Pixar
Pixar began as the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986 for a fraction of what it later became worth, and spent years selling hardware before making films at all. Toy Story in 1995 was the first feature animated entirely by computer, and its significance is less technical than structural: Pixar established that animated films could be written for adults and children simultaneously without condescending to either.
About Pixar
Pixar began as the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm, was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986 for a fraction of what it later became worth, and spent years selling hardware before making films at all. Toy Story in 1995 was the first feature animated entirely by computer, and its significance is less technical than structural: Pixar established that animated films could be written for adults and children simultaneously without condescending to either. The studio's internal culture of brutal peer review — every film shown repeatedly to colleagues empowered to say it is not working — is unusually well documented and has been widely imitated.
Steve Jobs bought the division from Lucasfilm in 1986 and was for years its majority owner; the Disney sale made him Disney's largest single shareholder.
Rights holder: Pixar Animation Studios, part of The Walt Disney Company. CharacterTshirts.com is an independent guide. It is not affiliated with, authorized by, endorsed by, or connected to any character rights holder, publisher, studio or network named on this site. All character names and titles are trademarks of their respective owners and are used here only to identify the products described.
Key eras
| Era | Years | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware and shorts | 1986–1994 | Sells imaging computers; Luxo Jr. and Tin Toy prove the technique. |
| Toy Story onward | 1995–2005 | The first fully computer-animated features, distributed by Disney. |
| Disney ownership | 2006– | Acquired by Disney, with Pixar's leadership put in charge of Disney Animation. |