Welcome to the Disney Pixar wiki

The members of our group our

Michael Gillen

Niall Friel

Maire Fisher

Steven Graham

Cara Gallagher

Pixar was founded as the graphics group that first came about in 1979 with Dr.Ed Catmul from the New York Institute of Technology, incharge of the graphics Lab. This computer division was then renamed Pixar a spanish word meaning 'to make films' or 'to make pixels.' Pixar Animation Studios is an Academy Award winning computer animation studio. With it's technical, creative and production capabilities, Pixar are capable of creating a new generation of animation. Pixar's objective is to combine technology and world-class talent to develop computer-animated feature films with memorable characters. Pixar's creations have captured audiences of all ages and genders.

Pixar has been responsible for many important breakthroughs in the use of computer graphics for creating films. Pixar's technical and creative teams have collaborated since 1986 to develop a wealth of production software used in-house to create its movies and further the state of the art in Computer Graphics movie making.  This proprietary technology allows the production of animated images of a quality, richness and vibrancy that are unique in the industry, and above all, allows the director to precisely control the end results in a way that is exactly right for the story. Pixar continues to invest heavily in its software systems and believes that further advancements will lead to additional productivity and quality improvements in the making of its computer animated films. 

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.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 substantial layoffs in the company's computer department, Pixar made a $26 million deal with Disney to produce three computer-animated feature films, the first of which was Toy Story. Despite this, the company was costing Jobs so much money that he considered selling it. Only after confirming that Disney would distribute Toy Story for the 1995 holiday season did he decide to give it another chance.Pixar was re-incorporated on December 9, 1995.

Most of Pixar's first animators were former cel animators, however they also came from stop motion animation or they had recently graduated from college. A large number of animators who make up the animation department at Pixar were hired around the time that Pixar released a Bug's Life and Toy Story 2. The majority of the animation industry is located in Los Angeles, California, while Pixar is located 480km north in the San Francisco bay area.

• Toy Story and Cars are the only Pixar films to have sequels.
• Pixar is not against sequels, hoewever they do believe that sequels should only be made if they can come up with a storyline as good as the original film.
• Pixar and Disney have an agreement where Disney can not make any sequels without Pixar's involvement.

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 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. These conditions were unacceptable to Disney, but Pixar would not concede.

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 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).

Today, Edwin Catmull serves as president of the combined Disney-Pixar animation studios, and John Lasseter serves as the studios' Chief Creative Officer. Catmull reports to Robert Iger as well as Walt Disney Studios chairman Dick Cook. Lasseter, who has greenlight authority on all new films, also reports to Iger as well as consulting with Roy Disney.

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

 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 outpace holdings belonging to ex-CEO Michael Eisner, the previous top shareholder who still held 1.7%, and Disney Director Emeritus Roy Disney who held almost 1% of the corporation's shares.

As part of the deal, Lasseter, Pixar Executive Vice President and co-founder, became Chief Creative Officer (reporting to President and CEO Robert Iger and consulting with Disney Director Roy Disney) of both Disney and Pixar 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 Disney 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.

Disagreements between Steve Jobs and 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, since other partners saw Pixar's terms as too demanding. 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.

 For more information on Pixar visit there website at:  http://www.pixar.com/

The information for this wiki was taken from the pixar website and the wikipedia website:  http://www.pixar.com/

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