Friday, March 04, 2005
A Little History Lesson
Yes. Good on Pixar.
But just so you have your facts straight(er) (this is because of you, K.W., but I think everyone needs to hear this because your comment displayed a common misconception), Pixar was started by George Lucas during the Star Wars days (at that time it was simply called the "Computer Graphics Division"), and was purchased by Steve Jobs PERSONALLY in 1986 - he was no longer working for Apple at the time. This was when it was named "Pixar".
Pixar and Apple continue to be entirely separate entities today, though Steve Jobs is the CEO for each of them. Separately.
As for Disney, the mistake they made was pissing Pixar Executives (Steve) off with their unfair (for Pixar) distribution and profit sharing dealings, which prompted Pixar Executives (Steve) to decided not to renegotiate a distribution deal with Disney. From now on (as in, right after "Cars" is released) Pixar will be on their own.
By the way, the BIGGEST mistake Disney made, in leading up to the decision to severe the relationship, had to do with Toy Story. Pixar and Disney's original deal was for 5 feature length films (or maybe it was six - I'll get back to you). The problem for pixar comes in when they made "Toy Story 2" Disney decided that it wouldn't count towards their 5 film commitment - it was a sequel and therefore didn't count as a whole movie. Pixar was pissed about this, and the dissidence really seemed to get started around this issue.
I personally think the straws that broke the camel's back were 1) the voting-off-the-exec-baord of the last remaining Disney relative (Roy) and 2) Disney's announcement that they would be doing "Toy Story 3" on their own, without Pixar. I don't remember if '2' was announced before negotiations fell through or after, but it doesn't matter - they were obvously thinking about it.
Further reading:
Pixar History
This article contains some good info
Article on About.com
Another good article
But just so you have your facts straight(er) (this is because of you, K.W., but I think everyone needs to hear this because your comment displayed a common misconception), Pixar was started by George Lucas during the Star Wars days (at that time it was simply called the "Computer Graphics Division"), and was purchased by Steve Jobs PERSONALLY in 1986 - he was no longer working for Apple at the time. This was when it was named "Pixar".
Pixar and Apple continue to be entirely separate entities today, though Steve Jobs is the CEO for each of them. Separately.
As for Disney, the mistake they made was pissing Pixar Executives (Steve) off with their unfair (for Pixar) distribution and profit sharing dealings, which prompted Pixar Executives (Steve) to decided not to renegotiate a distribution deal with Disney. From now on (as in, right after "Cars" is released) Pixar will be on their own.
By the way, the BIGGEST mistake Disney made, in leading up to the decision to severe the relationship, had to do with Toy Story. Pixar and Disney's original deal was for 5 feature length films (or maybe it was six - I'll get back to you). The problem for pixar comes in when they made "Toy Story 2" Disney decided that it wouldn't count towards their 5 film commitment - it was a sequel and therefore didn't count as a whole movie. Pixar was pissed about this, and the dissidence really seemed to get started around this issue.
I personally think the straws that broke the camel's back were 1) the voting-off-the-exec-baord of the last remaining Disney relative (Roy) and 2) Disney's announcement that they would be doing "Toy Story 3" on their own, without Pixar. I don't remember if '2' was announced before negotiations fell through or after, but it doesn't matter - they were obvously thinking about it.
Further reading:
Pixar History
This article contains some good info
Article on About.com
Another good article
