The Pixar Story

So I'm a testament that anybody can learn the computer. 602 00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:46,080 (LAUGHS) 603 00:30:48,680 --> 00:30:51,360 <i>NARRATOR: At the same time,</i> <i>Pixar began a collaboration</i> 604 00:30:51,440 --> 00:30:53,520 <i>with the new leadership</i> <i>at the Walt Disney Studios</i> 605 00:30:53,600 --> 00:30:56,000 <i>headed by Michael Eisner,</i> <i>Frank Wells,</i> 606 00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,760 <i>Jeffrey Katzenberg</i> <i>and Roy Disney.</i> 607 00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:02,160 <i>In a renewed effort</i> <i>to bridge hand-drawn</i> <i>animation with computers,</i> 608 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:04,520 <i>Pixar invented CAPS,</i> 609 00:31:04,800 --> 00:31:06,320 <i>a digital ink-and-paint system</i> 610 00:31:06,400 --> 00:31:09,280 <i>which brought</i> <i>new technical advances</i> <i>to 2-D animation.</i> 611 00:31:09,960 --> 00:31:13,840 <i>The techniques gained</i> <i>critical notice in Disney's</i> Beauty and the Beast. 612 00:31:14,360 --> 00:31:17,040 <i>PETER SCHNEIDER: Roy Disney</i> <i>was a great champion of this.</i> 613 00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,760 <i>He spent a lot of money</i> <i>building the CAPS system,</i> 614 00:31:19,800 --> 00:31:22,160 and it was just the basis of what was to come 615 00:31:22,240 --> 00:31:24,120 in terms of the 3-D animation process. 616 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:26,800 It was the engine that drove everything else forward. 617 00:31:29,360 --> 00:31:31,480 <i>NARRATOR:</i> <i>Pixar's software, Renderman,</i> 618 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:33,640 <i>was also getting</i> <i>industry acclaim</i> 619 00:31:33,720 --> 00:31:36,120 <i>for the creation</i> <i>of photo-realistic</i> <i>special effects</i> 620 00:31:36,160 --> 00:31:38,800 <i>that allowed</i> <i>Hollywood filmmakers</i> <i>to tell stories</i> 621 00:31:38,840 --> 00:31:40,880 <i>that could not be told</i> <i>any other way.</i> 622 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:45,840 <i>Renderman had become</i> <i>the new standard</i> <i>in special effects,</i> 623 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:47,160 <i>and in 2000,</i> 624 00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:49,560 <i>the technical team</i> <i>garnered the first Oscar</i> 625 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:52,440 <i>ever awarded for</i> <i>computer-animated software.</i> 626 00:31:55,120 --> 00:31:57,920 <i>But the research</i> <i>and development</i> <i>of all their technology</i> 627 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:01,200 <i>was costing more money</i> <i>than the company</i> <i>was bringing in.</i> 628 00:32:01,280 --> 00:32:05,880 <i>Steve Jobs had been losing</i> <i>over a million dollars</i> <i>a year for five years.</i> 629 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000 It was all great stuff to do, but none of it was a home run. 630 00:32:11,040 --> 00:32:13,120 None of it really... It was a struggle. 631 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:14,960 Every step of the way, it was a struggle. 632 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:18,880 We were trying to pay the bills and just buy time. 633 00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:23,240 And that strategy really turned out not to work. 634 00:32:23,320 --> 00:32:28,520 Steve was a very forgiving investor at that time 635 00:32:28,560 --> 00:32:31,400 <i>and had a much</i> <i>longer term view</i> 636 00:32:31,480 --> 00:32:33,000 <i>than your average</i> <i>venture capitalist</i> 637 00:32:33,040 --> 00:32:35,680 <i>would've had about</i> <i>our young company.</i> 638 00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:39,760 <i>NARRATOR: With the survival</i> <i>of Pixar at stake,</i> 639 00:32:39,840 --> 00:32:41,360 <i>John pitched</i> <i>the Disney Company</i> 640 00:32:41,440 --> 00:32:43,520 <i>a half-hour</i> <i>Christmas TV special</i> 641 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:46,480 <i>based on their</i> <i>short film</i> Tin Toy. 642 00:32:46,560 --> 00:32:47,720 <i>All the while,</i> 643 00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:49,280 <i>Disney executives</i> <i>had been trying</i> 644 00:32:49,400 --> 00:32:52,720 <i>to lure John</i> <i>back to the studio</i> <i>to direct a feature.</i> 645 00:32:53,720 --> 00:32:55,640 John is being asked this for a third time, 646 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:58,520 to come down and be a director at Disney. 647 00:32:58,560 --> 00:33:00,640 Or he can stay up in Northern California 648 00:33:00,720 --> 00:33:03,480 with this company that's bordering on collapse, 649 00:33:03,560 --> 00:33:05,840 because they're losing money. 650 00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:08,560 He stays up here with this company bordering on collapse, right? 651 00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:17,680 John came up with the idea of doing this story from a toy's point of view, 652 00:33:17,760 --> 00:33:20,400 <i>done in this</i> <i>3-D plastic world,</i> 653 00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:23,120 <i>and the idea</i> <i>was sensational.</i> 654 00:33:23,200 --> 00:33:26,920 And they'd gone from commercials to a short film being six minutes. 655 00:33:26,960 --> 00:33: