Pixar+Animation



(Time Frame: 1980s- present day)

News Story: Pixar Makes Its Move Whatever happened to the old classic Disney Films? Well due to the advancement of Pixar in the 90’s and the 2000’s, traditional animated films have become obsolete. The classics such as //Cinderella// and //The Beauty and the Beast// have been replaced by childhood favorites such as //Finding Nemo// and //Monsters Inc.// The Pixar Company has been associated with Disney since 1990. Pixar had been in a whole lot of trouble when they joined with Disney to form in terms of profits and awards won, one of the most successful animated movies of all time. //Toy Story// was the cartoon that put the Pixar Company on the map. There are the loveable characters from Woody to Buzz to all the other toys in Andy’s room. The movie created many different spinoffs and video games that were related to the film. America had not fallen in love with an animated film in years, but they fell in love with Toy Story. They fell in love with it because Pixar made it great. People loved the computer animation processing that Pixar used to create the characters. It was something that nobody had ever seen before. The first thing a movie needs is great actors. //Toy Story// had that as they had legendary actors Tom Hanks and Tim Allen playing the major parts of Woody and Buzz. Along with Don Rickles, Wallace Shawn, and John Ratzenberger who also voiced characters. The budget for the movie was $30 million and since it is animated they did not need to spend as much money as a real life movie. The gross amount of money that Pixar made with //Toy Story// was off the charts. They grossed almost $362 million in revenue. Famous quotes from the movie such as “To Infinity and Beyond” was soon adopted in the pop culture lexicon. Pixar later worked with Disney to make the movie //Toy Story 2//, and then later //Toy Story 3//. All of the movies were big hits among children and adults alike and it led to the merger with Disney. When Disney bought and merged with the Pixar Company in January of 2006, the animation titan spent $7.4 billion in the contract. Steve Jobs, who was a majority shareholder with Pixar, now became the largest shareholder in the Disney Company. The first big animated movie that the new company created was //Cars//. Months after the movie was released there was merchandise and even replica cars of the ones in the movie being made and displayed. There are cases of people making a replica car of Lightning McQueen or Tow Mater and displaying them in a parade or in their garage. Other movies made by Disney-Pixar have been commercially successful. The most popular of these movies are the animated films //Wall-E// and //Up//. Both of these movies are huge hits among children and are well known among kids and their parents. Unlike some children’s movies, Pixar movies can have something that would be entertaining for everyone in the family to watch. Movie critic Roger Ebert said “I thought I had exhausted my emergency supply of childlike credulity, but these are movies you can enjoy even though you’re grown up.” There is the cute storylines that the children love and the reason why they go to the movies in the first place. Unlike other movies though there is hidden adult humor that overpasses the kids heads but makes the parents laugh and makes their visit to the movies worthwhile. By the awards that Pixar has received over the years they have been the most successful movie making companies of all time. For the movie //Toy Story// alone, it was either nominated or received an award for best animation, best original screenplay, best writing, producing, music and directing. Other movies to win a number of awards were //A Bug’s Life, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc.// and //The Incredibles,// among others. The movies //Up// and //Toy Story// were also nominated for best picture, the first time that has happened since //Beauty and The Beast//. Anthony Lane a film critic from __The New Yorker__, claimed that “Pixar produces the only movies that people want to see because the movie is made by Pixar.” This is a high standard that many studios have had difficulty matching.

Survey result. In a survey taken with 69 Hopewell students and staff it showed that when asked the question "How many films by Pixar or Dreamworks have you seen?" 82% or 57 out of 69 said they have seen 5 or more.

Links: [] This is an RSS feed about everything in the popular Pixar film //Toy Story.// There is everything from animated shorts to reviews on all three of the movies that were released in theaters. [] This feed is about how Pixar has really grown. They have gone from a company that no one really knew about to arguably the most successful company in animated film-making history. media type="youtube" key="PvCWPZfK8pI" height="349" width="425"

Here is an early short film by the company before they produced animated films. It defined the look and logo of the company. The lamps have become synonymous with what Pixar is. When people see the lamps, people immediately think of Pixar, and this was how it all started.

By Kyle Wert