Today In Disney History ~ July 11th
Pixar also referred to as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American computer animation film studio based in Emeryville, California that is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. Pixar began in 1979 as the Graphics Group, part of the Lucasfilm computer division, before its spin-out as a corporation in 1986, with funding by Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs, who became the majority shareholder. Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4 billion, a transaction that resulted in Jobs becoming Disney’s largest single shareholder at the time. Pixar is best known for CGI-animated feature films created with RenderMan, Pixar’s own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan image-rendering application programming interface, used to generate high-quality images.
Pixar has produced eighteen feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), which was the first-ever computer-animated feature film, and its most recent being Cars 3 (2017). All 18 of its films have debuted with CinemaScore ratings of at least an “A−,” indicating positive receptions with audiences. The studio has also produced several short films. As of July 2017, its feature films have earned approximately $11 billion at the worldwide box office, with an average worldwide gross of $634 million per film. Finding Nemo (2003), along with its sequel Finding Dory (2016), as well as Toy Story 3 (2010) are among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with the lattermost film being the third all-time highest-grossing animated film with a gross of $1.063 billion. Fourteen of Pixar’s films are also among the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time.
The studio has earned sixteen Academy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and eleven Grammy Awards, among many other awards and acknowledgments. Many of Pixar’s films have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature since its inauguration in 2001, with eight winning; this includes Finding Nemo and Toy Story 3, along with The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Brave (2012), and Inside Out (2015). Monsters, Inc. (2001) and Cars (2006) are the only two films that were nominated for the award without winning it, while Cars 2 (2011), Monsters University (2013), The Good Dinosaur (2015), and Finding Dory have not been nominated. Up and Toy Story 3 were also the respective second and third animated films to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, the first being Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Beauty and the Beast (1991). Luxo Jr., a character from the studio’s 1986 short film of the same name, is the studio’s mascot.
On September 6, 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement by the biennial Venice Film Festival. The award was presented by Lucas film’s founder George Lucas.
TMSM Today in Graphic by Sherry Rinaldi DeHart; Wiki
Michele also contributes theme park news for Fox 35 Orlando 11pm news and on the radio on WDBO.
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