Pixar, every mention

Disney: The Renaissance and the Empire · Acquired Aug 10, 2026 · 100 mentions

• ▶ 1:05 Ben Gilbert It is Mickey and Minnie and Ariel and Simba and Elsa and Woody and Buzz and Nemo and all the Pixar characters.
• ▶ 9:45 David Rosenthal And then later after them, Andrew Stanton, of course, writer and director of Finding Nemo, WALL-E, Toy Story Five, Brenda Chapman, head of story for The Lion King, and of course, Pete Docter, who today is chief creative officer at Pixar.
• ▶ 36:51 Ben Gilbert Pixar.
• ▶ 37:11 Ben Gilbert Was actually three D rendered using Pixar software.
• ▶ 1:32:23 Ben Gilbert By this point, distributing Pixar's early films, but Eisner and Pixar had a, uh, very contentious relationship.
• ▶ 1:32:36 Ben Gilbert Six, a failure to build good relationships with Disney's partners, particularly Pixar.
• ▶ 1:37:11 David Rosenthal They've got this great partnership with Pixar.
• ▶ 1:48:38 David Rosenthal One of his first calls after he gets the news on, I think, a Sunday afternoon is to Steve Jobs, the then CEO of Pixar, in addition to being the CEO of Apple.
• ▶ 1:49:15 David Rosenthal But before we tell the story of Pixar, now is a great time to thank one of our favorite companies, WorkOS.
• ▶ 1:51:31 David Rosenthal With Pixar leadership.
• ▶ 1:51:58 David Rosenthal And, on the contrary, it's stuffed to the gills with Pixar characters.
• ▶ 1:52:08 David Rosenthal Pixar needs to take over Disney Animation, and that's why he called Steve Jobs the evening that he knew he was gonna become CEO.
• ▶ 1:52:17 Ben Gilbert So listeners, we thought something that would be fun on this episode is to tell the whole Pixar story.
• ▶ 1:52:34 Ben Gilbert Poetic thing for David and I redo our very first episode on Acquired, which was on Pixar, here as a segment of this episode.
• ▶ 1:52:44 David Rosenthal Pixar is the spiritual successor of Walt Disney's vision for Disney animation.
• ▶ 1:54:31 Ben Gilbert So we'll put a pin in John's story for now while we introduce another co-founder of Pixar.
• ▶ 1:58:39 Ben Gilbert They make the Pixar image computer within Lucasfilm.
• ▶ 1:58:42 Ben Gilbert This is the first time they've actually used the Pixar name for anything.
• ▶ 1:58:52 Ben Gilbert The Pixar image computer could do MRIs.
• ▶ 2:00:13 David Rosenthal This is like the butterfly flaps its wings that results in Pixar saving Disney.
• ▶ 2:00:51 Ben Gilbert So then Steve gets back in touch after the dust settles, and at first what he actually wants is the Pixar team and technology to create a rival consumer computer company to Apple.
• ▶ 2:01:03 Ben Gilbert He wants to get back at Apple using Pixar as the seeds of the company.
• ▶ 2:01:07 David Rosenthal He wants Pixar to be next.
• ▶ 2:01:41 Ben Gilbert It's formally named Pixar, and it is owned 70% by Steve Jobs and 30% by employees.
• ▶ 2:01:48 David Rosenthal And that's Pixar.
• ▶ 2:01:49 Ben Gilbert And that's Pixar.
• ▶ 2:02:36 David Rosenthal Uh, it sounds like a Pixar movie.
• ▶ 2:03:03 Ben Gilbert The first check to Pixar Inc. is from Disney to work with them and create the CAPS system for improving their two D animation.
• ▶ 2:03:12 David Rosenthal This is the beginning of the Disney Pixar relationship as a vendor.
• ▶ 2:03:18 Ben Gilbert So Pixar decides they need to show the world who they are.
• ▶ 2:06:33 David Rosenthal So we got to go spend a day at Pixar and learn from the folks there who make Pixar movies, how they do it.
• ▶ 2:07:22 Ben Gilbert It has this little animated guide, the Pixar animation steps.
• ▶ 2:07:30 Ben Gilbert Over 4000 storyboard drawings are created as the blueprint for the action and dialogue of a feature-length Pixar film.
• ▶ 2:08:03 Ben Gilbert So we were chatting with folks at Pixar, and they said, yeah, there's usually about eight different
• ▶ 2:08:52 Ben Gilbert Pixar's proprietary animation software, Marionette, is used to create the three-dimensional computer models for characters, props, and sets.
• ▶ 2:09:45 Ben Gilbert Pixar's proprietary animation software allows Pixar's animators to choreograph the motion in each scene by defining key frames or poses.
• ▶ 2:12:06 Ben Gilbert Pixar's RenderMan software draws the finished image by computing every pixel of the image from the model, animation, shading, and lighting information.
• ▶ 2:13:08 David Rosenthal What Pixar does is they are creating a universe, and then they are calculating every atom of that universe.
• ▶ 2:13:45 Ben Gilbert January 1919 93, they get the green light from Disney, and specifically what they have is a deal to make up to three pictures, just one for now, and Disney has the exclusive option to extend for two more, where Disney's basically hiring…
• ▶ 2:14:18 Ben Gilbert Pixar exclusively can make films with Disney.
• ▶ 2:14:22 Ben Gilbert Pixar is entitled to a small amount of the profits, and that is profit after paying back some of the marketing costs.
• ▶ 2:14:50 Ben Gilbert They will offer Pixar to make the, the sequels with them, but if Pixar declines, they're still Disney's to make.
• ▶ 2:15:02 Ben Gilbert So if Disney wants a sequel, Pixar makes a sequel, but it does not count against the total of three.
• ▶ 2:15:49 Ben Gilbert Pixar knows they want to make a film that is different than your typical Disney animation.
• ▶ 2:16:10 Ben Gilbert So they start translating John Lasseter's vision into the storyboards, and they keep going to Disney for notes, which is both useful, because Pixar doesn't really know what they're doing yet, and contractually required.
• ▶ 2:16:30 Ben Gilbert And through a combination of Pixar not really feeling their confidence in storytelling, and the notes pushing them this way,
• ▶ 2:17:20 Ben Gilbert The Pixar team's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, crap.
• ▶ 2:18:08 Ben Gilbert The Pixar team knows it.
• ▶ 2:19:47 Ben Gilbert If you're anyone else at Pixar, you have to be thinking, no, no, no, no, can't we just do this one and see how it works out?
• ▶ 2:20:35 David Rosenthal Pixar goes public.
• ▶ 2:20:50 David Rosenthal There's no other business guys at Pixar.
• ▶ 2:20:59 David Rosenthal So, Pixar closes its first day of trading,
• ▶ 2:21:20 David Rosenthal Toy Story and Pixar is how Steve Jobs makes his fortune.
• ▶ 2:21:48 Ben Gilbert Yes, Pixar alone made Steve Jobs a billionaire on IPO day.
• ▶ 2:22:09 David Rosenthal And if the IPO didn't work, then Pixar would have gotten crushed by Disney in the next negotiations.
• ▶ 2:22:35 Ben Gilbert With joint participation fifty-fifty in the upside, now that Pixar has the cash to do it, Michael Eisner agrees as long as they can expand into a brand new five-picture deal, rolling the remaining two from the old contract into the new…
• ▶ 2:22:48 Ben Gilbert So after Toy Story, Disney would have the right then to make five more movies with Pixar in addition to sequels.
• ▶ 2:23:28 David Rosenthal Than the distribution terms that Pixar got with Disney, and that's what he was pissed about.
• ▶ 2:23:39 Ben Gilbert Pixar is sort of viewed as this, ah, hit factory.
• ▶ 2:24:41 Ben Gilbert It's actually the Pixar team that goes to Disney and says, hey, this sucks.
• ▶ 2:24:45 Ben Gilbert We don't want to create an A-team and a B-team at Pixar, because, like, the A-teams on Bugs Life,
• ▶ 2:25:44 Ben Gilbert Pixar's highest grossing film yet.
• ▶ 2:26:51 David Rosenthal It was clear that Pixar was gaining swagger as Disney was losing it.
• ▶ 2:27:05 David Rosenthal It's one thing to go after him in the Pixar negotiations.
• ▶ 2:27:38 David Rosenthal Pixar.
• ▶ 2:27:56 Ben Gilbert This is Pixar's process to iterate and make them better.
• ▶ 2:28:04 David Rosenthal Pixar has become a board level topic at this point for Disney.
• ▶ 2:28:24 David Rosenthal And it'll be great for Disney's negotiating leverage for Pixar to fail.
• ▶ 2:28:45 Ben Gilbert He's actively rooting against it, even though he's the creative partner producing it with Pixar, and that it'll give leverage over Pixar in a negotiation.
• ▶ 2:29:27 Ben Gilbert Four hundred million of that, so that's four hundred and seventy million dollars to Disney Pixar.
• ▶ 2:30:11 David Rosenthal Disney and Pixar would sell 65 million copies of the Finding Nemo DVD, all told, you know, across all, all timeframe.
• ▶ 2:30:47 David Rosenthal Steve and Pixar did get a reality check, and the reality check is that they don't need Disney at all.
• ▶ 2:30:57 Ben Gilbert Pixar films have accounted for as much as half of the studio, Walt Disney's, operating income in recent years.
• ▶ 2:31:20 Ben Gilbert He thinks, at this point, Pixar is an established studio that knows how to make hits, and he just looks at Disney as a financing and distribution partner.
• ▶ 2:31:40 Ben Gilbert Pixar should actually be getting a hundred percent of the profits, not 50%, and they're now prepared to fund the budget themselves, too.
• ▶ 2:32:03 Ben Gilbert Jobs knows that at this point, Disney needs Pixar real bad.
• ▶ 2:32:23 Ben Gilbert But man, would it hurt to lose Pixar when it is really the only thing working right now.
• ▶ 2:32:34 Ben Gilbert All this comes to January, 2004, where Pixar pulls the plug on the negotiations, and they issue a press release, and listeners, we'll link to this.
• ▶ 2:32:50 Ben Gilbert You can actually see Pixar posted it to their website.
• ▶ 2:33:03 Ben Gilbert That's Disney won't be participating in Pixar's future successes.
• ▶ 2:33:14 Ben Gilbert The deal will be up after Pixar finishes out the contract with The Incredibles in 2004 and Cars in 2005.
• ▶ 2:33:20 Ben Gilbert Pixar is actively in talks with other Hollywood studios.
• ▶ 2:34:12 David Rosenthal So this brings us back to Bob Iger's phone call to Steve and his conviction that Pixar needed to come in and be part of Disney and not just be owned by Disney, but take over Disney animation.
• ▶ 2:35:15 Ben Gilbert Bob had this idea, and before he called Steve, he went to the board and said, hey, can I have authorization to, like, open a conversation with Steve Jobs about buying Pixar?
• ▶ 2:35:45 David Rosenthal Disney will buy Pixar, keep it fully intact as an independent studio up in the Bay Area, its own email addresses, its own culture, nothing will change.
• ▶ 2:36:02 Ben Gilbert And interestingly, Iger also said, hey, Lasseter and, and Catmull, you can also tell us you think Disney Animation is unrescuable, or that you think that you'd kill both things by splitting your time, and you can just tell us you want to…
• ▶ 2:36:31 Ben Gilbert oh, there's actually great talent here, they're just not being led well, and we think we can apply our process, and institute a brain trust, and change the physical construction of the building, and bring in the Pixar way, and make this…
• ▶ 2:37:27 David Rosenthal Bob flies up to Emeryville to the Pixar campus the morning of the announcement.
• ▶ 2:37:33 David Rosenthal And before the official time when they're going to announce the deal, meet with the whole company, Steve comes up to Bob and says, let's take a walk on the Pixar campus.
• ▶ 2:38:59 David Rosenthal Pixar.
• ▶ 2:39:00 David Rosenthal One of the questions that we had going into the research for this episode was, could Pixar have actually built a full stack, like, flywheel-based competitor to Disney if they'd remained independent?
• ▶ 2:39:20 Ben Gilbert And we asked all the Disney people this, and we asked all the Pixar people this, and we asked everyone we could this question, because from the business strategy lens,
• ▶ 2:39:51 Ben Gilbert Pixar never, ever, ever would have done what it takes to become Disney.
• ▶ 2:39:59 David Rosenthal Pixar is what Walt wanted the Burbank Animation Campus to be when he built it in.
• ▶ 2:40:15 David Rosenthal There are no suits at Pixar.
• ▶ 2:41:14 Ben Gilbert But without Steve, you could imagine the rest of the Pixar folks looking at each other like, who of us has any interest in doing that?
• ▶ 2:41:31 David Rosenthal So, Pixar had to find a home, and...
• ▶ 2:41:40 Ben Gilbert The Walt era of animation had a spiritual successor, which was the Disney Renaissance, which had a spiritual successor that was Pixar.
• ▶ 2:41:56 David Rosenthal Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero Six, Zootopia, Moana, all Pixar era.
• ▶ 2:42:06 David Rosenthal Meanwhile, the hits just keep on rolling at Pixar, Cars, Ratatouille.