PIXAR Animation Studios

Nowadays, most animated films are computer-animated 3-D pictures. We have films such as Monsters vs. Aliens, the upcoming film Up, last year's Bolt and Kung Fu Panda, it's becoming rare that animated films are hand-drawn nowadays. But there was a time when a computer-animated film was a novelty. In 1995, the first full-length animated feature film was released in theaters to critical and commercial success, and won a special Academy Award for its technical achievement of computer animation. That film was Toy Story, about a cowboy doll named Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) who is the leader of all the toys in Andy's room, but that position is threatened with the arrival of Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), the hottest space toy at the time who thinks he is the real Buzz Lightyear. The film went on to earn over $191 million in the U.S. and over $361 million worldwide. It exploded from there with films such as A Bug's Life, Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille and last year's WALL-E. However, before they made these films, PIXAR had a long history before that.
PIXAR was founded as one third of the Computer Graphics division at Lucasfilms back in 1979, and they worked on testing and creating visual effects that are now taken for granted in most films. They pioneered CG techniques that were used in films such as Star Trek II and Young Sherlock Holmes, before being bought by Steve Jobs back in 1986, shortly after Jobs left Apple Computers. George Lucas sold the division after the box-office flop that was his film "Howard the Duck", and the division was named Pixar, which was a fake Spanish word that meant "to make pictures" or "to make pixels" (and if it were really in Spanish, the accent would be on the "a". not the "i", but I do think it's kind of clever). Originally, Pixar was a computer hardware company that sold to government agencies and the medical community, but one of their clients was also the Disney company that wanted to use the technology to make a more automated and efficient process to their animation, rather than the Paint and Ink process they were using. In the meantime, one of their employees by the name of John Lasseter was creating short animation demonstrations to show off what the Pixar Image Computer (their primary product) could do. His most famous demonstration is Luxo Jr. (which is where the lamp logo came from, the lamp that crushed a ball).
Sales for the Pixar Image Computer were low, and with the company threatened to be put out of business, Lasster and his team made various commercials for products such as Listerine and LifeSavers. After several layoffs in 1991, The Walt Disney Company made a $26 million deal with Pixar to produce three animated films, the first of which was Toy Story. It wasn't until it was confirmed that Disney would distribute Toy Story that Steve Jobs decided against selling the company and giving it another shot (since it was costing him so much money to keep).
Disney and Pixar have had a tumultuous relationship over the last few years about control of the films. The original agreement was that Pixar would be in charge of making the films, and Disney would be in charge of distribution. Even though profit and production costs were split down the middle, Disney owned all the sequel and story rights, and they could make sequels without Pixar if they wanted to (even though they preferred to do it with Pixar). Disney and Pixar had a complete falling out in mid-2004, and it was announced that Pixar was actively seeking partners. The Incredibles was ready for release on its original date, but Cars was delayed until the summer of 2006 to allow time for these two companies to reach an agreement, and they created a distribution deal for Ratatouille to be released in the Disney channels, pending an agreement.
On January 24, 2006, Disney announced that it was buying Pixar for $7.4 billion, but a deal was made that it would exist a separate entity, and their next few films would be branded Disney-Pixar. They were also allowed to keep their studio in Emeryville, California, where they currently work.
What's amazing about PIXAR, in watching their movies, is their commitment to story and characters, but particularly the different voices that are present in them. The films work because they don't simply cater to the technology of the time, even though they try to advance the technology (which include a character's fur in films such as Ratatouille and Monsters Inc.) but they attempt to make these films timeless by granting us characters and stories that people can relate to. What people remember most about Toy Story are the characters of Woody and Buzz, and all the other toys in Andy's room. I remember seeing that in theaters for the first time, and becoming scared when I first saw Sid blow up a toy. I haven't missed a Pixar film since, and thus far, WALL-E is my favorite film because of the way it conveys a beautiful love story without much use of dialogue, but also because it's the one that feels the most vivid and real (at least in the scenes that happen on Earth), but I'm also a big fan of Ratatouille because of its infinitely smart and inventive screenplay, the message that speaks to the heart of what it is to be an artist, the creation of food on screen, and the unforgettable characters. My favorite scene in that film is the one where Anton Ego (an iconic performance by Peter O'Toole) tastes the Ratatouille, and has a flashback to how he first came to love food, reminding him why he does this in the first place (since he's introduced as a jaded food critic who didn't believe in the magic of the art anymore).
Pixar also has a great track record with the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. The category first came out in 2001 (when Monsters Inc was nominated) and every Pixar film from then to now has been nominated in that category, and all but two have won (the only two that didn't win were Monsters Inc, which lost to Shrek, and Cars, which lost to Happy Feet). The Incredibles also won an OScar for Sound Effects Editing, the only time for an animated film so far. From its humble beginnings under the Star Wars universe, to being the gold standard for animated films and the company that pioneered computer-animated films, Pixar continues to challenge the audience with less commercial storylines that end up surprising the audience and becoming massive critical and commercial hits. The biggest box-office hit so far is Finding Nemo (which has the inimitable Ellen DeGeneres as a fish with short-term memory loss, a performance that never fails to make me laugh and cry, as well as the story of that film), and with Up being released in 3-D later this year, Pixar hopes to continue their track record and continue to release hit after hit.