The Pixar Touch

May 12, 2008
For 20 years, Ed Catmull and his crew of computer graphics experts were a money pit, costing the New York Institute of Technology, and later George Lucas, millions of dollars producing cutting edge hardware and short films that impressed the experts, but didn't come close to breaking even. Steve Jobs got it next, and after trying unsuccessfully to sell all or part to Hallmark, Oracle and Microsoft, Jobs was able to take the company public on the strength of its first feature film, 1995's Toy Story. Despite years of negative earnings, Pixar's stock immediately doubled, making Jobs a billion dollars-ten times what he'd then earned from Apple. Over the next 13 years, Pixar went on to create seven more feature films (including Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Ratatouille) before Disney-whose own animated movies were becoming something of an embarrassment-bought them at a premium. Most readers won't fully appreciate all the technological talk ("bicubic patches," "bitslice microcode,"), but it's interesting to see all the problems the experts were up against. Unfortunately, the business end-despite the presence of such personalities as Lucas, Roy Disney and Michael Eisner-is presented rather dutifully, but author Price (Love and Hate in Jonestown) shines when recounting the stories behind Pixar's family favorites.

April 1, 2008
Price ("Love and Hate in Jamestown") here chronicles the short but dynamic history of Pixar Animation Studios. He sets the stage by describing the Walt Disney Company of the 1950s and 1960s, considered to be the unrivaled film animator of the time, and then reveals how Disney fell into complacency, losing its creative edge over the decades. This, in part, opened the way for young computer geeks like Ed Catmull and animators like John Lasseter to abandon the traditional cel animation technique, opting for those of the emerging computer era. The success of the technological breakthroughs they developed while working for filmmaker George Lucas resulted in the founding of Pixar in 1986. Prior to this, Steve Jobs of Apple Computer had invested heavily in the company, later becoming its owner. In the early 1990s, after much experimentation, Pixar succeeded in creating its first feature-length hit, "Toy Story", quickly followed by others, including "Finding Nemo" and recent Academy Award winner "Ratatouille". Despite these critical and financial triumphs, Jobs eventually sold Pixar to Disney. Although Price's explanation of certain computerized animation applications can be overly technical, this is still a most fascinating and entertaining story of how a struggling little company overcame many odds to become a major Hollywood entity. Recommended for public libraries and cinema study collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 1/08.]Richard Drezen, Washington Post/NYC Bureau, New York

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2008
Pixar animation studios, the company behind such blockbuster movies as Toy Story, A Bugs Life, Monsters Inc., and Finding Nemo, started in the late 1970s as a project in a garage on Long Island by a soft-spoken former missionary named Ed Catmull. The computer-graphics researcher possessed the tenacity to follow through on the painstaking process of making 3-D computer characters come to life on the screen; he accidentally fell into the role of business leader when his creations took the world by storm. Price, author of Love and Hate in Jamestown (2003), writes for the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and USA Today, among others. He charts the course of Pixar from obsession to its relationship with LucasFilm, the purchase by Apple Computers Steve Jobs, and finally the Disney buyout. Its an eye-opening account that pulls back the curtain to reveal the process of evolution, the labor of love, and all the business dealings behind the magic of 3-D animation.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)