(gentle music)
- [Voiceover] Most of us know Pixar as the established
dominating animation studio that it is today,
responsible for some of the greatest
animated movies of our time.
But the truth is that this massively successful studio
came from a very humble beginnings.
In fact, on it's first few years
the studio was constantly on the verge of bankruptcy,
losing millions of dollars
even after the success of Toy Story.
In this video I'll tell you the story behind Pixar
and how founding it was made possible thanks
to three very different people
with very different talents.
(popping)
(rhythmic techno music)
The story of how Pixar came to be
revolves around three major players,
an artist,
a scientist,
and a businessman.
All three working together yet separately
to one day find each other and create something amazing.
The artist of this story is a guy
named John Lasseter.
You've probably heard that name.
John would become an Academy Award winning director
responsible for some of Pixar's greatest films
including Toy Story.
But back in 1975 he was a freshman
at a brand new program at CalArts
losing Disney style animation.
The program was taught by industry legends
including some of Disney's Nine Old Men.
His classmates included Tim Burton and Brad Bird
who would later become prolific filmmakers themselves.
This was a very exciting and creative environment
for an animation student.
During his time at CalArts John created
two student Academy Award winning films
and after graduation he got his dream job,
he was hired by the Walt Disney Animation Studios.
(dramatic music)
During his time at Disney working as an animator
he stumbled upon computer animation.
He had an idea for making an animated film
using computer graphics for the environment
and pencil animation for the characters.
He pitched that idea to Disney executives
and they told him,
"The only reason we would consider
"using computer for animation
"is if it will make it faster or cheaper."
Shortly after that pitch John was fired from the studio.
At about the same time George Lucas
hired a guy named Ed Catmull
to develop a film editing system
and digital sound editing system,
all to advance the computer graphics
and create ground breaking visual effects for his films.
Ed Catmull grew up loving animation,
watching cartoons and all Disney films
his entire childhood.
He gave up his dream of becoming an animator,
thinking he wasn't good enough
and pursued a career in science.
He studied computer science in the University of Utah
where he earned his doctorate and has made
ground breaking work in the field of computer imagery.
He was then asked to run the computer graphics lab
in the New York Institute of technology.
Ed was a brilliant scientist responsible for some
of the most commonly used principles of computer animation
such as Z-buffer,
texture mapping,
and subdivision surfaces.
He basically invented 3D graphics as we know it.
While working at Lucas Films
Ed asked John to join his division
after meeting him at an industry event.
Nothing having the same dream of one day
making the first computer animated feature film.
The two hit it off right away,
but at that time,
1983,
that dream was still far away.
(lighthearted music)
That division in Lucas Films,
then called the Computer Graphics Division,
produced some of the most revolutionary
uses of computer imagery in films for that time.
They produced the first completely computer generated
scene in Star Trek Wrath of Khan
and the first computer generated character
for Young Sherlock Holmes.
Within that small division John made the world's
first animated short film using computer animation,
The Adventures of Andre and Wally B.
Creating such complex imagery required building
a powerful custom made computer.
That computer was called the Pixar Image Computer.
Because of the high demand for computer imagery
and advanced computer graphics in other industries
the computer graphics division was reimagined as Pixar.
Still dreaming on making a computer animated
full length feature,
a dream George Lucas had no interest in,
Ed looked for an investor to find
such a huge undertaking.
But for a long time there were no takers.
Meanwhile at Cupertino,
Steve Jobs who was recently fired from Apple
founded his next company called,
well, NeXT.
Steve was one of the prospect investors
called to take a look at Pixar
and he decided to invest.
He bought Pixar from George Lucas for five million dollars,
throwing an additional five million
to keep the company running.
After the acquisition the team wanted
to make another animated short to establish who they were
and stay on the track of filmmaking.
John, who loved animating inanimate objects,
single handedly animated a short film
about a lamp and it's offspring titled,
Luxo Junior.
That short film was later nominated
for an Academy Award and was the first
computer generated short to ever receive that nomination.
The lamp from that film then became Pixar's mascot.
Despite the massive potential though,
Pixar was still struggling.
They were licensing their rendering software.
RenderMan,
which became the industry standard
for visual effects in films used in major pictures
such as Jurassic Park.
But despite that they still couldn't turn a profit.
They started doing commercials,
getting clients like Trident and Tropicana.
They did medical visualization,
seismic imaging,
they sold their hardware,
the Pixar Image Computer, which was very expensive.
Yet with all their effort they couldn't make
their product commercially viable enough
to sustain themselves.
Steve Jobs was losing about one million dollars
every year for five years.
The dire financial problems didn't stop the team
from making more computer animated shorts.
Their third film,
Tin Toy,
telling the story of toys trying to escape
a terrifying baby won the Academy Award in 1988.
Disney, who not that long ago before had fired John,
saw the success of his shorts and asked him to come back
and direct a feature film for them.
This was a life long dream for John
and he was currently working on a company
on the brink of bankruptcy.
Yet he refused Disney
and he stayed with Pixar
still dreaming to make the first
computer animated feature film.
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After the success of Tin Toy
the idea of an entire film from the toy's point of view
stuck with them.
And despite refusing Disney not too long beforehand,
he knew that if he wanted to make a fully length film
they would need the financial support of a larger studio
for marketing and distribution.
Disney was the perfect candidate.
He pitched them the idea and they loved it.
At that time animated feature had only one style,
the Disney style.
That style was so established that when Tom Hanks
was asked to do the voice for the film he asked,
"You're not gonna make me sing, are ya?"
But the people at Pixar wanted to do it differently.
They had a set of rules they set for themselves.
There would be no songs.
♫ Mister I'll make a man
♫ Out of you ♫
No "I want" moment.
♫ I want to be where the people are ♫
No happy village.
♫ Bojour
♫ Bojour, Bojour, Bojour ♫
No love story.
♫ Can you feel the love ♫
And no villain.
This went against everything that was
proving to be working in the animation industry at the time.
Despite their drive to do something different
Disney executives were at their backs
giving them notes and ideas.
They were the experienced studio,
they though they knew what makes animated films work.
After a year of preparation,
working on story boards and story reels,
guided by Disney they screened the pitch
of what would later become Toy Story.
Disney hated it.
It wasn't funny,
it wasn't moving,
Woody was a horrible character.
The film was clearly not working,
Disney shut down production the next day.
(lighthearted music)
This could have been the end for Pixar.
However, John did not give up
on the story he believed in.
Within a period of three weeks
with a talented yet small team
he completely re-did the story like originally he wanted to
without all the notes and ideas
from experienced Disney executives.
They had a second screening
and this time the story worked,
production was back on track.
The film took almost five years to make,
and in 1995 it was released to become
the highest grossing film of that year,
making 192 million dollars domestically
and 362 million dollars worldwide.
The film got three Oscar nominations
and John received a special achievement award
for making the first computer animated feature film.
It seemed that Pixar was is the clear,
the studio was now a success and their worries were over.
But that was not the case.
There was one big problem.
According to the deal they made with Disney
Pixar didn't have the rights to any of the profits
for merchandise,
and in fact barely made any money from the film.
They were still struggling financially.
They decided that their only choice was to go public
in order to raise capital.
They went on to be the biggest IPO of 1995,
exceeding even Netscape,
raising 132 million dollars.
(gentle music)
Disney wanted to renew their agreement
to distribute more Pixar films,
and they signed a new contract to produce
five more films together over the period of 10 years,
this time dividing the profits 50/50.
Pixar was still, however,
a single success story so far,
not sure if Toy Story was just a fluke.
So it was their second film that would
determine the future of the studio.
Luckily A Bug's Life would become the most successful
animated film of that year.
The studio started growing rapidly
and their headquarters became too small
to host the number of people in it.
Steve had his eyes on a huge lot in Emeryville
and there he designed the new Pixar headquarters
based around the idea of open space
and unplanned collaboration.
A huge space where people from different departments
can run into each other instead of being segregated
in small rooms on different floors.
And then finally in 2000 the Pixar team
had moved to it's new location
and stayed there ever since.
The proceeded to break their own records
time and time again,
making some of the most successful
animated films in history.
But troubles were still to come,
the contract with Disney was up
and their relationship went sour.
That could have been the end for their collaboration,
but Disney had the rights to keep making sequels
to Pixar films if they wanted to,
and John couldn't bear the thought of it.
It was like having your kids
begin raised by someone else.
Luckily for everyone Disney went through
a much needed change of leadership
and Bob Iger took over as president.
With the goal of reviving the Disney studio
back to it's glory days,
on his first week as president
Bob called Steve for a meeting.
He wanted to merge the two companies together,
feeling that Pixar knew something that Disney had forgotten.
This seemed like a horrible thought
to the people working at Pixar
after their negative experience with Disney,
and the fear of losing their identity was great.
But Steve felt that Bob was different
and had the right idea for the future
of the two companies.
They worked hard for a long time on a contract
and in 2006 Disney bought Pixar
for 7.4 billion dollars.
That deal made Steve Jobs the largest shareholder at Disney,
John Lasetter the chief creative officer
of both Disney and Pixar,
including overseeing all of Disney's theme parks,
and Ed Catmull the president of Pixar
and Disney animation studios.
(gentle music)
The studio went on to keep producing hit after hit,
winning multiple Academy Awards.
And in 2010 Toy Story 3 became the highest grossing
animated film of all time.
After years of struggle,
uncertainty,
and living in fear of shutting down
Pixar had made it
all thanks to the devotion and talent of one artist,
one scientist,
and one businessman.
Thanks for watching.