New Delhi: As most tributes to Steve Jobs will primarily focus on the path-breaking devices that he helped deliver to the world, it is easy to overlook the legendary innovator's another contribution to the world of entertainment - Pixar.
Pixar Animation Studios has since 1995, given us heartening, thoroughly entertaining and award winning films such as the Toy Story series, A Bug's Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, the Cars series, Ratatouille and Up.
In 1986, Steve Jobs bought Lucasfilms' digital division and founded Pixar with John Lasseter, Ed Catmull as his key men. Steve Jobs who invested $5 million into the company was Pixar's entrepreneurial godfather and backer.
Computer animation was around long before Pixar. Animators in Europe and North America were experimenting with this combination of art and science in shorts dating back to the '70s. Yet there was often a lack of warmth in the designs, and representing humans, even cartoony ones, was a challenge. Features were out of the question.
After losing $1 million a year for five years, Jobs needed to see a return on his investment. So Pixar put Toy Story, the first feature-length computer-animated film ever, into production. The film went on to gross more than $350 million worldwide and Pixar went for its IPO through which the company raised $132 million. That put Pixar on a firm footing and led to a string of hits. Pixar has never experienced either a critical or box office failure.
In 2006, Jobs sold Pixar to The Walt Disney Co. for $7.4 billion in stock, that made him Disney's largest individual shareholder and securing a seat on the board.
"Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply 'make it great.' He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar's DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time," said a statement from Disney Pixar CEO John Lasseter and Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney Pixar Animation Studios.
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