Pixar signs a distribution deal with Disney, Pixar makes a lot of hits, Pixar and Disney boss Michael Eisner have issues, Disney gets a new boss (whose wife was also Steve Jobs' wife's roommate in college), Pixar and Disney kiss and make up, Disney buys Pixar for more than $7 billion (for scale, when they bought the entire Marvel empire it cost $4 billion), making Jobs' ten-million-dollar purchase a real steal considering the purchase made him a major shareholder in Disney, and all is well.

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And finally, things come full circle with Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm, bringing it under the same umbrella as its own former division. Though, with John Lasseter in charge, you could look at it as Pixar itself now owning its former owner (kinda like how SBC Communications ultimately bought former owner AT&T or how Viacom briefly owned former owner CBS).

Pixar's films are well-known for their formula copied by every western animation company for the past 20 years. Nearly all of their films take their subjects and turn them on their heads (friendly monsters who only scare for their day jobs, race cars who learn to take it slow and that there's more to life than winning, robots who teach humans how to feel emotions again, etc.) and in doing so pack them full of humor (including jokes that go way over the heads of kids) and drama.

When Pixar makes a movie, more often than not, it will be well done at worst. 16 out of the 21 films released so far note Cars 2, Monsters University, The Good Dinosaur, Finding Dory, and Cars 3 being the exceptions have been nominated for at least one Oscar; in 2010, 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 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 films have perfect scores note the third has a 99% rating, tying it with Finding Nemo for second place. 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.

Of course, if you think they're not business-minded, keep in mind that, except for The Good Dinosaur and Onward, their films had never failed financially. Out of their films, only six note Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Cars 2, The Good Dinosaur, Cars 3 and Onward 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 until Onward in 2020 (and that one was because it was significantly affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic); the studio's highest-grossing films, Toy Story 3, Finding Dory and Incredibles 2, made over a billion dollars worldwide. note Toy Story 3 became the highest-grossing animated film of all time until Frozen and Minions exceeded it, as well as the first animated film to earn a billion. Likewise, Finding Dory became the highest-grossing animated movie at the domestic box office, shattering the record that was set by Shrek 2 more than a decade earlier until the studio beat their own record with Incredibles 2. The average domestic box office take of a Pixar film is around $250 million, and their films have made almost ten billion dollars total in combined domestic and foreign box office take. Also worth noting: every single Pixar film had opened at the #1 spot in the weekend box office until Inside Out's release in 2015 note Though it ended up being Pixar's second-biggest opening weekend behind Toy Story 3, and is currently the second largest opening for an original film in Hollywood; it didn't reach #1 because Comcast/Universal's Jurassic World opened the previous weekend, but the two films together bulldozed most of their competition. The Good Dinosaur was less fortunate, and, unlike Inside Out, never made it to #1.. Sans Brave (while still a respectable #13) and The Good Dinosaur (at a less remarkable #21), all of Pixar's films are among the top ten highest-grossing films of the year they've been released.

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 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.

They also seem to be a very personal and humble company:

10-year old Colby Curtin was a young girl who was dying of vascular cancer; her dying wish was to see the movie Up, so a family friend cold-called Pixar, 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 without any promotion or comments to the press in any way. This simple event is simultaneously selfless and heartwarming.

just hours before the young girl passed away. Again, Pixar did this without any promotion or comments to the press in any way. This simple event is simultaneously selfless and heartwarming. They did a video for the It Gets Better project that really shows the diversity of their staff and their commitment to helping the community.

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, which became a hit.

They tracked down John Morris, who voiced Andy in the first two Toy Story films and is all grown up, so he could reprise the role for the third one, 11 years after his last acting role. Similarly, Alexander Gould, the original voice of Nemo, was too old to reprise the role in Finding Dory, but they gave him a cameo role so he could return anyway.

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.

Pixar's filmography

Film series:

Other films:

A Bug's Life (1998) — To save his colony from a bunch of nasty grasshoppers, an ant enlists the help of a Ragtag Bunch of Circus Bugs who he thinks are "warriors". * This is the first Pixar movie to have the Pixar Animation Studios logo at the start, which features Luxo Jr. hopping in from the right, turning, looking at the I, and hopping on it and squishing it, replacing the I and looking right into the camera as the screen fades out. The end logo at Pixar movies is the exact same sequence, except it has Luxo's light blub remain on as the screen fades out, only for it to turn off a second later, concluding the film. The Pixar logo was at the end on Toy Story due to different distribution agreements at the time.

Ratatouille (2007) — A rat visits Paris, France to make his dreams of becoming a chef come true. * This is the last Pixar Animated Classic to feature the original CGI castle Disney logo, which does not have the march music on it, due to being the final release in the original agreement; all Pixar movies after this use the 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo.

WALLE (2008) — After many years of cleaning up the Earth, a robot janitor falls for a new robot and gets sent into space. * First Pixar Animated Classic to forgo the older Toy Story Walt Disney Pictures logo; to symbolize Pixar's integration into Disney, it instead uses the fully-animated 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo with the "When You Wish Upon a Star" excerpt. The end logo features Luxo Jr's light bulb go out before the screen fades out, and WALLE shows up, screws a new one in, and knocks over the R on the way out, forcing HIM to replace the R; the logo then ends normally before The Stinger that this movie has.

Up (2009) — A balloon salesman takes his own house up to Paradise Falls and is partnered with a scout trooper. (The first Pixar film released in 3D)

Brave (2012) — Takes place in Scotland during The Middle Ages, the recent addition of the Disney Princesses wants her mother to be changed. Unfortunate things happen. * First Pixar Animated Classic to use the alternate 2006 Walt Disney Pictures logo that just says "Disney".

Inside Out (2015) — The lives of five emotions whose job is to control the personalities of a girl. While two of them get lost and have to find a way back, three others stay behind and try to make the girl happy, to no avail.

The Good Dinosaur (2015) — A young Apatosaurus finds himself lost and gains the help of a Wild Child to get home.

Coco (2017) — A music-loving child whose family bans music travels to the Land of the Dead, learning about the importance of having family.

Onward (2020) — Two suburban elf brothers search for magic that can allow them to spend time with their father who died when they were too young to remember him.

Soul (2020) — Right after a middle school music teacher finally gets a chance at his dream of performing jazz onstage, he falls down a manhole into an ethereal plane of existence where souls develop their personalities and passions before inhabiting newborns.

Luca (2021) — A boy named Luca has an amazing summer in a beautiful seaside town on the Italian Riviera with his new best friend. However, between their fun scooter rides and partaking of Italian cuisine, one of them is hiding a major secret; that he's a strange sea creature who's only pretending to be a human.

You can now vote for your favorite Pixar flick HERE!

Pixar Shorts — a list of the studio's shorts.

Others

The Pixar Story (2007) — about Pixar's early history. Produced by Leslie Iwerks Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

To get a little information about the people behind the 'toons, see Pixar Regulars.

Tropes associated with Pixar include: