Steve Jobs Responsible for Next Generation Cartoons and Family Films
With all the talk about Steve Jobs' death and his innovative influence on the technology world, many seem to overlook the fact he was also responsible for the next generation of cartoons and family films as well.
After Jobs was let go from Apple in the mid 80s, he used the fortune he had amassed creating the company to purchase a small side studio from Lucasfilm, George Lucas' special effects department, called Pixar for $10 million.
After investing more of his time and money in the fairly unknown company, Pixar began experimenting with CGI (computer generated imagery) in the early 90s creating commercials and trailers for movies and products.
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Jobs was contemplating selling the company in 1994, that's when Disney approached him on the idea of creating an entire animated film. This film would later go on to be "Toy Story," but was originally intended to be released for video only. Jobs persuaded them otherwise and the film went on to gross $350 million worldwide.
After a slew of successful films over the next decade, Disney acquired Pixar from Jobs on May 5, 2006 for $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal.
Disney Pixar CEO John Lasseter and the President of Walt Disney Pixar, Ed Catmull released a joint statement about Jobs on the company Facebook page describing him as an "extraordinary visionary" who "believed inour crazy dream of making computer animated films."
The statement reads:
Steve Jobs was an extraordinary visionary, our very dear friend and the guiding light of the Pixar family. He saw the potential of what Pixar could be before the rest of us, and beyond what anyone ever imagined. Steve took a chance on us and believed in our crazy dream of making computer animated films; the one thing he always said was to simply ‘make it great.’ He is why Pixar turned out the way we did and his strength, integrity and love of life has made us all better people. He will forever be a part of Pixar’s DNA. Our hearts go out to his wife Laurene and their children during this incredibly difficult time.
