pixar

Introduction
Pixar Animation Studios is an Academy Award ®-winning computer animation studio with the technical, creative and production capabilities to create a new generation of animated feature films, merchandise and other related products. Pixar's objective is to combine proprietary technology and world-class creative talent to develop computer-animated feature films with memorable characters and heartwarming stories that appeal to audiences of all ages.

Feature Films
In partnership with Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar created and produced Toy Story (1995), A Bug's Life (1998), Toy Story 2 (1999), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004) and Cars (releasing June 9, 2006).

Toy Story, released November 22, 1995, reflects more than nine years of creative and technical achievements. The film received tremendous critical acclaim and became the highest grossing film of 1995, generating $362 million in worldwide box office receipts. Toy Story's director and Disney • Pixar's chief creative officer, John Lasseter, received a Special Achievement Academy Award® for his "inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy Story team resulting in the first feature-length computer animated film."

Pixar has since released A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. The six films combined have grossed more than $3.2 billion at the worldwide box office, and Pixar now has six of the top grossing animated films of all time. Toy Story 2, at the time of release, broke numerous opening weekend records all over the world and won a Golden Globe award for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy in 1999.

In 2001, Pixar released the Academy Award®-winning Monsters, Inc., which reached over $100 million at the domestic box office in just 9 days, faster than any animated film in history at the time of its release. Monsters, Inc.'s opening-weekend gross of $62.6 million marked the largest 3-day opening ever for an animated film, the largest 3-day opening in the history of The Walt Disney Studios, the largest 3-day opening in the history of Pixar Animation Studios, and the sixth-largest opening in industry history - records that Monsters, Inc. held until the release of Finding Nemo.

On May 30, 2003, Pixar released Finding Nemo which broke every one of Monsters, Inc.'s opening weekend box office records that had been set only 18-months earlier. Finding Nemo generated $865 million at the global box office and received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film.

The Incredibles, released in 2004, continued Pixar's success both critically and at the box-office. The film grossed $70.2 million in its first weekend of release in the United States and performed similarly throughout the rest of the world. The film earned more than $620 million worldwide, elevating it to the second highest grossing Pixar film and amongst the 25 highest grossing film of all time. In addition to a multitude of prestigious accolades, praise for The Incredibles has culiminated in a Pixar-record: four Academy Award® nominations.

Short Films
For more than fifteen years, Pixar's creative and technical teams have worked closely to produce short films and television commercials using three-dimensional computer animation while continually developing their creative expertise and proprietary technology. In 1986, Pixar's first short film, Luxo Jr., received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Short Film. In 1988, Pixar's short film Tin Toy received an Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film, and in 1997, Geri's Game received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film. Geri's Game was the first film to incorporate the studio's technology for creating more realistic-looking skin and cloth. In 2002, Pixar's For the Birds received the Academy Award® for Best Animated Short Film; in 2003 Mike's New Car was nominated for the same distinction; and, most recently in 2006, One Man Band became the latest Pixar Short to be nominated for the award.

Technology
Since its incorporation, Pixar has been responsible for many important breakthroughs in the application of computer graphics (CG) for filmmaking. Consequently, the company has attracted some of the world's finest talent in this area. 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 CG 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.

Pixar also has a long standing tradition of sharing its advances within the broader CG community, through technical papers, technology partnerships, and most notably through its publicly available RenderMan product for the highest-quality, photo-realistic images currently available. RenderMan remains the standard in CG film visual effects and feature animation and has been honored with an Academy Award for technical achievement.

In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' Board of Governors® honored Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Disney Animation Studios, Loren Carpenter, senior scientist, and Rob Cook, vice president of software engineering, with an Academy Award of Merit (Oscar®) "for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar's RenderMan." In 2002, the Producer's Guild of America honored Pixar with the Guild's inaugural Vanguard Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement in new media and technology.

Creative Team
Pixar's creative department is led by John Lasseter, an Academy Award®-winning director and animator and the director of Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, and Cars (releasing June 9, 2006), as well as executive producer of Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003) and The Incredibles (2004). Under the guidance of Mr. Lasseter, Pixar has built a creative team that includes a department of highly skilled animators, a story department and an art department. This team was responsible for creating, writing and animating all of Pixar's films. Pixar strives to hire animators who have superior acting ability-those able to bring characters and inanimate objects to life, as though they have their own thought processes. In order to attract and retain quality animators, the company founded Pixar University, which conducts three-month long courses for new and existing animators. Pixar also has a complete production team that gives the company the capability to control all elements of production of its films. Pixar has successfully expanded the production team so projects may be worked on simultaneously.

Disney Relationship
Since the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Disney in 1937, animated films have become one of the most universally enjoyed forms of entertainment. Disney has a long history of developing, producing, and distributing films such as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. The stories and characters of these popular animated feature films have become part of our modern mythology, enjoyed generation after generation. Traditionally, these popular animated feature films have been created using the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of two-dimensional, hand-drawn cel animation.

In May 1991, Pixar entered into the Feature Film Agreement with Walt Disney Pictures for the development and production of up to three computer animated feature films to be marketed and distributed by Disney. It was pursuant to the Feature Film Agreement that Toy Story was developed, produced, and distributed. In February 1997, Pixar entered into the Co-Production Agreement (which superseded the Feature Film Agreement) with Disney pursuant to which Pixar, on an exclusive basis, agreed to produce five original computer-animated feature-length theatrical motion pictures for distribution by Disney. The five original Pictures under the Co-Production Agreement were A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and Cars. Toy Story 2, the theatrical sequel to Toy Story, was released in November 1999, and is also governed by the Co-Production Agreement. We are currently in various stages of production on our next feature, Ratatouille, which was subsequently added to the terms of the Co-Production Agreement, subject to certain exceptions, in January 2006.

On January 24, 2006, Pixar entered into an agreement with The Walt Disney Company to merge the two companies. The deal was approved by shareholders of both companies and the merger became effective on May 5, 2006. Pixar is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.