It’s November 6, 2014. Tomorrow is the official release of Disney’s newest animated film Big Hero 6 in theaters. I was preparing for the excitement and anxiety this will cause me all week, and I was doing very well. And then this happened:
And all of the world’s Disney, Pixar and animation fans lost their minds. Including me.
This is HUGE news, and the timing of this announcement is very surprising what with Disney’s holiday movie season, including Big Hero 6 and Into the Woods. I think many were also shocked to have such big news made over social media instead of a press conference or something more official. But considering the unconventional nature of Pixar, perhaps we should’ve seen this coming.
In February of 2013, Bloomberg created a short documentary called Inside Pixar. The documentary is available on Netflix and also on Bloomberg’s website. Anchor Carol Massar visited the Pixar headquarters in California and interviewed key creators to learn about the history and vision of the animation studios.
The film opens with an introduction of the Pixar offices, which in my opinion put those of Google and Microsoft to shame. The employees ride scooters around the “campus,” play games and are surrounded by life-size replications of the characters of the Pixar films.
Luxo Jr. the Lamp
And let’s not forget the 29 Oscars that the studios have earned, which are proudly displayed in the lobby. This playful atmosphere is “all in the hopes of creating ‘the next Toy Story’” and as we now know, they are.
We then learn about John Lasseter, the chief creative officer at Pixar and Disney Animation Studios. Lasseter grew up in California, just a half an hour from Disneyland, which he fondly calls his favorite place in the world. As a young boy, he saw Disney’s The Sword and the Stone and decided then that he wanted to be an animator for Walt Disney. To achieve this goal, he enrolled in the California Institute of the Arts in character animation. Lasseter secured a job in Disney animation after graduating, but he was fired after a short time for going around leadership and trying to make a film with 3D backgrounds.
Lasseter then turned to the computer animation sector of Lucasfilm, where he found his risk-taking was more encouraged. In 1984, Lasseter created The Adventures of Andre and Wally B, a short animated film featuring new technology. Shortly after, George Lucas sold the computer animation studios of Lucasfilm to Steve Jobs, and the studio was renamed Pixar. John Lasseter remained part of the studio from this time, and has since seen 13 successful animated films.
Disney was originally the distributor of Pixar films, beginning in 1991, when Pixar signed a $26 million distribution deal with Disney to produce three computer animated films. The first of these films was Toy Story (1995), which was a huge gamble for the studio. Luckily for Pixar, Toy Story grossed $358 million, over 12 times what it cost to make.
In 2006, Disney’s new CEO, Bob Iger, bought Pixar for $7.4 billion. Lasseter then became Creative Principal Advisor of Walt Disney Imagineering, which involves creating new attractions for the Disney theme parks. This role is a dream come true to Lasseter who says, “Everything I do in my life is because of Walt Disney and how he entertained me.”
Over the past 20 years, Pixar has created 13 more hit animated films, all of which earned the No. 1 spot in the box office on their opening weekends. This has included A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University. In 2010, Toy Story 3, referred to as Pixar’s “crown jewel” earned more than $1 billion, and became the highest grossing animated film ever (a title it held onto until a little movie called Frozen shattered box office records in 2013).
Lasseter and the rest of Pixar’s animators and creators value each production as an opportunity to learn and discover new techniques in computer animation. Brave was the first period piece, and the studio’s first challenge to make the history and location believable. The studio was successful in conquering the many obstacles, and Lasseter said he congratulated the staff as he always does by saying: “because of what you did it’s so brilliant, the audience will never notice because it’s so believable.”
The documentary closes with the promising Pixar creations to come and a final quote from Lasseter: “I have the best job in the world. I get in my car. I drive to Pixar. And I know everyday I’m going to see something that I’ve never seen before in my life and no one has.”
And, as we learned today, this “something” just so happens to be Toy Story 4.
What do you think? Are you excited for Toy Story 4? What do you think Pixar can do with the story and characters this time?
{Emily's Flip Book} 