UNLIMITED STREAMING
WITH PRIME VIDEO
TRY 30-DAY TRIAL
Home > Documentary >

The Pixar Story

The Pixar Story (2007)

August. 28,2007
|
7.7
| Documentary

A look at the first years of Pixar Animation Studios - from the success of "Toy Story" and Pixar's promotion of talented people, to the building of its East Bay campus, the company's relationship with Disney, and its remarkable initial string of eight hits. The contributions of John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs are profiled. The decline of two-dimensional animation is chronicled as three-dimensional animation rises. Hard work and creativity seem to share the screen in equal proportions.

...

Watch Trailer

Cast

Similar titles

Reviews

GazerRise
2007/08/28

Fantastic!

More
ThedevilChoose
2007/08/29

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

More
Adeel Hail
2007/08/30

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

More
Kaelan Mccaffrey
2007/08/31

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

More
jasper102011
2007/09/01

Jasper102011 here to review The pixar story.Pixar is the company with a luxo lamp as a mascot and a cabinet full of academy rewards.This film shows that great movies and great story's can go through pain and hard work and even one of the best film company's can go through that.The man himself john lasseter has the idea for computer-animation or CGI but Disney dumps it with john stuck at lucasfilms and make very famous short films. A hard-core pixarfan would stare at the screen watching every step of the way because I am one and one word would move the story onwards.The pixar story is a overall brilliant documentary, the movie tells that its not the technology that makes the movies great, but its the people who make it.I really like the film with its interviews with famous Disney animators and tells you when pixar had a problem, it tells you how they solved it.i wish pixar make a sequel for the more modern movies.If your a really big fan or you just heard of pixar i highly recommend it so grab some popcorn and enjoy!

More
TheLittleSongbird
2007/09/02

As a huge animation fan, I like the Pixar films very much. They are funny, poignant and are beautifully animated with lovable characters. In fact, while I prefer some of their films over others there is no Pixar film I hate. I saw this documentary by chance knowing little about it, and I loved it. The Pixar Story was so interesting and even moving. The interviews are well delivered and written, and I found them and how certain scenes were animated and done really intriguing. I also loved the music and the animated sequences featured especially for the door climax from Monsters Inc and the incredibly moving When Somebody Loved Me from Toy Story 2(Tom Hanks summed it up brilliantly). The Pixar Story goes along at a good pace and is a perfect length too. If anything though, I would have liked to have seen more of the Pixar shorts, as some of those are gems. But this is just nitpicking and doesn't take away from the fact that this documentary is wonderful. 9/10 Bethany Cox

More
Nostra1
2007/09/03

At the moment Pixar is the leading company when it comes to successful computer animated movies. With the combination of stunning graphics en extremely well written stories they have managed to build an impressive movie portfolio. This documentary shows how the company was founded and evolved. Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, Brad Bird and George Lucas are all interviewed and tell about its history and growth. Before Toy Story was made the company didn't make any money and lost millions each year.The movie show that Toy Story's story would have been very different if the Disney company would have had it its way. Also Pixar's other movies like A Bug's Life, Cars, Monster Inc and Finding Nemo are briefly talked about. It's clear that the company feels the constant pressure to outdo itself with each new movie. I think this is something they usually succeed in, although Cars really wasn't that good (although it is understandably very popular with the kids) I'm always looking forward to seeing new Pixar movies, something I don't have with Disney movies. With Toy Story 3 Pixar has managed to already earn $895 million and the future of Pixar looks bright. It's a company that will not disappear anytime soon. When I think about the Pixar name I think about quality movies and my expectation is that they will manage to keep that image.The Pixar Story is a very interesting documentary in which there were many new details I didn't know. If you have seen every Pixar movie and if you want to know more about the company itself, then this documentary is something you will want to see.

More
DICK STEEL
2007/09/04

Pixar has made so many blockbuster hits, each just about being almost better than the last in terms of anticipation translated to box office receipts, that it's tempting to speculate whether an upcoming movie will be the one infamously credited to bringing the juggernaut to a temporary halt. Going by what The Pixar Story presented, so long as the team stays hungry, focused and passionate with transforming their ideas into films stemming from the heart, then it's probably a formula that would be difficult to break, and computer animation fans will be in for a treat, for a long time to come.The Pixar Story is a documentary charting the meteoric rise of the company we all have probably in one way or another, come to love, with its groundbreaking effects and animation taking the world by storm with each new release. It's tough for any studio to build upon and better the success of its previous release with the new one, but somehow Pixar always managed to come through unscathed. But as the documentary reveals, it's never plain sailing, and thank goodness most of the cockups, especially weak stories, get junked and reworked, rather than the company crossing its fingers that a mediocre work could cut it. Technological advances also meant that animators get constantly challenged to break new ground, and the film systematically presents these challenges so that we the audience could take a step back, and appreciate the efforts.Most history buffs will already know that Pixar has its first origins from Lucasfilm (and you can sense George Lucas reeling from letting this opportunity run away), where a division with a mixed expertise of computer scientists and animators spun off to do what they love, and that's to explore the possibilities of combining their skills to make animation. And with angel investor Steve Jobs providing seed funding and despite the studio being in the red in the first few years, one short clip lead to a short film, and with Disney on board in an initial uneven partnership, Toy Story was born, and as they say, the rest is history.The first parts of the documentary devoted quite a lot of time to John Lasseter, who's credited with making things work with his direction of the first crop of movies coming out of Pixar. It traces his professional start as an animator with Walt Disney, the run ins and the unfortunate firing, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise on hindsight. We see how he, and the rest of his co-workers, had to undertake pressure to perform, each pouring in copious amounts of personal sacrifice to turn their dream into reality. And with each success, the director taking over the reins for the next movie, will no doubt feel the pressure of its predecessor's success, especially Pete Doctor coming off Lesseter's impressive track record, and others like Brad Bird coming from outside the company culture.We take a sneak peek into the facilities at their swanky company grounds, admiring the grounds in which Pixar creations are conceived, but what is of extreme value here is the tons of archived footage, most of which are unseen because they never see the light of day, be it rough storyboard sketches or skeletal computer animation, most of which contain early stages of the characters with whom we've been acquainted with. The Pixar Story spent significant amount of time on Toy Story (since it's the first movie), and you can witness how the early Woody character and storyline was rejected because they didn't seem right. And it seems that Pixar doesn't compromise on quality - that plans do get trashed if they don't measure up, even with a fixed deadline looming. Talk about grit, determination and perfectionism all rolled into one.With plenty of interviews with the creators, big name CEOs past and present, and the stars sharing their experience with providing the voices for their digital counterparts, director Leslie Iwersk also provided a brief look into the political wrangling behind the scenes, just for completeness sake, making The Pixar Story well suited for anyone curious to know how it call started, and how the energy is sustained until this very day.

More