Coordinates	13°22′27″N39°56′18″N
name	Pixar Animation Studios
logo	250pxPixar Company Logo (1995–present)
company type	Subsidiary
predecessor	Graphics Group (1979–1986)
foundation	as Graphics Group| as Pixar}}

| founder = }} | defunct = | location_city = Emeryville, California | location_country = US | parent = Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group (since 2006) | locations = | area_served = | key_people = | industry = | products = RenderMan, Marionette, Tractor | production = | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = The Walt Disney Company | parent = Walt Disney Pictures | num_employees = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = pixar.com | footnotes = | intl = }} Pixar Animation Studios, commonly referred to as simply Pixar (pronounced and stylized as PIXAR), is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio has earned 26 Academy Awards, seven Golden Globes, and three Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Its films have made over $6.3 billion worldwide. It is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images.

Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm before it was acquired by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 1986. The Walt Disney Company bought Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion; the transaction made Jobs the largest shareholder in Disney.

Pixar has produced twelve feature films, beginning with ''Toy Story'' in 1995. It was followed by ''A Bug's Life'' in 1998, ''Toy Story 2'' in 1999, ''Monsters, Inc.'' in 2001, ''Finding Nemo'' in 2003, ''The Incredibles'' in 2004, ''Cars'' in 2006, ''Ratatouille'' in 2007, ''WALL-E'' in 2008, ''Up'' in 2009, ''Toy Story 3'' (to date, the highest-grossing animated film of all-time, grossing over $1 billion worldwide) in 2010, and ''Cars 2'' in 2011. Eleven of the films have received critical and financial success, with the notable exception being ''Cars 2'', which received substantially less praise than Pixar's previous films. The $602 million average gross of their films is by far the highest of any studio in the industry.

All the films produced by Pixar are among the fifty highest grossing animated films of all time. ''Finding Nemo'', ''Up'' and ''Toy Story 3'' made it to the top 50 list of highest-grossing films of all time, with ''Toy Story 3'' at #7, ''Finding Nemo'' at #25, and ''Up'' at #43.

All eight Pixar films released since the inauguration of the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001 have been nominated for that award, commencing with ''Monsters, Inc.''. Six of the eight have won the award: ''Finding Nemo'', ''The Incredibles'', ''Ratatouille'', ''WALL-E'', ''Up'' and ''Toy Story 3''. ''Up'' and ''Toy Story 3'' are among the only three animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

On September 6, 2009, executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement by the Biennale Venice Film Festival. The award was presented by Lucasfilm founder George Lucas.

History

Early history

Pixar was founded as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm that was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Dr. Ed Catmull from the New York Institute of Technology (NYIT), where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL). At NYIT, the researchers had pioneered many of the CG techniques and worked on an experimental film called ''The Works''. After moving to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called Motion Doctor, which allowed traditional cel animators to use computer animation with minimal training.

The team began working on film sequences produced by Lucasfilm or worked collectively with Industrial Light & Magic on special effects. After years of research, and key milestones in films such as the Genesis Effect in ''Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan'' and the Stained Glass Knight in ''Young Sherlock Holmes'', the group, which numbered about 45 individuals back then, was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer. Jobs paid $5 million to George Lucas and put $5 million as capital into the company. A factor contributing to Lucas' sale was an increase in cash flow difficulties following his 1983 divorce, which coincided with the sudden dropoff in revenues from ''Star Wars'' licenses following the release of ''Return of the Jedi'' and the disastrous box-office performance of ''Howard the Duck''. The newly independent company was headed by Jobs, who served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Pixar. Dr. Edwin Catmull served as Chief Technology Officer and Dr. Alvy Ray Smith as Executive Vice President and Director. In 2001, Edwin Catmull was named President of Pixar.

Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer, a system primarily sold to government agencies and the medical community. One of the buyers of Pixar Image Computers was Disney Studios, which was using the device as part of their secretive CAPS project, using the machine and custom software to migrate the laborious ink and paint part of the 2-D animation process to a more automated and thus efficient method. The Image Computer never sold well. In a bid to drive sales of the system, Pixar employee John Lasseter—who had long been creating short demonstration animations, such as ''Luxo Jr.'', to show off the device's capabilities—premiered his creations at SIGGRAPH, the computer graphics industry's largest convention, to great fanfare.

As poor sales of Pixar's computers threatened to put the company out of business, Lasseter's animation department began producing computer-animated commercials for outside companies. Early successes included campaigns for Tropicana, Listerine, and LifeSavers. In April 1990 Jobs sold Pixar's hardware division, including all proprietary hardware technology and imaging software, to Vicom Systems, and transferred 18 of Pixar's approximate 100 employees. The same year Pixar moved from San Rafael to Richmond, California. During this period, Pixar continued its relationship with Walt Disney Feature Animation, a studio whose corporate parent would ultimately become its most important partner. In 1991, after a tough start of the year when about 30 employees in the company's computer department had to go (including the company's president, Chuck Kolstad), which reduced the total number of employees to just 42, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was ''Toy Story''. At that point, the software programmers, who were doing RenderMan and CAPS, and Lasseter’s animation department, who made television commercials and a few shorts for Sesame Street, was all that was left of Pixar.

Despite the total income of these products, the company was still losing money, and Jobs often considered selling it. Even as late as 1994, Jobs contemplated selling Pixar to other companies, among them Microsoft. Only after confirming that Disney would distribute ''Toy Story'' for the 1995 holiday season did he decide to give it another chance. The film went on to gross more than $350 million worldwide. Later that year, Pixar held its initial public offering on November 29, 1995, and the company's stock was priced at US$22 per share.

Disney

Pixar and Disney had disagreements after the production of ''Toy Story 2''. Originally intended as a straight-to-video release (and thus not part of Pixar's three-picture deal), the film was eventually upgraded to a theatrical release during production. Pixar demanded that the film then be counted toward the three-picture agreement, but Disney refused. Pixar's first five feature films have collectively grossed more than $2.5 billion, equivalent to the highest per-film average gross in the industry. Though profitable for both, Pixar later complained that the arrangement 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 and sequel rights was perhaps the most onerous aspect to Pixar and set the stage for a contentious relationship.

The two companies attempted to reach a new agreement in early 2004. The new deal would be only for distribution, as Pixar intended to control production and own the resulting film properties themselves. The company also wanted to finance their films on their own and collect 100 percent of the profits, paying Disney only the 10 to 15 percent distribution fee. More importantly, as part of any distribution agreement with Disney, Pixar demanded control over films already in production under their old agreement, including ''The Incredibles'' and ''Cars''. Disney considered these conditions unacceptable, but Pixar would not concede.

Disagreements between Steve Jobs and then Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner made the negotiations more difficult than they otherwise might have been. They broke down completely in mid-2004, with Jobs declaring that Pixar was actively seeking partners other than Disney. Pixar did not enter negotiations with other distributors. After a lengthy hiatus, negotiations between the two companies resumed following the departure of Eisner from Disney in September 2005. In preparation for potential fallout between Pixar and Disney, Jobs announced in late 2004 that Pixar would no longer release movies at the Disney-dictated November time frame, but during the more lucrative early summer months. This would also allow Pixar to release DVDs for their major releases during the Christmas shopping season. An added benefit of delaying ''Cars'' was to extend the time frame remaining on the Pixar-Disney contract to see how things would play out between the two companies.

Pending the Disney acquisition of Pixar, the two companies created a distribution deal for the intended 2007 release of ''Ratatouille'', in case the acquisition fell through, to ensure that this one film would still be released through Disney's distribution channels. (In contrast to the earlier Disney/Pixar deal ''Ratatouille'' was to remain a Pixar property and Disney would have received only a distribution fee.) The completion of Disney's Pixar acquisition, however, nullified this distribution arrangement.

Acquisition by Disney

Disney announced on January 24, 2006 that it had agreed to buy Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Following Pixar shareholder approval, the acquisition was completed May 5, 2006. The transaction catapulted Steve Jobs, who was the majority shareholder of Pixar with 50.1%, to Disney's largest individual shareholder with 7% and a new seat on its board of directors. Jobs' new Disney holdings exceed holdings belonging to ex-CEO Michael Eisner, the previous top shareholder, who still held 1.7%; and Disney Director Emeritus Roy E. Disney, who held almost 1% of the corporation's shares.

Pixar shareholders received 2.3 shares of Disney common stock for each share of Pixar common stock redeemed.

As part of the deal, John Lasseter, by then Executive Vice President, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Pixar and the Walt Disney Animation Studios, as well as the Principal Creative Adviser at Walt Disney Imagineering, which designs and builds the company's theme parks. Catmull retained his position as President of Pixar, while also becoming President of Walt Disney Animation Studios, reporting to Bob Iger and Dick Cook, chairman of Walt Disney Studio Entertainment. Steve Jobs' position as Pixar's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer was also removed, and instead he took a place on the Disney board of directors. Lasseter and Catmull's oversight of both the Disney and Pixar studios did not mean that the two studios were merging, however. In fact, additional conditions were laid out as part of the deal to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity, a concern that analysts had expressed about the Disney deal. Some of those conditions were that Pixar HR policies would remain intact, including the lack of employment contracts. Also, the Pixar name was guaranteed to continue, and the studio would remain in its current Emeryville, California location with the "Pixar" sign. Finally, branding of films made post-merger would be "Disney•Pixar" (beginning with ''Cars'').

Jim Morris, producer of ''WALL-E'', has been named general manager of Pixar. In this new position, Morris is in charge of the day-to-day running of the studio facilities and products.

Expansion

On April 20, 2010, Pixar Animation Studios opened a new studio in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The roughly 2,000 square meters studio is primarily producing shorts and TV-specials based on characters from Pixar's feature films.

Feature films and shorts

Traditions

While some of Pixar's first animators were former cel animators, including John Lasseter, they also came from stop motion animation or computer animation or were fresh college graduates. A large number of animators that make up the animation department at Pixar were hired around the time Pixar released ''A Bug's Life'' and ''Toy Story 2''. Although ''Toy Story'' was a successful film, it was Pixar's only feature film at the time. The majority of the animation industry was, and is still located in Los Angeles, California, while Pixar is located north in the San Francisco Bay Area. Also, traditional 2-D animation was still the dominant medium for feature animated films.

With the dearth of Los Angeles-based animators willing to move their families so far north, give up traditional animation, and try computer animation, Pixar's new-hires at this time either came directly from college, or had worked outside feature animation. For those who had traditional animation skills, the Pixar animation software (Marionette) is designed so that traditional animators would require a minimum amount of training before becoming productive.

In an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley, Lasseter said that Pixar films follow the same theme of self improvement as the company itself has: with the help of friends or family, a character ventures out into the real world and learns to appreciate his friends and family. At the core, Lasseter said, "it's gotta be about the growth of the main character, and how he changes."

Pixar has been criticized for its lack of female protagonists. ''Brave'', Pixar's 13th cinema release, will be the studio's first with a female lead (voiced by Kelly Macdonald).

Sequels and prequels

''Toy Story 2'' was commissioned by Disney as a direct-to-video, 60-minute film. Knowing the material wasn't very good, John Lasseter convinced the Pixar team to start from scratch and make it their third full-length feature film. ''Toy Story 3'' was the second big-screen sequel when it was released on June 18, 2010. ''Cars 2'', the studio's third theatrical sequel, was released on June 24, 2011. On June 27, 2011 Tom Hanks implied that a fourth ''Toy Story'' movie was in the works, but this has not been confirmed by the studio.

Pixar states that they believe that sequels should only be made if they can come up with a story as good as the original. Following the release of ''Toy Story 2'', Pixar and Disney had a gentlemen's agreement that Disney would not make any sequels without Pixar's involvement, despite their right to do so. In 2004, after Pixar announced they were unable to agree on a new deal, Disney announced that they would go ahead with sequels to Pixar's films with or without Pixar. ''Toy Story 3'' was put into pre-production at the new CGI division of Walt Disney Feature Animation, Circle 7 Animation.

When Lasseter was placed in charge of all Disney and Pixar animation following the merger, he immediately put all sequels on hold; Disney stated that ''Toy Story 3'' had been cancelled. However, in May 2006, it was announced that ''Toy Story 3'' was back in pre-production, under Pixar's control when a new plot had been conceived.

Lasseter further fueled speculation on future sequels when he stated, "If we have a great story, we'll do a sequel". ''Cars 2'', Pixar's first sequel not based on ''Toy Story'', was officially announced on April 8, 2008. ''Monsters University'', the prequel to ''Monsters Inc.'' and Pixar's first prequel, was announced on April 22, 2010, for release on November 2, 2012. However, on April 5, 2011, it was announced that the film's release date had been pushed back to June 21, 2013 due to the success of Pixar films that are released in the summer, according to Disney distribution executive Chuck Viane. A sequel to ''The Incredibles'' is also being considered.

Expansion to television

''Toy Story'' was the first Pixar film to be extended into television, with the ''Buzz Lightyear of Star Command'' film and TV series. ''Cars'' was expanded to television via ''Cars Toons'', a series of shorts (three to five minutes) running between regular Disney Channel shows and featuring Mater (the tow truck voiced by comedian Larry the Cable Guy).

Animation and live-action

All Pixar films to date have been computer-animated features (''WALL-E'' has so far been the only Pixar film to not be completely animated, featuring a small live-action element). ''1906'', the live action film by Brad Bird about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake is currently in development. Bird has stated that he was "interested in moving into the live action realm with some projects" while "staying at Pixar [because] it's a very comfortable environment for me to work in."

Product pipeline

In 2008 Pixar announced ''Newt'', a story about the last two blue-footed newts in existence destined to mate to save their species from extinction, scheduled for release in June 2012. This project was to be followed by the fantasy film ''The Bear and the Bow''.

In April 2010, Disney/Pixar announced that, instead, ''The Bear and the Bow'' would be released first, under the new name ''Brave'', followed by a sequel to the 2001 Pixar feature ''Monsters, Inc.'' later that year. Also, ''Newt'' was removed from the official ''Disney A to Z Encyclopedia'' supplement by chief archivist Dave Smith, who confirmed that the film had been cancelled. In May 2011, Pixar COO John Lasseter implied that ''Newt'' had been shelved due to it having a similar plotline to Blue Sky Studios's film ''Rio''.

Exhibitions

Since December 2005, Pixar has held exhibitions celebrating the art and artists of Pixar, over their first twenty years in animation.

''Pixar: 20 Years of Animation''

Pixar held one such exhibition, from April to June 2010, at Science Centre Singapore, in Jurong East, Singapore. It was their first time holding an exhibition in Singapore.

The exhibition highlights consist of work-in-progress sketches from various Pixar productions, clay sculptures of their characters, and an autostereoscopic short showcasing a 3D version of the exhibition pieces which is projected through 4 projectors. Another highlight is the Zoetrope, where visitors of the exhibition are shown figurines of Toy Story characters "animated" in real-life through the zoetrope.

''Pixar: 25 Years of Animation''

Pixar celebrated 25 years of animation in 2011 with the release of its twelfth feature film, ''Cars 2''. Pixar had celebrated its 20th anniversary with the first ''Cars''. The ''Pixar: 25 Years of Animation'' exhibition was held at the Oakland Museum of California from July 2010 until January 2011. The exhibition tour debuts in Hong Kong, and is held at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum in Sha Tin, between March 27 and July 11, 2011.

''Pixar: 25 Years of Animation'' includes all of the artwork from ''Pixar: 20 Years of Animation'', plus art from ''Ratatouille'', ''WALL-E'', ''Up'', and ''Toy Story 3''.

See also

List of Pixar films

List of Pixar shorts

List of Pixar staff

Steve Jobs

The organization of the artist

References

External links

Official Canadian site

List of the 40 founding employees of Pixar

The Pixar Touch blog on Pixar history

Category:American animation studios Category:Companies established in 1979 Category:Companies based in Alameda County, California Category:Disney production studios Category:Emeryville, California Category:Film production companies of the United States Pixar Category:Walt Disney Company subsidiaries

ar:بيكسار zh-min-nan:Pixar Animation Studios bg:Пиксар ca:Pixar cs:Pixar cy:Pixar da:Pixar de:Pixar Animation Studios et:Pixar el:Pixar Animation Studios es:Pixar eo:Pixar eu:Pixar fa:پیکسار fo:Pixar fr:Pixar Animation Studios gl:Pixar ko:픽사 hi:पिक्सार (Pixar) hr:Pixar id:Pixar Animation Studios is:Pixar it:Pixar Animation Studios he:פיקסאר jv:Pixar Animation Studios kn:ಪಿಕ್ಸರ್‌ ka:პიქსარი hu:Pixar mk:Pixar ms:Pixar nl:Pixar Animation Studios ja:ピクサー・アニメーション・スタジオ no:Pixar nn:Pixar pl:Pixar pt:Pixar ro:Pixar Animation Studios ru:Pixar sq:Pixar simple:Pixar sr:Пиксар fi:Pixar sv:Pixar Animation Studios tl:Pixar th:พิกซาร์ tr:Pixar uk:Pixar vi:Pixar zh:皮克斯动画工作室

Coordinates	13°22′27″N39°56′18″N
occupation	Producer, director, writer
website	www.leslieiwerks.com }}

Leslie Iwerks is an American director, producer, and writer. She is also daughter to Disney Legend Don Iwerks and granddaughter to the animator and designer of Mickey Mouse, Ub Iwerks.

Biography

Iwerks attended the University of Southern California, graduating with a B.A. in Production.

In 1999, Walt Disney Pictures released her first feature documentary The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story chronicling the life of her grandfather, Ub Iwerks. She also co-authored an accompanying book of the same title which won the E.G. Lutz Award for top animation book of the year in 2002.

In 2000, Iwerks began working on numerous ethnographic documentaries in Guatemala which culminated in the 2006 film Recycled Life, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Short Documentary category. The film documented the lives of Guatemalans who live and work in the landfill in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

The Pixar Story, which premiered in 2007, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy in the Outstanding Nonfiction Special category.

Current Projects

Iwerks completed Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible in 2010, which chronicles the developments of visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic.

Filmography

Year	Film	Credited As
1999	''The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story''	Producer, Director, Writer
2004	''The Ride''	Director, Co-Producer
	''Pixar's 20th Anniversary Special''	Executive Producer, Director, Writer
''Recycled Life''	Producer, Director, Writer, Editor, Cinematographer
2007	''The Pixar Story''	Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
	''Downstream''	Director, Writer
''Dirty Oil''	Producer, Director, Writer, Editor
2010	''Industrial Light & Magic: Creating the Impossible''	Producer, Director, Writer, Editor

References

External links

Leslie Iwerks

Category:Living people Category:American film directors Category:Documentary filmmakers

es:Leslie Iwerks