Welcome to Pixar

16 July 2008

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Dreamworks may have released their animation effort for the summer in the form of Kung Fu Panda but this weeks sees giants Pixar release Wall-E.

Wall-E is just the latest in a long line of Pixar movies that have received critical acclaim as well as doing well at the box office making them the dominating studio in the animation film genre.

A CGI animation studio their cutting edge methods have brought to life some of cinemas most memorable characters as well as producing some of the most technically accomplished movies revitalising the animation picture.

Founded in 1979 Pixar was a part of Lucasfilm before it was bought by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple in 1986.

After the take over Pixar was a high end computer company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a graphics designing computer.

Despite Disney being one of the leading buyers for the product John Lasseter was brought into the company to boost the sales of the system.

With Lasseter on board the animation department began producing computer-animated adverts and in 1991 this lead to a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three features using computer-animation.

In 1995 the first Pixar/Disney feature collaboration Toy Story was released to critical acclaim and a $354.3 worldwide gross, Pixar's dominance had begun.

Despite the following success of Toy Story 2, A Bug's Life and Monster's Inc Pixar and Disney were struggling to reach a new deal as Pixar believed that the deal was not equitable, Pixar was responsible for creation and production, while Disney handled marketing and distribution. Profits and production costs were split 50-50, but Disney exclusively owned all story and sequel rights and also collected a distribution fee.

The lack of story rights was a major sticking issue for Pixar but in 2006 Disney bought them in 2006 for $7.4 billion and their popularity and the quality of their movies soared.

The Top Five Pixar Movies

1. Finding Nemo

Finding Nemo cemented Pixar as the leading producers of quality animation when it was released in 2005.

Marlin (voiced by Albert Brooks), is an overprotective clown fish father, as he desperately searches the sea for his missing son, Nemo (Alexander Gould).

Marlin's journey leads him beyond the Great Barrier Reef into deeper and darker waters, where he meets Dory (Ellen DeGeneres), a forgetful yet optimistic blue tang, and a number of not-so-friendly, and often very hungry, aquatic creatures.

Meanwhile, little Nemo finds himself in a dentist's fish tank in Syndey, Australia, along with other underwater captives, including Gill (Willem Dafoe), the group's scarred Moorish idol leader.

As Nemo works with his new friends on a plan to escape their tank, Marlin and Dory swim closer, but they'll need more than just fins to get into the dentist's office.

The film was a box office smash, and remains Pixar's most successful movie as it grossed over $864 million worldwide and won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature.

2. Monster's Inc

2001 release Monster's Inc was the fourth release from the studio and continued their success as they showed another leap in technology with what was their most advanced movie to date.

Mike and Sully work at Monsters, Inc., a gigantic corporation that captures the screams of little children and turns them into energy.

To make the children scream, the monsters must enter each child's bedroom through the closet door, then deliver a frightening affront.

The only problem is, kids aren't scared anymore. And because of this problem, Monsters, Inc. is in a jam. But when one little girl, Boo (Mary Gibbs), follows Sully through her closet door and into the factory, she brings an even more dire issue to the fore: the monsters are actually terrified of children.

The film paired up Billy Crystal, John Goodman as the voiced of Mike and Sulley with a witty script that was appealing to both adults and children.

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