Sergeant_Tibbs Like almost every child of my generation, I grew up on Pixar and in particular Toy Story. Some of my fondest and most memorable cinematic memories were going to see Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo and The Incredibles (where afterwards I thought "I can't wait for the sequel"). I remember that one of my first dream jobs in film was to write stories for Pixar and explore all the imaginative possibilities. Now that I've gotten more into film, I've gained a deeper respect for their storytelling and their technology and how hard it is. The Pixar Story tracks the origin of Pixar from when John Lasseter was first inspired to pursue animation to around 2007, before Ratatouille hit the screens. It's an informative look into how the company came to be and of all the struggles. It's very interesting as I would like to get into the industry as well. The biggest chunk is the struggle to create Toy Story - not just to get it commissioned but also to find the story. This is also a trouble with Monsters Inc. where they had the concept but almost too many possibilities to explore. Narrowing down those possibilities is a incredibly difficult job and is something I'm aspiring to achieve at this very moment so it was especially fascinating to watch.It's always great fun to have a look into their offices with their scooters and arcades. However, perhaps this documentary has come too soon, they talk about fears of being too factory-line, setting a standard they can no longer top and as this comes before one of their most successful strands of films with Wall-E, Up (a film that I didn't like at first but it's grown on me) and Toy Story 3 and then perhaps the beginning of a very boring strand with Cars 2, Brave and Monsters University, I want to know whether they think they're topping themselves or have sunken into a comfort zone. A short reflection on their fears would be very interesting. The doc focuses on the followup chaos after the Toy Story section, with second project syndrome lingering over the Pixar team. A Bug's Life was considered a success at the time and although in hindsight, many disagree, the documentary put me in the mood to rewatch and while the first act is perhaps a bit too childish, it grows and grows and is exceptional storytelling in the end. I hope Pixar haven't peaked with the closure of Toy Story 3 and they can continue making films that get to me. The documentary also makes great use of graphics and animation which is pretty appropriate for this topic. Very entertaining and informative.8/10

Hamish Joy The documentary of the history of Pixar Animation Studios. Pixar is absolutely a fabulous success story. It has been often spoken of as an overnight success, but as Steve Jobs says in the film, most overnight successes takes years of hard work.It was interesting to see the evolution of animation and the kind of dedication and vision that goes behind something that is - in hindsight - a no-brainer decision. For me, I was surprised to see the fat Steve Jobs in here. The images of slim Steve Jobs with his penetrating eyes was so strongly embedded in my mind that every time Steve spoke, I hardly heard what he was saying over the sound of how chubby he looked. :DAlso, I found out Pixar's original foundation, Lucasfilm, had to regretfully let go due to lack of funds. It was once again a surprise for me that George Lucas, the creator of the 'Holy Trilogy', had a cash problem.It was also surprising that even after an unsurpassed, unimaginable success with it's first feature release, creating a whole new genre, raking in cash, accolades and awards, Pixar still had bureaucratic challenges for almost all of its releases. I guess I don't understand Hollywood executives or production houses. But that's OK - I understand the movies, and Pixar is pure magic.

John Doe Yes, Pixar has made some great films.Yes, they are definitely amongst the best in the world when it comes to computer animation.Yes, they helped basically change the whole industry.So why make such an awkwardly shallow "pat-on-the-back" film about them, consisting of nothing but a bunch of people saying how great they are? I wanted to see this because I was fascinated with animation, and hoped to learn some behind-the-scenes secrets and technical insight into how Pixar films are actually created. However this was never addressed in The Pixar Story.I also thought it would be interesting to hear the back-stories of all the competitive titles that has come out from other companies at about the same time as Pixar films (A Bug's Life/Antz, Finding Nemo/A Shark's Tale, The Incredibles/Meet the Robinsons), but this was never mentioned either.At some point the "documentary" (if you can even call it that) briefly mentions that it was technically impossible to have more than 50 characters on the screen at once, and this caused a problem during production of A Bug's Life. "Oh," thought I, "this'll be interesting. What was the technical limitations? What computers were they using? How did they work around it?" Instead of answering any of these questions, the film simply moves on to talk about how great the people were who came up with a solution. Of course they never mention what that solution was.The Pixar Story also goes into great lengths in making it appear as they were basically the inventors of all computer generated images. But what about The Mind's Eye series? Or what about the hundreds of thousands of computers games? What about the hundreds of other animation studios around the world who have been, and are still constantly punching out a great stream of amazing animation? What about the fact that producing high quality animation has become easier and easier, so much so that the greatest computer animated films are not from Pixar at all? Do the people at Pixar feel threatened by all the competition? Do they continue to look for new talent? The Pixar Story also dwells a short while amongst the first Jurrasic Park movie, and how the computer generated dinosaurs in that film changed the way action films were made. But why did nobody question if that was actually a good thing? Why weren't Pixar nailed to the wall with questions about CGI versus authenticity? Again, there was a brief moment towards the end when the death of old-school 2D animation sparked some interest, but again the makers of The Pixar Story moved past it with a few simple statements about how sad it was.All in all, this could have been an amazing making-off documentary which had 88 minutes to really dig deep and portray a world very few know anything about.Instead it's just your average "oh, I am so great, and so are all my colleagues" snore-fest, which runs three times as long as it should have.

Nostra1 At the moment Pixar is the leading company when it comes to successful computer animated movies. With the combination of stunning graphics en extremely well written stories they have managed to build an impressive movie portfolio. This documentary shows how the company was founded and evolved. Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, Brad Bird and George Lucas are all interviewed and tell about its history and growth. Before Toy Story was made the company didn't make any money and lost millions each year.The movie show that Toy Story's story would have been very different if the Disney company would have had it its way. Also Pixar's other movies like A Bug's Life, Cars, Monster Inc and Finding Nemo are briefly talked about. It's clear that the company feels the constant pressure to outdo itself with each new movie. I think this is something they usually succeed in, although Cars really wasn't that good (although it is understandably very popular with the kids) I'm always looking forward to seeing new Pixar movies, something I don't have with Disney movies. With Toy Story 3 Pixar has managed to already earn $895 million and the future of Pixar looks bright. It's a company that will not disappear anytime soon. When I think about the Pixar name I think about quality movies and my expectation is that they will manage to keep that image.The Pixar Story is a very interesting documentary in which there were many new details I didn't know. If you have seen every Pixar movie and if you want to know more about the company itself, then this documentary is something you will want to see.