THE REPUTATION OF PIXAR COMPANY
Pixar Company is the most influential company in the animated films industry. This has mostly been attributed to the acquisition of the company by the late Steve Jobs. This acquisition led the company to become the producer of the highest numbers of the most appealing and financially successful films in the animated film industry. Pixar’s influence has also stemmed from their introduction of RenderMan, a breakthrough computer software that was used to produce computer-generated animation effects. This software became the industry standard and was used by most of the other studios. Other studios could however not make Pixar-quality images as the company closely guarded Marionette, a program which assisted its artists with animation and modeling .
Pixar has also been seen to be an influence on the industry as before Pixar, Disney was pretty much the only producer of animated films in the United States. With the success of Pixar’s Toy Story in 1995 and subsequent Pixar films, the animation industry gained root in Hollywood. Today an average of one animated film is produced per month and there’s a ‘Best Animated Feature’ Academy award. All this could not have happened if Pixar wasn’t there to show others animated films could be a success and how it could be done.
Pixar Company has better established itself as a producer of animated films with a development in its application programming. Pixar now uses PhotoRealistic RenderMan which is an application programming interface that renders high quality images. This is a development from standard software in the industry, RenderMan. Pixar’s improved version has enabled the company to generate better quality movies than the other animation studios. Pixar Company has also been able to attract large audiences for their movies due to the careful production of their films.
Pixar dedicates ample time and financing to the production of each of its animations. Each film has to pass through four keys stages. The first stage is the development of the story line followed by a pre-production stage where analysis is done of the technical requirements and any challenges are addressed. The film is then produced using their high quality programs and highly qualified staff. Films finally go through a post production stage where the final product is polished to produce very high quality films. This has led to Pixar having an unbroken streak of hit movies such as Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Cars, Up and Ratatouille.
Pixar has succeeded in having people in all age groups watching their movies. Most animated movies are seen to be targeted at the younger generation but Pixar is said to have succeeded in appealing to the more mature generation who are said to be young at heart. Pixar has achieved this through production of films that mix witty humor with action and a lot of excitement. Their comical characters attract kids, and adults who are sure to be entertained ensure high incomes making Pixar a market leader. Their excellent story lines ensure that adults are not bored and the jokes relating to real-life places and people particularly appeal to the adults.
Apple’s influence on Pixar due to the influence of the late Steve Jobs who ran the company has also contributed to the success of Pixar. Steve Jobs developed a culture of perfectionism in the end product through meticulous attention to detail which is the same culture at Apple. This has resulted in uniqueness in their films. Pixar studios just like Apple has been known to delay releases for their films or even overhaul complete projects in order to make sure their output is perfect. Editors speaking of Pixar said that Pixar were not the only animated film studios but they were the ones who succeeded and showed everyone else how it was done both creatively and technologically.
Pixar’s popularity was also recognized as the Museum of Modern Art in 2005 mounted a show about the phenomenon of digital animation. The whole show was about Pixar Animation Studios despite the field of animation having so many other companies. This went to show that the pioneering company was seen as hugely successful. Pixar’s innovation was shown as being primarily stylistic and formal which created a new startling level of spatial illusion and sculptural reality to animated films. This kind of illusion is what creates the excitement about Pixar films.
The prominence and success of Pixar can be attributed to the unmatched quality of their works and their originality. The company has made mostly original films and minimal sequels such as Toy Story 2 and 3 and Cars 2. Its high number of original films such as ‘Wall-E’ is the reason for its popularity and financial success. Most other studios have been concentrating on sequels thus they are not as successful. Critics have attributed the not so good performance of Cars 2 as a result of lack of originality and this argument somehow holds water.
Pixar company artistry has earned the trust of its audience and though its new film releases look at times look unfamiliar and exotic at first glance, the films always triumph in the industry. Lassester a founding member of the company has said that their success is because the company is made up of people who were the pioneers in the industry doing what no one had done before. The people are thus ‘addicted’ and excited about breaking new ground and that is what they have been doing. Every day the team endeavors to come up with something new either creatively or technologically to improve the films that the company produces.
References
Debruge, P. (2009, October 1). Why Pixar is the Apple of Hollywood. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from Popular Mechanics: www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/news
Goldstein, P. (2008, July 1). Why Pixar's top of the Line. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from Los Angeles Times: articles.latimes.com/2008/jul/01/entertainment/et-goldstein1
Smith, R. (2005, December 16). Its a Pixar World. We're Just Living in it. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from The New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2005/12/16/arts/design/16pixa.html
Terdiman, D. (2011, October 6). CNET. Retrieved May 19, 2012, from With Pixar, Steve Jobs changed the film industry forever: m.cnet.com/news/20116912
