Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When was Pixar founded?
Pixar () is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California. The studio is best known for its CGI-animated feature films created with PhotoRealistic RenderMan, its own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface used to generate high-quality images. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the computer division of Lucasfilm before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986 with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. Pixar and Disney had a seven feature agreement that allowed Disney to distribute the films with Disney owing the character rights. With the success of "Toy Story 2" in 1999, then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner and Pixar CEO Steve Jobs began to disagree on how Pixar should be run and the terms of their continued relationship. Eisner claimed that Toy Story 2 would not count towards the "original" film count of the agreement. Jobs announced in January 2004 that Pixar would not renew their agreement with Disney and would seek out other distributors for releases starting in 2006. In 2004, Disney Circle 7 Animation was formed as a CG animation studio to create sequels to the Disney-owned Pixar properties. In Late January 2006, new Disney CEO Bob Iger and Jobs agreed to have Disney purchase Pixar which led to Disney closing Circle 7.
"Pac-Pix" was developed and published by Namco. The game was debuted at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 2004 as a technology demonstration for the newly unveiled Nintendo DS hardware. According to producer Hideo Yoshizawa, "Pac-Pix" was conceived as an arcade game by director Tetsuya Shinoda four years prior. Using Apple personal digital assistants (PDAs), Shinoda noticed how corrected text would disappear with a tiny puff of smoke when crossed out by the user; he found this type of control intuitive and wanted to implement it into a game. Two years later, the creators pitched the idea as a tablet computer and PDA game, but found the game and the target audience for such hardware did not match. When the DS was announced, Yoshizawa stated that "the time was right". The E3 demo "Pac-Pix" was met with praise from people within the video game industry, many of which requested it be made into a full game. Namco obliged by putting together a development team, which implemented more effective use of the hardware's two screens. According to Yoshizawa, the most difficult aspect of production on "Pac-Pix" was allowing the player to determine size, shape, and place of their own sketches within the gameplay environment.
The studio's first live-action film was "Treasure Island" (1950). Animated films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar are also released by Walt Disney Pictures. The studio has released four films that have received an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination: "Mary Poppins" (1964), "Beauty and the Beast" (1991), "Up" (2009), and "Toy Story 3" (2010).
The Vancouver animation establishment opened with much fanfare around Gastown in 2010, with an approval to produce short films based on esteemed Pixar characters. The Vancouver company worked on layout, sets and characters, animation, effects, lighting and rendering departments.
Walt Disney Studios closed its Vancouver-based Pixar Canada studio leaving nearly 100 Pixar employees without a job three years after opening. Viewers of the animation scene in Vancouver disregarded Pixar’s departure, suggesting the industry is robust enough in the province to easily absorb the displaced Pixar workers. When Pixar set in motion in British Columbia came the arrival of U.S. studios such as Digital Domain and Sony Pictures Imageworks, with Pixar touting Vancouver’s talent base, proximity and shared time zone with Los Angeles and a digital animation tax credit offered by the B.C. government. Provincial Jobs Minister Shirley Bond said that it is “disappointing” that Pixar is leaving the province, however, she saw the decision as tied to the company’s overall business strategy as opposed to the B.C. business climate.
Founded in 2003 in Singapore as a means to tap into the talent pool, Lucasfilm Animation Singapore (LAS) opened its doors in October 2005. LAS works closely with Lucasfilm Animation. The LAS production schedule also includes contributions to projects from other Lucasfilm companies. While the largest of LAS’ production groups focused on "Star Wars: The Clone Wars", in July 2006 LAS announced the creation of the Game Group and the Digital Artists Group (DAG). With difficulty in meeting the technical and aesthetic requirements of Clone Wars, LAS was ultimately removed from the production and released a number of employees.
Under the deal, Disney acquired ownership of "Star Wars", "Indiana Jones", and Lucasfilm's operating businesses in live-action film production, consumer products, video games, animation, visual effects, and audio post-production. Disney also acquired Lucasfilm's portfolio of entertainment technologies. The intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. "Star Wars" merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014. Starting with "Star Wars Rebels", certain products will be co-branded with the Disney name, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4, 2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, allowing the acquisition to be finalized without dealing with antitrust problems. On December 18, 2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. converted from a corporation to a limited liability company, changing its name to Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC in the process. On December 21, 2012, Disney completed the acquisition and Lucasfilm became a wholly owned subsidiary of Disney.
Following the release of "Incredibles 2", director Brad Bird acknowledged that the film's truncated production schedule resulted in many plotlines and ideas he had for the film being cut from the final version. He cited Pixar's decision in October 2016 to swap the release dates of "Toy Story 4" and "Incredibles 2", which meant that Bird’s film lost a full year of production. Bird stated that the lingering plotlines could lead to a third installment, just as they did with the second. "There were a lot of ideas that we had on this film that could be [used]... whether it's another "Incredibles" film, or something else." Cast members including Samuel L. Jackson and Sophia Bush have expressed interest in reprising their roles. "I wouldn't ever rule it out," said producer John Walker of a potential third film. "And if past is prologue, it'll be another 14 years — and a lot of people will probably need oxygen to make a third one."
Between 1999 and 2005, Studio Ghibli was a subsidiary brand of Tokuma Shoten, however, that partnership ended on April 2005 when Studio Ghibli was spun off from Tokuma Shoten, and was re-established as an independent company with relocated headquarters.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" originated in a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working as an animator at Walt Disney Feature Animation. With the success of "Vincent" in the same year, Burton began to consider developing "The Nightmare Before Christmas" as either a short film or 30-minute television special to no avail. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Walt Disney Studios. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco; Disney released the film through Touchstone Pictures because the studio believed the film would be "too dark and scary for kids".
Arrow Dynamic's forerunner, Arrow Development, was founded in 1946 when Ed Morgan, Karl Bacon, Bill Hardiman, and Angus "Andy" Anderson, started a machine shop at 243 Moffett Boulevard, just north of downtown Mountain View, California. They started out selling used machine tools, building truck parts and repairing cars until about 1950 when they built their first merry-go-rounds for San Jose's Alum Rock Park.
Mattel, Inc. () is an American multinational toy manufacturing company founded in 1945 with headquarters in El Segundo, California. The products and brands it produces include Fisher-Price, Barbie, Monster High, Ever After High, Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels and Matchbox, Masters of the Universe, American Girl, board games, and WWE. In the early 1980s, Mattel produced video game systems, under its own brands and under license from Nintendo. The company has presence in 40 countries and territories and sells products in more than 150 countries. The company operates through three business segments: North America, international, and American Girl. It is the world's second largest toy maker in terms of revenue, after The Lego Group. In 2014, it ranked #403 on the Fortune 500 list. On January 17, 2017, Mattel named former Google executive Margo Georgiadis as CEO. Georgiadis stepped down as CEO of Mattel on April 19, 2018. Her last day was on April 26, 2018. Ynon Kreiz is now the new CEO of Mattel.
In 1928, to recover from the loss of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney came up with the idea of a mouse character named Mortimer while on a train headed to California, drawing up a few simple drawings. The mouse was later renamed Mickey Mouse (Disney's wife, Lillian, disliked the sound of 'Mortimer Mouse') and starred in several Disney produced films. Ub Iwerks refined Disney's initial design of Mickey Mouse. Disney's first sound film "Steamboat Willie", a cartoon starring Mickey, was released on November 18, 1928 through Pat Powers' distribution company. It was the first Mickey Mouse sound cartoon released, but the third to be created, behind "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho". "Steamboat Willie" was an immediate smash hit, and its initial success was attributed not just to Mickey's appeal as a character, but to the fact that it was the first cartoon to feature synchronized sound. Disney used Pat Powers' Cinephone system, created by Powers using Lee de Forest's Phonofilm system. "Steamboat Willie" premiered at B. S. Moss's Colony Theater in New York City, now The Broadway Theatre. Disney's "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" were then retrofitted with synchronized sound tracks and re-released successfully in 1929.
Lucasfilm Animation Ltd. LLC is the animation division of Lucasfilm, established in 2003. Its first major production was the feature film "" and its . In September 2016, Dave Filoni, known for his contributions to "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels", accepted a promotion to oversee the development of all future Lucasfilm Animation projects.
The beginning of the sound era itself is ambiguously defined. To some, it began with "The Jazz Singer", which was released in 1927 and increased box-office profits for films, as sound was introduced to feature films. To others, the era began in 1929, when the silent age had definitively ended. Most Hollywood pictures from the late 1920s to 1960s adhered closely to a genre—Western, slapstick comedy, musical, animated cartoon, and biopic (biographical picture)—and the same creative teams often worked on films made by the same studio. For instance, Cedric Gibbons and Herbert Stothart always worked on MGM films; Alfred Newman worked at Twentieth Century Fox for twenty years; Cecil B. DeMille's films were almost all made at Paramount Pictures; and director Henry King's films were mostly made for Twentieth Century Fox. Similarly, actors were mostly contract players. Film historians and critics note that it took about a decade for films to adapt to sound and return to the level of artistic quality of the silents, which it did in the late 1930s.
The Graphics Group, which was one-third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm, was launched in 1979 with the hiring of Catmull from NYIT, where he was in charge of the Computer Graphics Lab. He was then reunited with Smith, who also made the journey from NYIT to Lucasfilm, and was made director of The Graphics Group. At NYIT, the researchers pioneered many of the CG foundation techniques—in particular the invention of the alpha channel (by Catmull and Smith). Years later, the CGL produced a few frames of an experimental film called "The Works". After moving to Lucasfilm, the team worked on creating the precursor to RenderMan, called REYES (for "renders everything you ever saw") and developed a number of critical technologies for CG—including "particle effects" and various animation tools.
Nickelodeon Creative Labs was founded in 1994 by Amy Friedman. The company produced motion graphics and short-form material for the Nickelodeon network, including the award-winning "Short Films by Short People" interstitial series. In 1996, Nickelodeon Creative Labs began producing the Nick Jr. series "Blue's Clues" in-house using Adobe After Effects, Photoshop, and Power Macintosh computers. In October 1999, Nickelodeon Creative Labs relaunched as Nick Digital; it was now also producing "Little Bill", another Nick Jr. series. In December 2008, MTV Networks planned to shut down Nick Digital by the end of the year. The company ultimately stayed open, but a Nick Digital branch at Nickelodeon Animation Studio took over producing visual effects for Nickelodeon's animated series. In 2009, Nickelodeon launched Nickelodeon Creative Advertising, a creative agency which produces advertising for kids and families.
The studio was founded after the success of the 1984 film "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", written and directed by Miyazaki for Topcraft and distributed by Toei Company. The origins of the film lie in the first two volumes of a serialized manga written by Miyazaki for publication in "Animage" as a way of generating interest in an anime version. Suzuki was part of the production team on the film and founded Studio Ghibli with Miyazaki, who also invited Takahata to join the new studio.
Studio Ghibli is a Japanese animation film studio founded in 1985. In addition to producing 18 feature films, the studio has produced several short films, including commercials, films for the Ghibli Museum, music videos, and works released directly to video.
Following the success of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind", Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the founder of Tokuma Shoten, encouraged Miyazaki to work on a film adaptation. Miyazaki initially refused, but agreed on the condition that he could direct. Miyazaki's imagination was sparked by the mercury poisoning of Minamata Bay and how nature responded and thrived in a poisoned environment, using it to create the film's polluted world. Miyazaki and Takahata chose the minor studio Topcraft to animate the film, as they believed its artistic talent could transpose the sophisticated atmosphere of the manga to the film. Pre-production began on May 31, 1983; Miyazaki encountered difficulties in creating the screenplay, with only sixteen chapters of the manga to work with. Takahata enlisted experimental and minimalist musician Joe Hisaishi to compose the film's score. "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" was released on March 11, 1984. It grossed ¥1.48 billion at the box office, and made an additional ¥742 million in distribution income. It is often seen as Miyazaki's pivotal work, cementing his reputation as an animator. It was lauded for its positive portrayal of women, particularly that of main character Nausicaä. Several critics have labeled "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind" as possessing anti-war and feminist themes; Miyazaki argues otherwise, stating that he only wishes to entertain. The successful cooperation on the creation of the manga and the film laid the foundation for other collaborative projects. In April 1984, Miyazaki opened his own office in Suginami Ward, naming it Nibariki.
Hayao Miyazaki made his credited directorial debut in 1979 with "The Castle of Cagliostro", a film which was a distinct departure from the antics of the "Lupin III" franchise, but still went on to receive the Ofuji Noburo Award at the 1979 Mainichi Film Concours. Although "Cagliostro" was not a box office success, Toshio Suzuki, editor of the magazine "Animage", was impressed by the film and encouraged Miyazaki to produce works for "Animage's" publisher, Tokuma Shoten. Miyazaki's film ideas were rejected, and Tokuma asked him to do a manga: this led to the creation of "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind". Miyazaki began writing and drawing the manga in 1979, and it quickly became "Animage's" most popular feature. Hideo Ogata and Yasuyoshi Tokuma, the founders of "Animage" and Tokuma Shoten respectively, encouraged Miyazaki to work on a film adaptation. Miyazaki initially refused, but agreed on the condition that he could direct.
Hybride Technologies in Piedmont, Quebec, is a technology company founded in 1991. Its main role is to create visual effects for films and TV shows, and had contributed to films such as "Jurassic World" and "". The company was acquired by Ubisoft in 2008. The company has a second office co-located with Ubisoft Montreal in Montreal, Quebec, which was opened in February 2016.
The Pixar Photoscience Division, a division of Pixar Animation Studios, was founded in 1979 at Lucasfilm for the express purpose of designing and building a laser recorder/scanner system to input and output film to a computer for compositing and color correction of special effects. In the early years of Pixar's history, the team was responsible for the design of color monitoring instrumentation to control the color gamut and gamma of the digital images onto 35mm film using a more advance laser recorder system called PixarVision. In later years at Pixar, the team was responsible for transforming the artists computer animated images onto film master negatives. Today the team manages all digital content to a variety of delivery media, film, DVD, and digital cinema projection. The team has won Engineering and Technical Academy Awards and patents for their work in Motion Picture Sciences.
The animation studio Pixar was founded in 1979 as the Graphics Group, one third of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm. Pixar's early computer graphics research resulted in groundbreaking effects in films such as "" and "Young Sherlock Holmes", and the group was purchased in 1986 by Steve Jobs shortly after he left Apple Computer. Jobs paid Lucas US$5 million and put US$5 million as capital into the company. The sale reflected Lucas' desire to stop the cash flow losses from his 7-year research projects associated with new entertainment technology tools, as well as his company's new focus on creating entertainment products rather than tools. A contributing factor was cash-flow difficulties following Lucas' 1983 divorce concurrent with the sudden dropoff in revenues from "Star Wars" licenses following the release of "Return of the Jedi".
On April 20, 2010, Pixar opened Pixar Canada in the downtown area of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The roughly 2,000 square meters studio produced seven short films based on "Toy Story" and "Cars" characters. In October 2013, the studio was closed down to refocus Pixar's efforts at its main headquarters.
Pixar Canada was founded in 2009 and officially opened on April 20, 2010 in Gastown area of Vancouver, British Columbia. The location was chosen for tax incentive reasons, for Vancouver's computer-generated animation talent pool and for time zone compatibility with the Hollywood studio. Studio's initial three-year plan was to produce animated short films based on established Pixar film characters, to be shown in all of Disney-related businesses, including television, DVD compilations, internet, theme park attractions, and theatrical presentations. Post-production and stereoscopic 3D work remained in the hands of the Pixar's main studio in California.
Disney was attracted to Vancouver's location because of tax incentives, and this closure comes in the wake of British Columbia incentives falling behind those offered by Ontario and Quebec. Pixar Canada produced a number of short films, including "Air Mater", "Small Fry" and "Partysaurus Rex" since 2010. Pixar’s shorts have been a proving ground for new directors and concepts for the studio.