5 Reasons Everyone Loves Pixar
1. They Pioneered A New Era Of Animation
Theres no other way around it, Pixar gave the biggest push to 3D animated feature films than anyone else, to the point that 3D animation is now the standard form in movie theaters, not the exception. This all goes back to the early 1970s when the founders of Pixar were trying to do new and inventive things with computer graphics. They started off with basic three-dimensional renders of hands and moved up from there, even helping to craft visual effects for live action movies such as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Young Sherlock Holmes.
After making many short films, they took a chance and made Toy Story which ended up being a massive success. Toy Story was new and fresh, creating a look that none of the other major animated films could boast. It looked amazing and provided an entirely new feel to animated movies. Even after Toy Story, 2D animated films were still the norm but over time, 3D became more and more popular thanks to Pixars relentless string of modern day classics. Other Hollywood studios (such as DreamWorks) took notice and came up with their own 3D animated movies and franchises (such as the Shrek series) in order to keep up.
Although its a shame that 2D animation has all but disappeared from major movie theaters, 3D animation has become a new, distinctive method of storytelling. Pixar pushed the boundaries of what was technologically available and ended up opening the floodgates to a new genre of animated films. That is certainly something to love.
Ryan Estabrooks is a film writer/director and photographer. When he is not busy solving mysteries, he can be found working on his feature length film. You can view all of his work at the imaginatively-titled RyanEstabrooks.com