Disney-Pixar Turns 25! · FilmFracture

As hard as it may be to believe Pixar Animation turns 25 this year. The brilliant minds, who have made animated films accessible to both adults and children, show no sign of slowing their total domination of the animated film market, much to the joy of many filmgoers. It may not seem like a big deal to celebrate the 25th anniversary of a company, but Pixar is special in a very distinct way; they have consistently produced product that is intelligent, entertaining, and flawless in design. They have also singlehandedly (in lieu of recent achievements by Dreamworks Animation) changed the face of animation forever.

The classic animated features of times past were drawn by hand. Rotoscoping, as a technical term, was common; a most notable example being Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Animation was an artists trade. Each frame drawn by hand, colored in, and matted to create some of the most memorable films in history, such as The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Sleeping Beauty, and many more. The holy grail of animation’s achievements, so to speak. As computer’s took over much of the filmmaking world, from editing to special effects, animators were also forced to adapt and change to the new landscape. No longer was it a hand drawing the images but a computerized “hand”, led by animators, began creating what audiences today have become accustomed with, a method Pixar brought to the mainstream with their first (and the first) feature-length computer animated film, Toy Story (1995).

Pixar officially became Pixar in 1986, after Steve Jobs (yes, that Steve Jobs) purchased the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, Ltd. and established it as an independent company. The same year the very first official Pixar short premiered at Siggraph, Luxo Jr. After years of producing short films, something Pixar continues to do to this day, they entered into an agreement with Walt Disney Studios to produce and distribute a feature length computer animated film. This film would eventually become known as Toy Story, and it would dominate the box-office with an astounding $362 million in worldwide box-office receipts making it the highest grossing film of 1995.

Continuing the partnership with Disney, as the company is now known as Disney-Pixar, there have been to date eleven films theatrically distributed (see below for the titles/year of release). Some have done better than others at the box-office but none have ever fallen short of expectations. All of the films have easily won audiences over with the hyperbolic colors, smooth and subtle character movement, and of course the additional depth of space this new animation provides. As well as the memorable characters like Woody and Buzz, Remy, Sulley and Mike, Lightning McQueen, or Wall-E. Every Pixar film has been a success, and with each one the maturity of computer animation has been shown, as well as the maturity of the storylines the films contain. One could even argue Pixar makes animated films for adults more than they do for children, but considering how much children and adults both enjoy the films it is safe to say Pixar makes movies for generations of filmgoers–a rarity in the motion picture industry landscape.

The old method of hand-drawn animation will never completely leave us, and Walt Disney Pictures continues to produce such films. The Princess and The Frog was a fantastic film full of the classic Disney musical stylings you expect, as well as a progressive storyline for the main female character. Regardless, computer animation has definitely taken over and as much as we may be nostalgic for the soft muted colors of hand drawn animation, with its more two-dimensional beauty and seemingly static backgrounds, there is no denying that Disney-Pixar is not going anywhere, and computer animation has become the norm.

As Disney-Pixar celebrates their 25th anniversary you should celebrate it with them because they have created new classics in animation, and established a level of quality for computer animation that many of their competitors are still trying to achieve. They have also made it alright for adults to admit to seeing an animated film without a child present–that in itself is worth toasting to if anything.

Now for some fun trivia facts about Pixar:

A113 appears in some form or another in every Pixar feature-length film. It refers to the classroom John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton’s had at CalArts. An easy instance to locate is in all of the Toy Story films; it is the license plate number on Andy’s Mom’s minivan. Have some fun and try to find the rest located in: A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall E, Cars and Up.

The Pizza Planet Truck has made a cameo in every Pixar feature-length film. Can you spot it?

There are number of characters of Disney-Pixar films that appear in another form, in another film. As an example, the character Bomb Voyage from The Incredibles makes two appearances in Ratatouille. He appears as a mime on the bridge by Notre Dame when Linguini and Colette skate past. Bomb Voyage’s second appearance is the front-page headline and photo of the newspaper Colette is reading with the Solene Le Claire review.
There are many other instances, try and find them. A hint: many include the Toy Story gang.

Emeryville, California is where Disney-Pixar is located. In their films they love to put a reference to Emeryville hidden somewhere. One instance occurs in Cars, toward the end, just before Lightning McQueen’s Piston Cup championship race, there is a sign for Emeryville and you can also spot the Pixar campus. Have some fun looking for the others…

Disney-Pixar’s Feature Length Films: