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Steamboat Willie: The first sync-sound short animated film released by Disney, Steamboat Willie, featured Mickey Mouse. Animated by Ub Iwerks.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBgghnQF6E4] -
While completing his PhD at Princeton, Alan Turing publishes a paper that becomes the foundation of computer science and digital computing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57xXSfG39i0 -
Disney's groundbreaking Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI0x0KYChq4 -
The Colossus was developed to break complex wartime enemy code during WWII. It was the first programmable, digital computer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=knXWMjIA59c -
Catmull's hand: While attending graduate school in computer engineering at the University of Utah, Ed Catmull created a short 3D animated film of his left hand in 1972 with Fred Parke.
https://vimeo.com/16292363 -
Ed Catmull becomes director of the Computer Graphics Lab at New York Institute of Technology after earning his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Utah.
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John is the 2nd student to register in the Disney Character Animation Program at CalArts. Classmates include Tim Burton and Brad Bird.
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/03/calarts-animation-1970s-tim-burton -
Lasseter graduates from CalArts and begins working at Disney.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVnjOqL6n0U -
Ed Catmull leaves NYIT for Lucasfilm's Industrial Light & Magic. He becomes Vice President of ILM and later recruits Lasseter to The Graphics Group.
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The Graphics Group (Lasseter, Catmull and others) create the CGI Genesis Effect for Star Trek II.
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The first feature film with significant amounts of 2D & 3D CGI. Creators had hoped it would be entirely animated. But...not...yet...Wait another 13 years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp8sAS1imS4 -
Lasseter experimented too much with computer animation techniques for Disney's liking, specifically developing Where the Wild Things Are. He was fired.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvIDRoO8KnM -
Ed Catmull invites Lasseter to join The Graphics Group at Lucasfilm/Industrial Light and Magic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imrliaThKrI -
Animated by Lasseter and the Graphics Group, directed by Alvy Ray Smith. Released at SIGGRAPH summer 1984
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-L-WA-nQzI&t=7s -
Christopher Vogle's memo "A Practical Guide to Joseph Campbell's Hero With a Thousand Faces" circulates widely at Disney. Nine years later, Vogler is given a story credit on The Lion King. He publishes The Writer's Journey in 1992, a book-form expansion of the memo.
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The Graphics Group (Lucasfilm) animates a strained-glass night and composites it over live-action sequence in Young Sherlock Holmes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKb61j8P4fU -
Jobs purchases Graphics Group for $5million and invests another $5Mill to create Pixar Inc originally expected to be a hardware, software and rendering company.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgWdjvRgouk -
Another successful SIGGRAPH screening in 1986. Luxo Jr first CGI film nominated for an Oscar. (It should have won, IMHO!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G3O60o5U7w&t=2s -
The first and only Pixar film to use the Pixar Image Computer to create and render animation before the proprietary hardware was abandoned by the company. Red's Dream was released at SIGGRAPH in the summer of 1987. Written and directed by John Lasseter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96xGUa1a_zs&t=36s -
Another Lasseter/Pixar short wows the SIGGRAPH crowd. Despite the cement-baby-diaper, Tin Toy wins the first CGI Oscar and first Pixar Oscar for Best Animated Film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffIZSAZRzDA -
The Looney Tunes-inspired short was released at SIGGRAPH and was the last Lasseter short made before Toy Story's release. Bobby McFerrin created the soundtrack. This clip is the original, busty version. It was later re-released in 2003 with flatter-chested knick knacks:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3rgXLNi7Xo -
Ed Catmull is awarded his first Oscar for Technical and Scientific achievement for RenderMan software
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Toy Story released on US Thanksgiving day in 1995 to huge box office and critical success.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VdERcRJ3jI -
Much rode on the first-weekend success of Toy Story. Pixar was hoping a financially lucrative first-weekend would set up the company for a successful IPO of November 29th, 2018. Pixar had a phenomenal first-weekend, grossing 30 million in the US domestic box office.
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After ten years of waiting, Pixar's IPO (Initial Public Offering) was more successful than anticipated. The opening price was set at $22 per share but the stock started trading at $47 per share, finishing the day at $39 per share. This provided much-needed capital a company locked into a limiting 3-picture deal with Disney. Pixar's was the biggest IPO of the year, exceeding Netscape's and setting up Jobs for his comeback.
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John Lasseter wins a Special Achievement Oscar for Toy Story, the first CGI feature film.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmnyMuKmLTI&t=1s -
After the success of Pixar, Steve Jobs returns to Apple. The company suffered a major decline in the 90s and bought NeXT from Jobs in February 1997 to help revitalize its operating system. Jobs returned as an unpaid advisor.
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Geri's Game, written and directed by Jan Pinkava, wins the 1997 Oscar for Best Animated Film.
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Ralph Eggleston wrote and directed the third short Pixar film to win an Oscar for Best Animated Film.
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The Academy Awards only added Feature Animated Films as an award category in 2002, for films created in 2001. Shrek won the first award. Pixar now leads all animation studies in the feature animation category. Though celebrated by many as a sign of a robust animation industry, the award remains controversial for many reasons.
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Knick-knack screened before Finding Nemo in theatres and a flat-chested version of the film was issued:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSD_zp8yZFo -
With the inception of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film, Pixar finally takes home an Oscar for a feature film and will dominate the Award until today.
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One year later, Pixar captures its second Oscar for best animated Feature Film.
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The Incredibles supporting character, Lucius/Frozone is the first person/character of colour in a Pixar film—voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
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Steve Jobs $50 million investment pays off: he becomes the largest shareholder in Disney and a billionaire by 40.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgWdjvRgouk -
Ratatouille wins the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.
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WALL-E, which many critics feel should also have been nominated for Best Film, brings home the 4th Pixar Oscar for Animated Feature.
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Winning three years in a row, Pixar takes home another Oscar for Up, which was also nominated in the Best Film category.
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With Toy Story 3, Pixar brings home their first Animated Feature Oscar for the Toy Story franchise. The original Toy Story won a Special Achievement Award. Toy Story is the first sequel to win in this category and it marks a four year winning streak for Pixar.
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Released alongside Finding Dorry, Alan Barillaro's Piper was praised for its photorealistic animation. Piper wins Pixar's fourth Oscar for Best Animated Short.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW8T9nvitLI -
Though Brenda Chapman co-directed Brave (and won an Oscar for it), Domee Shi is the first female solo Pixar director. Her short, Bao, was released alongside The Incredibles 2. It is set in Toronto where Shi attended Sheridan College's animation program. She earned a Pixar internship from Sheridan and directed Bao when she was 28. Will it bring home a fifth Pixar Oscar for Short Animation? (Yes, it did)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/canadian-female-pixar-short-shi-1.4603412 -
Domee Shi wins the Oscar for best animated short in 2019. She's the first woman to direct a short at Pixar (yup, since 1986) and the first solo female director to bring home the coveted statue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5XvUOUwERk -
Scheduled to be released June 20th, 2019.
Directed by Josh Cooley. There is no sight of Andy in the film but teasers include Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key as ducky and bunny. Tom Hanks will be there, of course, and Bo Peep re-branded. The story picks up Bonnie and appears to follow chronologically from the last iteration on Toy Story.
