10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pixar

10 Things You Didn’t Know About Pixar 1 Pixar animators are truly dedicated to their craft Pixar has made fourteen feature films till date. The Pixar employees can go to any length to research their topic thoroughly. For instance, for Finding Nemo, two employees of art department clambered into a dead whale to help them in creating life like animation. Since the inauguration of Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2001, several of Pixar’s movies have been nominated regularly. Pixar has earned seven Golden Globe Awards, eleven Grammy Awards, and 27 Academy Award, among several other acknowledgments and awards. Their winning films include Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story 3, Brave, etc. 2 The name ‘Pixar’ was invented by two co-founders Pixar was founded in 1979 as a Graphics Group, as part of Lucasfilm’s computer division. It was only later in 1986 that it started operations as a corporation with funding from Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. The new company had Steve Jobs as its Chairman. The name Pixar coined by Rodney Stock, Aly Ray, and Loren Carpenter is a Spanish made-up word implying “to make pictures.” Ray, coming from a Spanish background, originally has “Pixer” in mind. However, the futuristic ‘Radar’ appealed to Loren Carpenter and hence Carpenter insisted on adding an “ar” since it gave a “high-tech” feeling to it like “radar”. “Pixar” was a result of compromise between the two. 3 Up inspired this incredible real-life house The detailed design of the house in the 2009 Pixar film titled ‘Up’ proved inspirational for Adam Bangerter. He built a life size replica of the house in Salt Lake County city of Utah. It took more than a year to build this house and is believed to be valued around $400,000. The house has helped improve the economy of this small city. This suburb has witnessed a large increase in business and publicity. The city leaders were also extremely thrilled with this house since it has brought the spotlight back to the town, hence they have memorialized its impact with a resolution. 4 ‘A113′ appears in every Pixar movie The mysterious mix of letters and numbers ‘A113′ which can be seen popping up in every Pixar film ever since it came into existence is very well known amongst people within the animation film circles. It is believed that ‘A113′ is actually a classroom number at the famous California Institute of Arts which serves as an alma mater to first generation animators studying character animation and graphic design as well as for numerous animators at Pixar, such as John Lasseter and Brad Bird. It can be observed that this number appears in some form or shape in all Pixar films and has appeared in 13 out of 14 Pixar films. 5 Pixar know that you can’t rush true quality Pixar Animation Studios also known simply as Pixar happens to be a US based computer animation film studio located in Emeryville, California. This studio is reputed for its CGI-animated feature film created using PhotoRealistic RenderMan which is the implementation of the usual standard RenderMan application programming interface utilized to make good-quality images. So far, Pixar has made fourteen movies, starting with Toy Story in 1995, and its most recent production being Monsters University in 2013. All these films have won financial as well as critical success. All the fourteen films debuted with CinemaScore rating of “A-“, which indicates an extremely positive reception among audience. 6 Toy Story 2 was never meant to get a cinema release Originally Disney wanted to release Toy Story 2 as a direct home video sequel of one hour duration. As most of the Disney movie sequels end up as home videos rather than a release in cinemas. When the Disney executives saw the finished video copy that seemed promising, they wanted to have a theatrical release. Thus, the Pixar team had to again start from scratch to match the original Toy Story’s class. It is said that Pixar improvised the entire storyline in just a weekend. The production was scheduled to be complete within nine months. This movie was a box office success. 7 Obviously, Pixar has greatly increased in value. Like, a LOT. Pixar originated as the Graphics Group a part of Lucasfilm’s computer division in 1979. Steve Jobs knew the worth of Pixar as it was brought by Apple inc. Making Jobs major share holder of Pixar. Pixar was a computer hardware company; its core product being Pixar image computer. Walt Disney bought one of it. The image computer didn’t do well and the company faced losses. To compensate which, Steve Jobs invested a lot until he finally owned the animation studio. He invested $50 millions. In 2006 Walt Disney bought Pixar for almost $7.4 billion. In December 21 2012, it became Lucasfilm’s partner company. 8 Pixar has its own university…and festival Pixar has its own University at its headquarters in Emeryville, California. It is for inspiring the employees. In the University they learn a lot of things along with coworkers like ballet or sculpting for free. Sky being the limit, they learn almost everything. It conducts regular workshops which help rejuvenate the creative minds. The other equally unknown fact about Pixar; is the Pixarpalooza. A company fest organized for the employees and their family. Here employees of various departments cone together to showcase their musical talents to colleagues and friends. Be it an animator or technical director or shaders, all of them rock and roll. 9 The Pixar offices are literally the best in the world Pixar offices are well known for its rare and unique interiors. All thanks to Steve Jobs, who thought ahead of time. He wanted to encourage collaborations that spurred innovations. Thus, the campus has a central atrium. This has a reception, café, foosball, employee mailboxes, fitness centre, two viewing rooms and a theatre. Employees in recess mingle with one another in the atrium. House modeling workshops, orchestra and sound recording facilities, story board rooms are also situated in the Pixar campus. Employees work in pink doll houses, house huts, some share space, some offices are filled with toys to the rim. 10 Disney originally wanted Toy Story to be a musical Did you know that Disney wanted Toy Story to be another musical like Aladdin, The Lion King, Cinderella, etc? As musicals were their fortes. Disney executives feel characters bursting into a song ease some of the obligations. And cut shorts the effort of dialogue delivery. Pixar however felt that being a buddy film featuring real toys; it would turn out to be a bad musical as it were not meant for expressing sentiments. Finally Disney and Pixar reached a conciliation that the characters would not break into song, and the film will use songs over certain activities to portray the character’s emotions.

1 Pixar animators are truly dedicated to their craft

Murtaza Rangwala

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