In our last class we watched Toy Story 2, and it reminded of just how incredible the Pixar Animation Studios films were, and are. So I dedicate this entry to a walk down the Pixar memory lane, or what could be better described as Pixar’s hall of fame. Pixar was founded in 1979, by George Lucas of Star Wars fame, as a branch of Lucasfilm. The name Pixar comes from the company’s original core product – the Pixar Image Computer. Throughout the 1980s Pixar produced a number of computer animated shorts, and in 1986 Pixar was purchased by billionaire Steve Jobs of Apple Computer fame. In 1991, Pixar made a deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story. In 2006 Disney purchased Pixar Animation Studios outright for $7.4 billion – and the hits just keep on coming. What follows is this stroll down memory lane using some of Pixar’s movie posters that I hope you will find as enjoyable to view as I did putting together.
The release of Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995 was huge in that it was the first fully computer animated feature film. Well, time has passed, and most people don’t even remember that. What people do remember is that it was a great flick with memorable characters; and yeah, it looked great too. It was Pixar’s first full length film, and Pixar’s first critical and box office hit. Note when looking at these movie posters, Toy Story is the only one that does not credit the film to Pixar. A Bug’s Life was Pixar’s least significant film in my opinion; fun to watch at the time, but not overly memorable. It seemed to ride on the coattails of Toy Story. Also, in a proverbial “Bug vs. Bug” competition, Antz, an animated film by DreamWorks Animation, was released at the same time, and was more enjoyable, with more memorable characters to me.
Very rare is it to find a sequel that can equal the quality of the original. Toy Story 2 is one of the very few sequels to a great film that manages to actually be as good as the original – some critics even say it is better than the original. Monsters Inc. managed to be more financially successful than both Toy Story and Toy Story 2. This, along with its overall quality, was an affirmation of the strength of Pixar as a movie producing company and as a brand.
Finding Nemo is the most commercially successful Pixar film to date. I would argue that it is also the most artistically successful. It’s rendering of the deep sea is stunning, and a leap forward from what Pixar had done before. The film was the first of a number of Pixar films to win the Best Animated Feature Academy Award. I think that with The Incredibles, Pixar moved more into the adult realm of animated film. Even the above poster is more action oriented than the earlier Pixar film posters. Yet, younger and older kids still came and loved it; and teens, of which I was one, also came and loved it; and of course adults like my father came and loved it too, proving that the Pixar magic was still there. Both of these films also won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.
To be honest, I thought that Cars was too much of a “kid flick” and it is the only Pixar film that I have not seen. The premise just didn’t seem interesting to an older kid audience. But the Pixar magic was still there, as Cars easily became the top animated film of the year, but failed to win the Oscar. The premise for Ratatouille puts a rat in a restaurant’s kitchen and asks us to root for him to stay there. Again, this film did not appeal to me, so I passed on seeing it at the theater. But during my flight to London in 2008, Ratatouille was one of the film’s being shown on the airplane. Even on the small back-of-the-seat eight-inch screen, the magic of Pixar and of this film shown through with strong characters and excellent animation.
WALL-E was my first animated feature film as an adult. Besides being hugely enjoyable, with truly out of this world animation (pun intended), WALL-E was the most nominated Pixar film at the Academy Awards with six nominations. It once again followed the Pixar mantra of winning the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Although a difficult choice, I can honestly say that Up has become my favorite Pixar animated feature film. It is the first Pixar film done in 3D, and as ridiculous as the premise for the film seemed, I found myself rooting for the main characters, while being amazed at the detail of the 3D CGI animation. Obviously I was not the only one impressed by this movie, as it was the first Pixar film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Toy Story 3 is the next feature film in line to be released by Pixar, and I will see it for old-time sake. It looks like the Pixar juggernaut still has a lot of life left in it. To date Pixar films have earned numerous awards, including twenty-two Academy Awards (with over 50 nominations), four Golden Globes, and three Grammys. On the business side of the equation, Pixar films have grossed of $5 billion at the box office, and billions more in video/DVD and merchandise sales.
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