On this very day in 1995

I thought we should take a break from work, and enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with a bit of inspiration.

ON THIS VERY DAY IN 1995 . . .

Pixar is a fabulous success story: this deserted technology company turned animation titan has been making quality movies for kids of all ages as well as adults for decades. Today marks the 22nd anniversary of the full release of their breakout hit Toy Story (it was released exactly on November 22nd, 1995).

Pixar started life in 1979 as a graphics company;  Keep in mind that Toy Story did not come out until 1995. People at Pixar worked on graphics and computers for the most part, but still when Steve Jobs came on as the chairman in 1986 the future of the business was up in the air and frankly not that bright. Times were very very tough; at any given moment, Jobs supposedly considered selling the struggling Pixar to Hallmark Cards, Paul Allen from Microsoft and even Larry Ellison from Oracle. 

But Jobs decided to bet it all on Toy Story.

Just consider how much pressure Pixar was under to make Toy Story work: they were on the verge of bankruptcy, Disney would completely own Toy Story and its characters, Disney had the right even to make series without Pixar, and, finally, Disney could cancel the whole project altogether with little to no penalty whatsoever. 

It really took a highly committed management and creative team at Pixar to bring their idea for the first feature-length film, made entirely out of computer-generated imagery, into reality.  

From the technical standpoint, animating the main character of Woody, whose rag doll motions made for very complicated motion controls, was a unique animation nightmare. But a $373.6 million box office run that began with the movie’s release on this very day in history, November 22, 1995 — with only a $30 million budget — speaks for itself.  

Pixar, for all the internal and external troubles over the years, went from a dire animation company heading into financial destruction to quintessential film icon; they would be bought by Disney for $7.4 billion just a little over a decade later.

TOY STORY

If you haven’t watched the movie which singlehandedly set the course for both Pixar and computer-animated films in general, please do yourself one enormous favor and watch Toy Story this Thanksgiving Holiday, and if you have seen it; I suggest watching it again.  Pixar is notable for making movies that resonate with viewers of all ages and interests, and Toy Story is no exception. 

The writing is fresh, dynamic, and layered with entertainment that covers the breadth of any given audience. The set parts are not only fun and creative but genuinely breathtaking. “To infinity and beyond” is an iconic  catchword for many good reasons, not the least of which is Woody, the old-timey cowboy doll voiced by Tom Hanks, emotionally yelling those words as he races through the sky with the similarly iconic Buzz Lightyear, voiced by Tim Allen, to rejoin with their beloved owner. 

It takes a lot of an animated film handling such a lighthearted topic as the secret life of toys to become celebrated for a dramatic action scene, but hey, this is Pixar we’re talking about. 

TO PIXAR AND BEYOND

If horrors aren’t a problem and you feel fine taking a deeper look into the inner workings behind Pixar at its most crucial stage of growth under the leadership of an increasingly attacked Steve Jobs, check out Lawrence Levy’s To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History.   Read this absolutely inspiring book over the holidays.  You'll truly enjoy it.

It’s not often that you find someone in the world of high-level business and technology which has such a gift for writing and creative expression, but maybe that’s just because companies like Pixar are one in a million. 

Levy left an outstanding job at a stable tech company to join Pixar as the new CFO in 1994 at the request of Steve Jobs. Remember, these were the very gloomy days — Pixar wasn’t doing well by any standards, and Steve Jobs was quickly being regarded as a has-been now that he had been fired from Apple; in short, what Levy did takes big guts.

The stories about debating everything from corporate strategies to eastern philosophies with Steve Jobs are the real beauty of this book. 

There is a lot to learn here about coming up from behind in the business world, what it means to work as a team with someone as tough and formidable as Jobs, and, on the whole, how to turn overwhelmingly stressful situations into opportunities — the prime example being Toy Story. 
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Levy is no pushover; once he realized what was next for him, he quit corporate life at Pixar to focus on a different interest, Buddhism. I'm  sure that people gave him funny looks for walking away from something as lucrative and profitable as the Pixar he helped create, but those were probably the same strange looks he got for signing up to join Pixar in the first place.

I  will leave you with Toys Story and Levy's Book.  They will surely take you "to infinity and beyond".

Happy Thanksgiving,