40 Facts About Pixar (31-40)

Parts 1, 2 and 3 here.

And here we are folks, the final part as we've now reached 40 facts for Pixar's 40th anniversary. Without further ado, let's dive in!

31: Why Bo Peep was absent in Toy Story 3

Many, many fans have asked this about Bo Peep in regards to Toy Story 3: why was she absent in that movie? She's such a beloved supporting character and an important character in the franchise as Woody's supportive love interest. So why wasn't she in Toy Story 3?

The answer comes from a book titled The Art of Toy Story 3. Due to being a porcelain lamp, Bo Beep's kind of hard to put in action scenes without her breaking easily. Even Toy Story 4 shows that her life as a lost toy hasn't had her make it out without breaking at least once. Just imagine if Bo Peep was in the caterpillar room at Sunnyside, she definitely would've been smashed to pieces! And when you consider the climax of Toy Story 3 involves a giant incinerator, that definitely would've cooked Bo's goose there since being a porcelain lamp, she would've melted in seconds. So overall, it was just not possible for Bo Peep to fit into Toy Story 3 without being broken to little bits or melted, and that definitely would've horrified the fans! It's also said another reason for her absence is that Molly and Andy wouldn't have wanted her anymore and that Andy wouldn't have anything to say about her when introducing the toys to Bonnie at the end.

So ultimately, that's why Bo Peep wasn't in Toy Story 3. But hey, that just made us appreciate her appearance in Toy Story 4 all the more, especially since she her character got such an upgrade there. Seriously, if you think Toy Story 4 ruined Bo Peep, you're wrong, simple as that. =P

32: How Ratatouille came to be

This movie has quite an interesting story behind how it got from concept to execution.

We all know that this was Brad Bird's second movie he directed for Pixar and the only Pixar movie he's directed that isn't an Incredibles movie, but did you know that someone else was meant to direct this movie instead? Yep, this movie was originally in the hands of Jan Pinkava, the man who actually coined up the idea for the movie in the first place back in 2001. Another fun fact for you, he also worked on the Pixar short Geri's Game. Jan planned a lot of the things that we got in the final movie like the designs of the characters and the main storyline. However, it was felt his version was lacking something and he wasn't ready to be a director yet, so Brad Bird was chosen to direct instead. Jan ended up quitting Pixar afterwards. I can imagine he felt really crushed by being replaced like that, poor guy.

You may be curious what did Jan's original draft for Ratatouille look like? The most I can find is that Gusteau was actually ALIVE in his draft and apparently, Chef Skinner was going to be a more three-dimensional character who was shown to be Gusteau's long-standing partner and friend who became more jaded over the years because of financial troubles. His brands of frozen good were a means to keep providing income for the restaurant to stay afloat. When Brad Bird took over the movie, Colette and Skinner were given bigger roles, the rats were redesigned to look more like rats, Gusteau was killed off to keep the story from being overcrowded and Skinner was stripped of his Hidden Depths, which is a shame as it would've made him a more interesting character in my eyes.

Still, it's clear Brad Bird's changes were for the better since Ratatouille was a critical and financial hit and is considered among Pixar's biggest masterpieces. I just hope there's no hard feelings from Jan Pinkava since the whole movie was his idea in the first place...

33: The first Academy Award Pixar EVER won

I bet everyone of you reading this is immediately guessing "It was whenever they won an award for Best Animated Feature, wasn't it? I bet that was their first ever Academy Award!" Well...you'd be wrong actually.

In fact, the first Academy Award Pixar ever won was actually the Special Achievement Award, which was given to Toy Story during the 68th Academy Awards back in 1995. No prizes for guessing why Pixar won the award for THAT movie. Considering this was them creating the first ever computer animated movie, why wouldn't they have won that award?

And as we know, Pixar went on to win many more Academy Awards, mostly in the Best Animated Feature category, but the Special Achievement Award was their very first Oscar win, and a well-earned one too. ^^

34: The time it took to render one frame in Pixar's early days

This is something for any animation enthusiasts who might be reading this post.

Given computers were more...primitive back in the day, you may be wondering how long it would take to make a Pixar movie in ye olden days. The answer? A stupidly long time. Let me put this into perspective: at the time of making Toy Story, it would take about 4-13 hours just to render one frame. That's right. ONE. FRAME. One frame of Toy Story's animation would take that long to render! And that's depending on what scene they're doing at the time! And as I once mentioned when I did the 100 facts about Disney series, it took them FOUR DAYS just to render ONE FRAME of animation for Finding Nemo. I just wonder how the hell they ever got the movie done after all that! I know for a fact I don't have the patience for this sort of thing.

So with today's technology, how long does it take to render a frame of animation for modern Pixar movies? I don't have a definitive answer, but the most I can find is it can take about 5-6 hours to render a frame in this day and age, but more complex scenes may still need more time. Still, it takes less time to render a Pixar movie than it would've done back then, which probably explains why Pixar movies are able to come out on a mostly yearly basis unlike in the past where you'd get gaps in-between releases...

35: Toy Story 2's production was a NIGHTMARE!!!

Back when I did the 100 Facts About Disney, I brought up a part of Toy Story 2's production history, namely how they nearly lost the damn thing due to an error on behalf of one of the employees at the time and Galyn Susman saved everyone's bacon due to having a copy of the film to work on at home. But here, I'll cover more of the film's production and how there were more horrors they had to deal with than just that.

So what was so nightmarish about Toy Story 2's production? For starters, it was originally going to be a direct-to-video movie, but Disney were so impressed with what the studio had produced so far, they decided to release it in cinemas instead. OK, that doesn't sound too bad, does it? Well consider the that they had to scrap the original DTV movie and start over from scratch with a script that had to be rewritten over ONE WEEKEND. And then take in the fact they were given a November 1999 release date...WHICH MEANT THEY ONLY HAD NINE MONTHS TO MAKE THE DAMN MOVIE!!! And the worst part is Disney would not budge when it came to the release date! So yeah, they were given nine months to make the movie when computer animation is not a speedy process, especially back in those days! It's so weird they let Pixar start all over again with the movie but wouldn't change the release date. What's that about? John Lasseter, who was supposed to be taking a break after his work on Toy Story and A Bug's Life even had to be brought in to help the crew get things done on time. What resulted as a chaotic production in where the crew over-exerted and exhausted themselves and some were even said to be working too hard.

To give you an idea how bad this was, many Pixar animators suffered carpal tunnel syndrome (a full third of Pixar staff developed that) or repetitive strain injury and as David Price wrote about in his 2008 book The Pixar Touch, one animator had forgotten to drop his child off at daycare one morning and actually FORGOT THE BABY IN THE BACK SEAT OF HIS CAR! Yes, the staff at Pixar were really that overworked! Don't worry, quick action by rescue workers prevented the worst from happening, but it was a horrible indicator on how overworked the staff were at the time. And this is why I will never understand companies giving films or video-games really tight deadlines. It's so unnecessary and just leads to bad things happening. If your crew needs more time to make media, GIVE THEM MORE TIME!

Still, at least Pixar were rewarded for their hasty and rushed production with the movie being a smash hit with critics and audiences and making a heck tonne of money at the box office. Toy Story 2 is still considered among Pixar's best movies of all time and one of their best sequels too. And here's the cleaner from the movie saying "You can't rush art!" Well in this case, they can. XD

36: Finding Nemo holds the record for the fastest selling AND best selling DVD of all time

This should give you an idea how big a deal Pixar was at the time. Of all the countless upon countless movies out there, Finding Nemo of all movies is the fastest selling AND best selling DVD of all time. And considering we live in an age where streaming dominates and DVD collections are now see as "old fashioned", I doubt that record's going to break anytime soon. So what is Finding Nemo's record then? 40 million copies sold as of 2006 with 8 million sold on the DVD's first day of release. When you take in how Finding Nemo was the second highest grossing movie of 2003 and was critically beloved, plus this being during the rise of the DVD, it's easy to see why Finding Nemo was the one to break that record and has since remained unchallenged since no other DVD is ever going to sell that crazily ever again. It's like how there's zero chance any stop-motion movie will top Chicken Run's recording break box office gross, it's just not going to happen in this day and age.

Now I imagine everyone at DVD stores being like the seagulls when they were looking for a Finding Nemo DVD...

"MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE!"

37: The inspirations behind Luca

Inspiration comes from anywhere, and Luca has quite a few that led to its creation.

Enrico Casarosa, the man who directed the movie, drew inspiration from many of Studio Ghibli's works, namely the works of Hayo Miyazaki's very own Kiki's Delivery Service, Ponyo and his TV series Future Boy Conan. This is described as like "Pixar's attempt at a Studio Ghibli movie" and, well, that's why. It was inspired by the works of Studio Ghibli.

But that's not the only place Enrico drew inspiration from. This interview from Empire at the time reveals that Enrico based much of the movie on his own experiences as a child, namely the plotline of the sky, reserved Luca befriending a nonconformist type who pushes him into becoming more open. I'm pretty sure no sea monsters were involved as well. XD Enrico also spent summers at Cinque Terre as a child, which is where the movie is set. In case you don't know, Cinque Terre is a string of centuries old seaside villages in Italy. I wonder how many Pixar fans wanted to visit that place after watching Luca...

In any case, Studio Ghibli films and a director's childhood nostalgia. Quite the combination to inspire a movie, am I right?

38: Pete Docter based much of Inside Out on experiences with his own daughter, Elie.

You're probably familiar with the phrase "Write what you know". Inside Out is definitely one such example of that.

Peter Docter drew a lot of inspiration from his personal life and the life of his daughter, Elie Docter (who fun fact, she voiced Elie as a child in Up). Just like Riley in the movie, Elie Docter was also a giggly and playful child who became quiet and introverted when she turned 11. Pete took note of his daughter's change in moods and wondered what was going on internally, hence what inspired the concept of the movie. It always fascinates me where some ideas for films come from.

Oh and here's a sweet fact for you. Apparently Elie herself enjoyed Inside Out and found it charming. Coming from his own daughter, I bet that really touched Pete so much. ^^

And speaking of Pete...

39: Pete Docter, director of Monsters Inc., Up and Inside Out is the current leader of Pixar

...let's talk about him some more.

As of 2018, Pete Docter is now the Chief Creative Officer of Pixar Animation Studios, taking over from John Lasseter after he was kicked out of his position for...understandable reasons. To think he was merely a director and writer for the company, now he's the one running the show so to speak. Needless to say, he was the right choice given Pete's done so much great work for the company what with directing four highly acclaimed movies (Monsters Inc., Up, Inside Out and Soul), has won numerous awards for Pixar with his movies and also made a lot of money with Inside Out being the highest grossing movie he's directed thus far (Inside Out 2 had a different director so that doesn't count). Now one has to wonder who'll take over from him when his time is over? Andrew Stanton would be a good choice, but I don't work at Pixar so I'm in no position to say anything really...

40: Cars, Toy Story and Inside Out are Pixar's highest grossing franchises

Pixar is notorious for being a big money making studio. Nearly every movie they've made has been a box office hit (with only a few exceptions) and many of their films have been billion dollar hits. But what are Pixar's highest grossing franchises? What are Pixar's biggest money makers? That comes in the form of three of their franchises, all of which have made it on Wikipedia's list of highest grossing franchises. These are Toy Story, Cars and Inside Out. How much have they made? Let's list them one-by-one from lowest to highest:

Inside Out: $2.67 billion

Toy Story: $14.8 billion

Cars: $21.5 billion

Is anyone surprised Cars is Pixar's biggest money maker? Cars merch alone sells like hot cakes! I am surprised that The Incredibles and Monsters Inc. haven't made the list as I would've thought they were billion dollar franchises as well. Maybe they are, but just not enough to rank among the highest grossing franchises ever? But there you are, these three are Pixar's biggest money makers and among the highest grossing franchises of all time. Who knows if Pixar will ever make another franchise that makes that amount of money again...

And there we are. 40 facts about Pixar all done. Happy Anniversary week Pixar! Here's to the next 40 years of quality movies from this amazing studio...

That's all for this post. Tune in next week for I'll be reviewing Transformers: Beast Wars. See you then media fans!

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