Schure kept pouring money into the computer graphics lab, an estimated $15 million, giving the group everything they desired and driving NYIT into serious financial troubles. Edwin Catmull and Malcolm Blanchard were the first to be hired and were soon joined by Alvy Ray Smith and David DiFrancesco some months later, which were the four original members of the Computer Graphics Lab, located in a converted two-story garage acquired from the former Vanderbilt-Whitney estate. Pixar got its start in 1974, when New York Institute of Technology's (NYIT) founder, Alexander Schure, who was also the owner of a traditional animation studio, established the Computer Graphics Lab (CGL) and recruited computer scientists who shared his ambitions about creating the world's first computer-animated film. The physical award was ceremoniously handed to Lucasfilm's founder, George Lucas.Ī Pixar computer at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View with the 1986–95 logo on it On February 10, 2009, Pixar executives John Lasseter, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, and Lee Unkrich were presented with the Golden Lion award for Lifetime Achievement by the Venice Film Festival. Up and Toy Story 3 were also nominated for the more competitive and inclusive Academy Award for Best Picture. Pixar's films are frequently nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, since its inauguration in 2001, with eleven winners being Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), WALL-E (2008), Up (2009), Toy Story 3 (2010), Brave (2012), Inside Out (2015), Coco (2017), Toy Story 4 (2019), and Soul (2020) the five nominated without winning are Monsters, Inc. Pixar has earned 23 Academy Awards, 10 Golden Globe Awards, and 11 Grammy Awards, along with numerous other awards and acknowledgments. Moreover, 15 of Pixar's films are in the 50 highest-grossing animated films of all time. Toy Story 3 (2010), Finding Dory (2016), Incredibles 2 (2018), and Toy Story 4 (2019) are all among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, with Incredibles 2 being the fourth highest-grossing animated film of all time, with a gross of $1.2 billion the other three also grossed over $1 billion. As of July 2019, its feature films have earned approximately $14 billion at the worldwide box office, with an average worldwide gross of $680 million per film. The studio has also produced many short films. The studio has produced 26 feature films, beginning with Toy Story (1995), which is the first fully computer-animated feature film its most recent film was Lightyear (2022). The studio's mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio's 1986 short film of the same name.

Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by RenderMan, the company's own implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification image-rendering API. Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 at a valuation of $7.4+ billion by converting each share of Pixar stock to 2.3 shares of Disney stock. Pixar began in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division, known as the Graphics Group, before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. It is based in Emeryville, California, and is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. Pixar Animation Studios ( / ˈ p ɪ k s ɑːr/), commonly known as just Pixar, is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films.

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