Hey everyone! Zach Who Watches Movies here with this week’s
Flashback Friday. Pixar's new film Inside
Out hits theaters across the country today and it has been getting nothing
but praise across the board. The studio has become the dominant force in
Animation and the story of how that came to be is an incredible one. Many
people will credit the success of Pixar to one single event, the release of Toy Story in 1995. While this isn't
wrong by any means, you can't really credit just one film for almost twenty years
of dominance. Toy Story put them on
the map but it would be the films to come after that would solidify their
legacy.
Let's start with some brief history of the studio.
Originally called The Graphics Group, Pixar began as a division in the
Lucasfilm until Steve Jobs spun them into their own corporation. They began
experimenting with computer graphics and how they could use it to animate
films. They created Luxo Jr. in 1986,
a two minute short focusing on two desk lamps interacting. It would be
nominated for best animated short by the academy and introduce the world to the
first CG animation. Luxo is still the logo of the company to this day.
Unfortunately it would take them until 1994 to convince Disney to outsource an
animation project but when they finally did, magic would happen. In 1995 Toy Story was released and it changed
the face of animation. It was the first computer animated feature length movie
and it took the world by storm.
The real story of the success of Pixar occurs shortly before
the release of this film however. In the summer of 1994, with Toy Story in its final stages and Pixar
looking at the release of its first ever feature length film, the creative
geniuses in charge went to lunch. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter,
and John Ranft took a stroll to Hidden City Cafe for a midday meal and a short
talk about the future. They knew they had a hit with Toy Story and when it came
out they knew they were going to need more ideas, and fast. They threw around
some pitches at lunch and drew a few sketches on napkins and by the time the
check came, history had been made.
During this meeting, which has become legendary in the movie
world, the four creatives came up with the ground work for the entire first
phase of films to come. On those napkins and in that conversation they created
what would later turn into A Bug's Life,
Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, and Wall-E.
Aside from the Toy Story franchise these would be the films that would rocket
them to the top. A Bug's Life is
criminally underrated by the masses as it had the almost impossible task of
following up Toy Story, even with a
three year buffer and the other three speak for themselves. How incredible is
that? The foundations of the success of Pixar were laid down in one lunch
during the summer of '94.
Hidden City Cafe became a part of Pixar history that day and
the creators of the films never forgot it. During production of Monsters Inc. the working title for the
film was "Hidden City" and they even included the cafe itself into
the finished film. When marketing for Wall-E
began they ran the trailer with a small intro telling the story of this
meeting. You can tell Lasseter and Docter and everyone else never forgot this
day and you could argue they used it as a blueprint for how they would go to
run their company. During that lunch they brought four creative masterminds
together to create TOGETHER. Anyone who knows anything about Pixar knows this
is the key to their success. The creative process for all of their films
involves throwing tons of creative minds together to see what they can create.
I keep hearing that Inside Out is a return to form for the studio
after a few lackluster outings and that makes me so excited. Pixar has found a
way to make children's animated films that can be enjoyed by all. It's insane
to think that all of this success can be traced back to one fabled lunch
between four incredible people. I know so much more went into making those
films what they are but without the Hidden City Cafe these films never even
come into existence. If you are going to see Inside Out this weekend be sure to
let me know what you think of the film. It's directed by Pete Docter (Monsters
Inc.) and features an all-star cast of voice acting talent. I'll be going hopefully tomorrow and my
review will be up soon after. I will always be excited for new Pixar and
hearing this one is a grand slam fills me with joy.
As always, thanks for reading and I am Zach Who Watches
Movies. You can find me on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later!
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