It all started in 1979 when George Lucas recruited Ed catmull to lead the lucasfilm computer division, in order to further advance the technology in film and explore computer graphics to a new level. Soon after, John Lasseter joined the lucasfilms group. Eventually leading to their first animated short called “the Adventures of Andre and Wally B.”, this short was significant because it displayed newfound advances in animated technology such as complex flexible characters, hand-painted textures, and motion blur.
In 1986, Steve Jobs bought the Lucasfilms computer graphics division and with it’s 44 employees at the time, created Pixar, the name of the newly formed independent company. Soon after, their first animated short as Pixar was released called Luxo Jr. (which the main character of the short would later on became the Pixar mascot). It became the first 3-D computer animated short which also was nominated for the best Animated short film for the Academy Awards.
After a few more shorts with “Red’s Dream”, “Tin Boy”, and “knick knack”, which made more small advances into effects, in !991, Pixar made a deal with Disney to release a full feature length animated movie. The movie eventually became Toy Story, it became the highest grossing movie of 1995 and sold over $300 million in the box-office, and has become one of the most influential and revolutionary animated movies to date. After that, Pixar was on a roll with animated hit move after another, from “a bug’s life”, “Monsters INC”, “The Incredibles”, as well as highly critically acclaimed like “Finding Nemo”, “Wall-E”, and “Up”. Becoming more detailed and realistic with their animation and continue with their advances with the program they perfected to a point.
Their deal with Disney made their empire expand and achieve creativity and greatness that deeply benefitted both sides. With releasing both movies and animated shorts at the same time Pixar became the staple format for animated features. It wasn’t until 2011 when their winning streak came to a close with animated releases such as “Cars 2”, “Brave”, and “Monster’s University”, that received poor reviews by critics and audiences a like. It wasn’t until 2015’s release of “Inside Out” that silenced critiques of Pixar losing it’s magic. With Pixar in what seems to be going back to their creative roots, they are back on track with releases of “The Good Dinosaur” and :”Finding Dory”, they continue to grow and learn from the past in order to tell visually interesting stories yet again.
Pixar films are not realistic. They are believable for the worlds we are creating. -John Lasseter
In Hollywood, they think drawn animation doesn't work anymore, computers are the way. They forget that the reason computers are the way is that Pixar makes good movies. So everybody tries to copy Pixar. They're relying too much on the technology and not enough on the artists. -Tim Burton
Computers don't create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist. -John Lasseter
