20 Interesting Facts You Might Not Know About Pixar Animation Studios (P1)

It has been 20 years since the first feature film from Pixar – “Toy Story” was released to audiences. Over the past two decades, this animated film has made a lasting impression on the cultural consciousness of an entirely new generation. If you were in the first grade when the first film premiered in 1995, you will be about 30 years old when the fourth installment is released in 2018. Similarly, many elementary school students who were captivated by “Finding Nemo” in 2003 have graduated from college now that “Finding Dory” has just hit theaters.

The secret to Pixar’s long-term success may lie in its ability to reinvent itself. However, with the widespread reception of forgettable sequels like “Cars 2” or “Monsters University,” there have been many warnings for viewers. With the release of “Inside Out” and “The Good Dinosaur,” 2015 marked the first time Pixar released two movies in a single year. While the first film had limited success, the subsequent films faced many challenges, leading to a gap of about a year before the next Pixar release.

As Pixar’s future remains uncertain, one thing is clear: Pixar has overcome many turbulent times since it was merely a subsidiary of George Lucas’s company.

To commemorate Pixar’s 20 years of operation beyond just the movie screen, here are some fascinating facts about Pixar, arranged chronologically from its inception to what you might not know:

1. Pixar was founded in 1979 and was initially known as the graphics group for Lucasfilm. Although it was recognized as a graphics division, Pixar from the very beginning designed graphics for many segments in films such as “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (1982), “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” (1983), and “Young Sherlock Holmes” (1985).

2. In its early days, Pixar only sold high-end graphics software and Pixar Image Computer hardware. In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Pixar founder John Lasseter noted that he was the only animator in the company when he joined in 1983. His main job was to direct small films to showcase the features of the graphics products.

3. The first animated short film from Pixar – “The Adventures of André and Wally B.” was produced in 1984. The plot is quite simple; a character named André is chased by a long-haired bee in a lush forest. The android character in the film is named after a character in the film “My Dinner with André,” featuring actors Wallace Shawn and André Gregory in the lead roles.

4. Steve Jobs purchased Pixar for $5 million on February 3, 1986, an amount that would be worth around $10.7 million in 2015. David A. Price mentioned in his book on Pixar’s history – “The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company” – that in the early years after Steve Jobs bought the company, they lost a lot of money while the Apple founder invested in it. “In the first 10 years, we lost a lot of Steve’s money. A lot of Steve’s money,” quoted John Lasseter.

5. The short film “Luxo Jr.” produced in 1986 was significant for Pixar in many ways. It tells the story of a small lamp playfully bouncing a ball while a larger lamp looks on. This was Pixar’s first CGI film to win an Academy Award in the “Best Animated Short Film” category. The Luxo Jr. lamp later became an iconic part of the Pixar logo after the release of “Toy Story” in 1995.

6. Since their creation, Luxo Jr. and Luxo Sr. have made several cameo appearances in both short and feature-length Pixar films. For instance, a small version of Luxo Jr. can be seen on Andy’s desk in all three parts of “Toy Story,” as well as in the short films “Toy Story Treats” from 1996. Luxo Jr. and the waste-collecting robot WALL-E made their first collaborative appearance in the 2008 movie trailer. When the ball on Luxo Jr.’s light burned out, WALL-E appeared to replace Luxo with another ball.

7. According to The New York Times, Pixar signed a three-film deal with Disney in 1991. The agreement stipulated that Pixar would only receive 10-15% of the profits from the films. The first film to be released under this agreement was “Toy Story” (1995).

8. Woody in “Toy Story” was originally supposed to be a ventriloquist dummy. However, according to Verge magazine, when then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner felt that the ventriloquist dummy was too much of a stretch, the character was transformed into a cowboy doll that we all love today.

9. Actor Tom Hanks, who voiced Woody in the “Toy Story” series, was actually given the role after a scene in the film “Turner and Hooch” (1989). In this comedy, Hanks plays Turner, a detective with a dog who helps him solve crimes after the dog chews up his car, leading to comedic situations that made the Pixar team very impressed and immediately fond of the actor.

10. “Toy Story” was also the first feature film entirely produced using CGI in history. The production cost was only $30 million, which is just half of the production budget for Disney’s “The Lion King” released in 1994 at $79.3 million.

11. “Toy Story” grossed $29.1 million in its opening week, nearly recouping its production costs, and it even surpassed “Titanic” in 1997 with an opening week gross of $28.6 million, excluding international earnings.

12. There is a popular theory among “Toy Story” fans that Emily, the young girl who used to own the doll Jessie in “Toy Story 2” (1999), is Andy’s mother.

13. Director Ash Brannon revealed that “Toy Story 2” was initially intended to be a direct-to-video release because back then, no one made sequels to animated films intended for theatrical release. However, they decided to release “Toy Story 2” because they knew they had a great story.

14. “Toy Story” has two parallels with “Star Wars: A New Hope.” One is that Buzz Lightyear’s spaceship resembles R2-D2. Both also have significant information related to a key point of a dangerous mission that needs to be reported to higher authorities.

15. There is a scene where Sid tortures Woody with a scene reminiscent of Darth Vader interrogating Princess Leia, complete with similar dialogue.

16. “Toy Story 2” (1999) was nearly erased when someone accidentally deleted the files from the main server. Luckily, the film team had kept a backup copy at home, allowing them to continue working on it.

17. “Toy Story 2” grossed nearly $245 million when it was released in theaters and was the first sequel to earn more than the original film.

18. The character Sid Phillips, the boy who loves to destroy toys in “Toy Story,” is based on a Pixar employee during production who no longer works at Pixar but is known for his destructive tendencies.

19. Sid’s room features a wall pattern resembling the carpet from the famous horror film “The Shining” (1980).

20. “Toy Story 3” is the highest-grossing film in this franchise and is considered one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time. However, the third installment did not receive a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes, achieving only a 99% approval rating.

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