Práce vznikla při příležitosti tvůrčí dílny Reading news ve specilaizaci televizní pod vedením Kateřiny Bohuslavové.
Televizní specializace, předmět TD Reading news pod vedením Kateřiny Bohuslavové.
In 1979 something was born what would be Pixar later. In 1986 Luxo Jr. came and shined into eyes. Nine years later, a coloured feature film Toy Story was created and people went crazy.
Everybody loves the lamp
George Lucas founded the company Computer Graphics Group, which develops computer graphic software and hardware. He appointed Ed Catmull as its head. But the costs of generating film illusions were much too high so Lucas wanted to sell the company. Catmull tried to find a buyer too. In 1986 Steve Jobs bought it for ten million dollars. At the beginning, it wasn’t much successful. But then John Lasseter, who came at the time of Lucas, demonstrated that they can make wonders with computer graphic and can tell real stories.
Lasseter already made a short film, André and Wally B., in 1984. It was simple, gruff, short film just in basic colours and without interesting background. It is considered to be the first short film of John Lasseter in 3-D format.
The birth of Pixar studios started in 1986. Lasseter came with a short Pixar film Luxo Jr. A story of two lamps, a father and a son, is incredible. There are emotions, feelings and suggestions of perfection. “I used a cable for a fluent movement so that you can see when it jumps and casts shadows,” Lasseter explained. The lamp itself became the icon of Pixar and now it comes up at the beginning of every film, which this studio backs up. Everybody loves the lamp and all want to have it at home.
Toymania started Pixar
Luxo Jr. received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film. From 1988 to 1991, new short films were made. Tin Toy was the first film to win a prize. It won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. In the 90’s, computer animation started to take its place. The studio made a contract with Disney for three feature films and could begin to work on the first complete computer feature film.
John Lasseter was chosen as the head of development of Toy Stor. All doubted it; nobody believed that a film with digital animation could be famous and anybody would sit to watch a tale for children at a cinema for ninety minutes.. But all viewers laughed and enjoyed themselves. The Toymania started and Pixar earned trust from Disney for two other films.
Toy Story won an Academy Award for Achievement in Animated Film and Pixar could start to work on a new film.
New era, new company
In the beginning of 1998, Geri’s Game by Jan Pinkava won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Pixar won another two Academy Awards for a 3-D animated system and special effects. A Bug’s Life came to cinemas in 1998 and it became at that time the most successful feature animated film. The third film was Toy Story 2. Again it was very successful and Pixar could start to make what it wanted and how much money it wanted for.
At present with two-year intervals we can see a new Pixar film. Monsters, Inc. scared everybody. Nobody resisted a temptation to set out to depths of the Pacific Ocean and to find Nemo (Finding Nemo), which won an Academy Awards for Best Animated Film. Every outsider wanted to be a superhero in The Incredibles and, last but not least, we have a romp as McQueen from Cars.
In 2005 boss Michael Eisner left Disney, and in beginning of 2006 Disney bought Pixar and both companies were connected. A result is that the biggest shareholder of Disney is Steve Jobs with seven per cents and John Lasseter and Ed Catmull are new bosses of the animation section of Disney. In Pixar, there are hundreds of employees on two acres of land in San Francisco. The last Oscar film was Ratatouille in 2007. Everybody knows the story of a Paris chef, a rat named Remy with culinary ideas, now. But the last film by Pixar is Wall-E – a tale about a robot programmed to clean planet Earth.
There is nobody who wouldn’t know Pixar. We needn’t wait for a new film by Pixar for two or three years. In seven months, a new hero will come from Pixar in a film called Up.
