"Story is king."— Pixar company motto
Once upon a time,
George Lucas used some of his money to form a new division at Lucasarts 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, who created a CGI short entitled
The Adventures of Andre and 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 ten million dollars. 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.
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 have issues, Disney gets a new boss, Pixar and Disney kiss and make up, Disney buys Pixar for more than
seven billion dollars (for scale, when they bought the entire Marvel empire it cost four billion), making Jobs' ten-million-dollar purchase a real steal, and all is well.
When Pixar makes a movie, more often than not, it will be well done
at worst. 12 out of the 13 films released so far (
Cars 2 being the odd one out) 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 (and second CGI 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 (the third has a 99% rating) and their fourth-lowest rated movie (
A Bug's Life) has a 92% rating. 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 (the studio's two highest-rated films on the site,
WALL•E &
Toy Story 3, currently have a score of 8.5/10). 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.
Of course, if you think they're not business-minded, keep in mind that their films have never failed financially, either. Out of their films, only three (
Toy Story,
A Bug's Life and
Cars 2) 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; the studio's highest-grossing film,
Toy Story 3 made over a billion dollars worldwide (becoming the highest-grossing animated film of all time and the first animated film to earn a billion). The average domestic box office take of a Pixar film is around $250 million, and all of their films have made over six billion dollars in combined domestic and foreign box office take. Also worth noting: every single Pixar film has opened at the #1 spot in the weekend box office. Sans
Brave (while still a respectable #13), 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:
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
- The Good Dinosaur (2014) — Explores what would have happened if the asteroid had not driven the dinosaurs to extinction, and they instead have survived to the present day where they can even talk to humans. Directed by Bob Peterson, this will be his first film to be directed on his own after co-directing Monsters, Inc. and Up.
- Inside Out (2015) — Explores the inner workings of a little girl's mind and the various characters who represent her thoughts and emotions. To be directed by Pete Docter and co-directed by Ronnie del Carmen.
- Finding Dory (2015) — A sequel to Finding Nemo.
- Pixar has also announced two as-yet untitled projects and one sequel:
For a list of the studio's shorts,
go here.
There is an
Xbox 360 Kinect video game featuring characters from
The Incredibles,
Cars,
Ratatouille,
Up, and the
Toy Story franchise called
Kinect Rush A Disney Pixar Adventure.
To get a little information about the people behind the 'toons,
go here.
There's also
this, if you want to know everything about Pixar's early history.
Tropes associated with Pixar include:
- 3-D Movie: Starting with Up.
- All Animation Is Disney: Routinely subverted now, since Disney bought Pixar in 2006.
- Though it's also created its own subtrope in the idea that All CGI Animation Is Pixar.
- All-CGI Cartoon: Trope Maker, with Toy Story.
- Animation Bump: Pixar often make noticeable technology developments in between films, such as animation of fur in Monsters Inc and water in Finding Nemo.
- Arc Number: A113, See More Below.
- Arch-Competitor: With DreamWorks Animation, though greatly exaggerated by Dreamworks' Hatedom.
- Author Appeal: Butt-pinching comes up in The Incredibles (Mr. and Mrs. Parr), Cars and the ''El Materador" short (The old lady car slapping "Nice Butte" stickers on cars' behinds, Mater and the two Miatas, via yanking their rear bumpers with his crane), and Brave (The King and Queen Elinor).
- Avoid The Dreaded G Rating: Averted; at present, of their many films, only three of them are rated PG (although some have argued that Toy Story 3 and/or Cars 2 deserved such a rating).
- In the UK, the original Toy Story is rated PG.
- Black and White Morality: All Pixar films thus far...
- Breakthrough Hit: Toy Story
- Broken Streak: After 11 consecutive films with a Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Cars 2 is released to 39% on RT. Cue Internet Backdraft.
- Also, ever since the Academy Awards established the "Best Animated Feature" category in 2001, Pixar films have been inevitably nominated... until Cars 2.
- Cash Cow Franchise: Merchandise for the Cars series has been noted to sell extremely well.
- Continuity Nod: They frequently reference past productions, from shorts (Luxo Jr.'s ball is a frequent sight) to movies (the Pizza Planet truck being the most blatant example)
- Doing It for the Art: Steve Jobs spent a fortune on this small company that no one knew about for a decade before they exploded into fame.
- Dub Name Change/Theme Naming: The release of Pixar movies in Chinese-speaking countries often leads to them being renamed "X Team" in Mandarin, a practice that even spreads to some non-Pixar CGI animated movies. Hence, Toy Story = "Toys Team", A Bug's Life = "Insects Team" etc. This sometimes leads to a Title Drop in the Mandarin dubs, like at the end of Cars.
- Dueling Movies: Averting this trope is the reason Pixar stopped production on Newt (Blue Sky's Rio had roughly the same plot).
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The happy endings never come easy in Pixar movies.
- Genre Busting: Their films tend towards this.
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Pixar employees sometimes voice their characters rather than hiring outside actors. This results in some recognizable voices between the different films.
- John Ratzenberger has done a voice in EVERY Pixar movie to date.
- Joe Ranft played Lenny in Toy Story, Heimlich in A Bug's Life, Wheezy in Toy Story 2, Jacques in Finding Nemo, and numerous minor roles in other Pixar films until his death in 2005.
- Brad Garrett voices Dim in A Bug's Life, Bloat in Finding Nemo, Gusteau in Ratatouille, and Toque in the Toy Story spinoff series Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command
- Jonathan Harris voices Manny in A Bug's Life, Geri the Cleaner in Toy Story 2, and Era in a few episodes of Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command
- Bonnie Hunt is Rosie in A Bug's Life, Sally in the Cars movies and Dolly in Toy Story 3.
- Richard Kind is Molt in A Bug's Life, Van in the Cars movies, and Bookworm in Toy Story 3
- Lou Romano is Linguini from Ratatouille, Snot Rod in Cars, and Bernie the Teacher from The Incredibles.
- Michael Keaton is Ken in Toy Story 3 and Chick Hicks in the Cars franchise
- Wallace Shawn voices Rex in the Toy Story films and Bob's irritable boss in The Incredibles
- Wayne Knight voices Al in Toy Story 2 and Zurg in Buzz Lightyear Of Star Command
- Ink Suit Actor: Several of the characters in the Cars films are based on a certain vehicle associated with their actor (i.e. Sig Hansen as a sentient version of the Northwestern).
- Most Writers Are Male: John Lasseter on why Pixar hasn't had a female main character before Brave: "We're a bunch of guys".
- Not so Above It All: Literal example: Cars 2 is the first Pixar movie to ever receive a "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
- Once an Episode/Running Gag/Early-Bird Cameo: The Pizza Planet truck, giving a role to John Ratzenberger in every film, putting a cameo of a character from the next film to be released, and the one listed in Shout Out.
- Otaku: Watch some of their movies and just look at how many references they make to Japan. Lasseter is a long time admirer of Hayao Miyazaki, they've become professional friends, and Miyazaki's stamp of approval was instrumental in helping Toy Story catch on in Japan. Disney, under the direction of a Pixar-related employee, is the only studio Miyazaki blesses with English dubs of his work.
- Lassetter even flew Japanese girl group Perfume to the premiere of Cars 2 and surprised them with full knowledge of their back catalogue during lunch together. They recorded a J-Pop single for the film in which the characters visit Tokyo.
- Papa Wolf: About half of Pixar's male leads are fathers (Bob Parr, Marlin) or substitute fathers (Sulley, Carl, arguably Woody and Buzz) whose main conflict in their respective movies is both protecting their children (or just being there for them, as with Woody's case) as well as dealing with the physical and emotional baggage of that responsibility. Considering that many of Pixar's Regulars were starting to have families of their own during Pixar's earlier filmmaking years, it makes more than enough sense.
- Production Foreshadowing: Happens enough times for a Pixar movie being the page image.
- Serendipity Writes the Plot: By the early 1990s, everything CG was kinda plastic... so Pixar did a film starring plastic characters. Then computer technology allowed to depict living animals better (bugs, furry/scaly creatures, fish, and then humans).
- Scenery Porn: The Incredibles's commentary mentions having entire meetings devoted to the placement of the food at the dinner table during one scene.
- Shared Universe: Could possibly be one for, at least, some of the films and shorts.
- Shout Out: A113 shows up in every Pixar film.
- Shown Their Work: While Pixar does mix some things around for the sake of Artistic License, it plays this very straight.
- Stunt Casting: Subverted! Pixar certainly has commendable star power for each film, but make it a point to match the actor to the character, not vice versa.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Many a Pixar hero doesn't get along well with his co-protagonist or sidekick for most the film.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Despite the fact that the morality is clear, the villains usually have a good motivation (or a Freudian Excuse) to make them less straight-up evil. Pete Docter said that a the regular "doing evil for evil" villain is not a "real" one.
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