Pixar Research Paper

Started in 1979, Pixar, then named the Graphics Group, was a small part of the computer division of Lucasfilm (The History of Pixar). Today, they are a multi-million dollar company booming with success. Now partnering with Disney, Pixar has released seventeen feature films over the past thirty years and has received over 40 Oscar nominations. Although they’ve encountered troubles along the way, Pixar is drastically changing the industry of computer animation.

In the beginning, Pixar was a small portion of Lucasfilm, a company who was then producing special effects for films such as Star Trek and Young Sherlock Holmes. Pixar’s success is suggested to have began in 1986, the year that the company was acquired by Steve Jobs, who later went on

Pixar is known today as a successful movie studio. But its run of films from Toy Story in 1995 to Cars in 2006 is literally only half the company’s story. For all the success of its second decade, Pixar spent much of its first decade struggling to survive, putting together a modest body of work in short film and commercials as it slowly built the technological and creative foundation necessary to achieve its goal" (Paik).

In 1995, they achieved this goal with their first major film: Toy Story, however, they encountered some problems along the way (The History of Pixar).

Before the production of Toy Story, the company first started out their business trying to sell their brand of animation computers, the Pixar Image Computer. They premiered it at SIGGRAPH, an International Computer Graphic Convention, however, they had very poor sales and were almost forced out of business. In order to stay afloat, the company began making computer animated commercials for companies such as LifeSavers, Listerine, and Tropicana. Their commercials bloomed in popularity and in 1990, Job’s began selling hardware to Vicom system. He also made the executive decision to transfer 18 employees. He packed up and moved the company to Richmond, California (The History of

In fear of backtracking and losing success in the company, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three animated films (Evolution of Pixar).

In 1995, Pixar’s success hit it’s peak of the decade, producing its first animated film, Toy Story, on Thanksgiving Day. The film hit the box offices and pulled in $392 million worldwide. After producing Toy Story, Pixar went on to produce more animated commercials and successfully produced 9 ads in 1996. Job’s then left the company, and John Lasseter, the former head animator of Disney, took lead of Pixar (Evolution of Pixar).

In 1998, Pixar’s second animated feature film, A Bug’s Life, was produced, followed by Toy Story 2 in 1992, which won the company a Golden Globe and two Grammys in 2000. They kept a steady release pace, as Monster’s, Inc., released in 2002, was the third highest grossing animated film of all time, and the year's top seller. 2003 brought Finding Nemo, which took the lead as the highest grossing animated film of all time. The company then released The Incredibles in 2004 (Evolution of