Pixar Animation Studios, also known simply as Pixar, is a computer animation studio based in California that is well-known for its critically and commercially successful computer-animated feature films. It is headquartered in Emeryville, California, and is a subsidiary of Walt Disney
Studios, another studio owned by The Walt Disney Company.
Beginning with Toy Story (1995), the first fully computer-animated feature film, Pixar has created 26 full-length motion pictures; their most recent release was Lightyear (2022). The studio has made a lot of short films as well. Its feature films have amassed around $14 billion in box office revenue as of July 2019, with an average global gross of $680 million per picture. Among the top 50 highest-grossing movies of all time are Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019).
Incredibles 2 is the fourth-highest-grossing animated movie of all time with a total of $1.2 billion, and the other three films each made over $1 billion. Additionally, 15 Pixar movies are in the top 50 highest-grossing animated movies of all time.
Pixar started as an animation studio in the late 1980s. Since then Pixar has always had a close relationship with technology, and computer animation in particular. One of its core strengths is taking complicated ideas, simplifying them, and communicating them clearly. This skill allows Pixar's team to be great storytellers and communicators not just in films but also in commercials. A great example of that is a commercial you probably have never seen: for 3D printers.
Pixar has been nominated for 14 Academy Awards since its first nomination in 2001. Their films have also won 11 Oscars including Toy Story 2 (Golden Globe), Ratatouille (Best Animated Feature Film), and Coco (Best Animated Feature Film).
While Pixar's recent forays into non-animated movies have been largely successful, there's something to be said for the studio's roots. After all, it started out doing commercials before moving on to full-length features.
And if you look at some of the studio's older work (done both as Pixar and before), there are some real gems in the collection. So while they might not be the most impressive or innovative commercials we've ever seen, they're still fun to watch and show a side of Pixar that many people might forget about.
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