Luxo Jr.: An Architect's Lamp

Who is Luxo Jr.?

Short Film poster for Pixar's first short-film (1986).
http://www.shortfilmposters.com/1986/luxo_jr.html

This famous architect's lamp is the creation of, Chief Executive officer, John Lasseter. Quickly becoming the face of a common household name, Pixar. As Anthony Lane, writes it in The New Yorker magazine article, "The Fun Factory: Life at Pixar", 

There was a time when movie fans would thrill to Warner Bros., for the sake of Jimmy Cagney, or to M-G-M, for musicals; but who now would go to a picture because it was made by Universal, or Twentieth Century Fox? Most of us, as we leave the theater, can no more remember which company produced the film we just saw than we could tell you who manufactured the hand dryer in the men’s room. The exception is Pixar, the only studio whose products people actively seek out. Everyone knows Pixar.

Company Overview

American film studio: CGI animation and Motion Pictures
• Subsidiary company of The Walt Disney Company since 2006
• Headquarters: Emeryville, California
• Competitors: Viacom’s DreamWorks SKG and Paramount Pictures, Fox
Entertainment, and Time Warner’s Warner Bros. Entertainment
• Approximately 1,200 employees
• Opened an offsite campus in Vancouver, Canada for 3 yrs. Then shut
down to focus operations at one location
Co-founders: Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith
• Didn’t go public until the November 29, 1995 after the release of
Toy Story.
• Ed Catmull, President
– Ran company for 10 yrs. before Steve Jobs claimed the role as CEO
• Alvy Ray Smith, V.P until 1991
– Quit after being bullied by Jobs.
– John Lasseter took his position
• Steve Jobs is now listed as a co-founder although that
information is incorrect
Currently:
• Ed Catmull, President of Walt Disney & Pixar animation studios• John Lasseter, former director at Pixar, Chief Creative Officer
for Walt Disney & Pixar animation studios
– Principal Creative Advisor for Disney Imagineering

Facts

Initially, Pixar was a high-end computer hardware company
whose core product was the Pixar Image Computer
• 15 Short-films since 1986
– LAVA set to release 6.19.15 along with feature film #15
• 14 Feature-films since 1995
– #15 Inside Out 6.19.15
– #16 The Good Dinosaur 11.25.15
– #17 Finding Dory 6.17.16
• All 14 feature films have taken the #1 spot in the box office
• 30 Academy Awards
• 8 Golden Globes
• Grossed $7.8 billion in the global box office since 1995 (Toy Story-
Monsters University)
• Bought by Disney for $7.4 billion in 2006

A brief history

In 1979, the screenplay writer, better known for the Star Wars films, George Lucas recruited Dr. Ed Catmull and his team including Alvy Ray Smith, from NYIT, to head the computer division at Lucasfilm Ltd.. At this time Catmull and his group were "charged with developing state-of-the-art computer technology for the film industry" (Pixar). Soon after in 1983, John Lasseter, former employee of the Disney Animation Studio (Lasseter was fired from Disney after expressing a strong interest in developing computer animated films) was invited to join the graphics group over at Lucasfilm Ltd.. In 1984, Lasseter would become a full-time employee as an interface designer producing the short film, The Adventures of Andre & Wally B. with help of Alvy Ray Smith. On February 3rd, 1986, Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Inc., made a $10 million investment in the Lucasfilom Ltd. Computer Graphics Division writing his first check out to "Pixar Inc." and the founders Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith. $5 million dollars would allow Pixar to use the software they had developed at Lucasfilm Ltd. The other $5 million dollars would be used to run the company as an independent entity. 

Check signed by Steve Jobs to Pixar Inc

 Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith were co-founders of the Lucasfilm Ltd. spinoff company. During their first year, Lasseter directs and successfully develops the first short-film produced by Pixar, Luxo Jr. airing at SIGGRAPH in August of that year. Luxo Jr. will be the first 3-D computer animated film to be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar. 1987 - 1989 three more short films were created and released: Red's Dream, Tin Toy, and Knick Knack. Tin Toy from 1988 will be the first computer animated film to win an Academy Award in Best Animated Short Film. In 1989, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton join the company, making the employee count a mere 46 individuals. Also, in 1989 Pixar began making commercials for Listerine, Lifesavers and Tropicana, which would add to their growing list of successes; they won the CLIO Award twice. 

In 1991, Disney Animation Studios and Pixar "announce an agreement to make and distribute at least one computer-generated animated movie" (Pixar). A $26 million dollar deal that neither company would have thought to be their saving grace. Pixar was struggling financially and Disney was at a standstill with the quality of the films. In the agreement  between the two companies, Disney would handle production and promotional costs while Pixar took care of the content and animation aiming to produce a "quality" film. this agreement will later be amended, permitting Pixar to produce three more quality films. 

Despite their successes, the company still struggled to make ends meet. In 1994 they reported a loss of $2.4 million. Pixar did not report a profit until 1995 after the successful release of Toy Story.
Toy Story
1st computer animated film
– Created solely through computer graphics
– Directed by John Lasseter
• $30 million budget
• Grossed $29 million in first weekend
• Grossed $191 million nationally, $361 million internationally
– First sign of a profit: $3.1 million on revenues of $10.6 million

November of 1995 was the first time the company went public, after the release of their first feature-length film, Toy Story.

Pixar went on to produce A Bug's life, Pixar's first sequel Toy Story 2 which was more successful than the first, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo, the most successful pixar film until the release of Toy Story 3 in 2010.