The Pixar Story

The Pixar Story

Directed By Leslie Iwerks

Written, Directed & Produced by Leslie Iwerks
Edited by Leslie Iwerks, Stephen Myers, A.C.E.
Cinematography by Suki Medencevic
Music by Jeff Beal
Narrated by Stacy Keach
88 Minutes

Review from Variety

By PETER DEBRUGE

Leslie Iwerks' documentary 'The Pixar Story' tells of the rise of the animation company through the visions of people such as the three Pixar principals, John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs. More than one option (Person) Steve Jobs (Person) Steven Jobs

Leslie Iwerks' "The Pixar Story" charts the company's rise to infinity and beyond, so to speak, and who better to chronicle the journey than the Oscar-nominated granddaughter of animation pioneer Ub Iwerks? Though a talking-heads retrospective by nature, pic boasts not only all the right heads (from the three Pixar principals -- John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs -- to Michael Eisner and honorary godfather George Lucas) but also plenty of animated eye candy from Pixar itself, including early shorts and concept art. Result makes for a rosy inhouse portrait, sure to interest fans, especially down the road on DVD.

Version screened at San Diego Comic-Con was well polished but not quite complete, with credits still in flux and clearances still pending on a few of the clips.

In retrospect, it's easy to mistake Pixar's success as savvy planning on the part of Lasseter ("talented artist"), Catmull ("creative scientist") and Jobs ("visionary entrepreneur"), but the docu goes a long way to remind just how remarkable the meeting of these three minds proved. After all, even Lucas, who developed Pixar as the computer-graphics arm of his own filmmaking operation, decided to cut it loose before the division had revealed its true promise.

Narrated by Stacy Keach, pic opens with the image of a spinning zoetrope, followed by highlights from a century of hand-drawn toons, a fitting reminder of just how far animation has evolved to reach the sophistication evident in Pixar's product. The key, of course, was the introduction of the computer -- a tool Lasseter has elsewhere referred to as a multimillion-dollar pencil.

In other tellings of the Pixar story, Disney figures as the would-be villain (for letting Lasseter go during the early days of computer animation), with Lasseter's promotion to chief creative officer of Disney animation seen as the underdog-hero's poetic victory. But now that Disney and Pixar are one and the same, and because Iwerks' docu was produced internally, such dramatics have no place in this telling -- which probably makes for a more accurate account of events, considering that neither company would be where it is today without the other.

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