The Pixar Story and How Steve Jobs Helped Finance It

pixar steve jobs story

As you all know, Steve Jobs was the founder and CEO of Apple, although success came in his second stage in the company, when he returned at the end of the 90s and managed to take the reins of the company to lead it on the right track and save it, because then he was losing money and it was a matter of time before he closed.

During the years when he was away from Apple, he worked on other companies and projects, including Next, the black cube company, and Pixar, where it was an important pillar. If it weren't for him, we might not have met Nemo, The Incredibles and Wall-e. This is the story of an animation studio and the founder of Bitten Apple.

The origins of PIXAR

In 1974, Alexander Schure created the Computer Graphics Lab, a studio in which he would bring together computer scientists and experts to develop the first film made by digital animation. Due to financial and work problems, they ended up giving up on this idea and they joined George Lucas, to work at LucasFilm. There they managed to improve their technology and increase their capabilities, since they developed the effects of many films.

Later, in 1986, were established as an independent company. The problem was the same as always, money. And who had money and was willing to invest in something so ambitious and risky? Steve Jobs, who had just been fired by Apple and could be said to be pretty idle, even though he was working on other things and preparing Next. $ 5 million had to pay George Lucas for the rights to all Pixar technology. Jobs did not remain the leader of this company, but was limited to being the chairman of the Board of Directors.

Pixar wanted to go back to the idea of ​​creating a digitally animated film, but initially it was dedicated to selling the hardware of its technology. Sales were not his thing. They developed several shorts and continued to improve their effects, their style and their capabilities.

Toy Story, Disney and Steve Jobs

The success of the short Tin Toy, motivated Disney to make a film based on this idea. The problem was that Pixar would become Walt Disney Feature Animation, and Steve Jobs didn't want that, so he made some changes to the company and started over as the sole owner. In the end, he did retain power. He reduced the workforce and succeeded in bringing the negotiations with Disney to fruition. They would finance the Toy Story project, but they had the right to back down at any time and leave the movie.

While developing Toy Story, the members of the Pixar team did not rest, and they were preparing the foundations of their next films and projects. Finally, when Toy Story was released in theaters, it was such a success that Pixar secured a promising future in the film industry. Not only were they revolutionary in technique, style and technology, but also the soundtrack and story were spectacular. They won a few prizes and raised $ 361 million worldwide.

apple pixar

Go back to Apple and Pixar is on its way

In 1997 Steve Jobs managed to return to Apple and began to change things within the company and make them think differently. A year later, he presented the iMac and began the revolution of the bitten apple, which will continue with the iPod, iPhone etc. You know the rest of that story well enough. Now the reins are held by the shareholders' meeting and Tim Cook. Despite some rather questionable decisions, overall I don't think they do a bad job and I like how Apple has made progress, even though they are now falling iPhone sales.

Regarding Pixar, Steve Jobs was very present at the beginning and in the making of Toy Story, although little by little he focuses on computers and leaves animation in the background. Of course, he continues to work with them and collaborate with Pixar until 2011, when he resigned from Apple due to his illness.

Did you know the history of Pixar and its closeness to the CEO of Apple?


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