November 22, 1995: Toy Story, Pixar’s first feature-length movie, lands in theaters. The charming film wows the world with the wonders of computer animation.
The most successful of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs‘ business ventures during his wilderness years away from Cupertino, the box office smash makes his belief in the power of computer graphics pay off in a big way.
How big? A cleverly timed decision to sync the movie opening with Pixar’s public offering turns 40-year-old Jobs into a billionaire.
Toy Story: Computer animation fuels Pixar’s hit 1995 movie
Toy Story stands out as an astonishing achievement for its time. The early 1990s was a high point for animated feature films, thanks to Disney’s back-to-back-to-back successes with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and The Lion King. Those movies combined celebrity voices, high-quality animation, great scripts and big Broadway musical numbers to stunning effect.
All three of those films featured computer graphics to some degree, but only for backgrounds and special effects. With Toy Story, computer graphics needed to prove themselves capable of creating emotion as well.
It worked. Audiences fell in love with the toy characters, including Woody (an earnest cowboy) and Buzz Lightyear (a bumbling astronaut). During a January 1995 sneak preview double bill of Toy Story and the traditionally animated Pocahontas, the former emerged as the undisputed winner.
A smash hit when it arrives in theaters
When Toy Story opened in theaters, it lived up to this potential. Box office sales of $358 million worldwide made it a runner-up only to the aforementioned Aladdin and The Lion King.
Jobs’ involvement with Pixar at this stage has often been discussed. There’s no doubt that he later became a crucial part of the company as its CEO, in a role that also made him the single biggest shareholder in the Walt Disney Company. But how much impact did he have early on?
Steve Jobs and Toy Story
Primary credit for Toy Story’s success, of course, goes to creators Ed Catmull and John Lasseter. They shepherded the groundbreaking movie to the screen. Jobs himself offered no input on Toy Story’s plot, although he contributed in other ways.
For instance, Jobs negotiated the movie deal with Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenberg. Unfortunately, Pixar did not retain ownership of the film and characters. And — in a move that shows how much Jobs’ thinking changed over the coming decade — Pixar did not get a cut of home video revenue. (Jobs apparently did not appreciate the significance of that market.)
Later on, Jobs fought with Katzenberg to get more money to fund Toy Story‘s development.
Jobs also became a vocal proponent of the movie. He spent countless hours watching rough cuts ot Toy Story and offering feedback. He even showed advance copies to journalists he particularly liked and trusted.
When Toy Story came out on November 22, 1995, Jobs deserved the credit he received for helping bring the movie to the screen. He was much more than simply a wealthy patron.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=w0Vvl_ByCXM
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
