The Pixar Touch - Book Review

"The Pixar Touch: The Making Of A Company" (David Price, 2008) gives a very specific filmmaking and technical look into how Pixar came to be with input from some of the people involved and a dizzying array of research. While few people know of its origin story, the recent tribulations and eventual new deal with the Disney company brought its inner workings to the forefront. Having been around and doing interviews personally for Pixar films "Toy Story 2", "Finding Nemo", "The Incredibles", "Cars" and "Monster Inc." including traveling to Pixar in Emeryville, I have been able to see some of the essence of its insides and get the general vibe which is stellar. Recently up to a few days ago, the TV show has done interviews with "Ratatouille" and "Up" (which is opening this year's Cannes Film Festival).Having talked before to John Lasseter who recently took complete control as Creative Director of Disney Feature Animation, the direction now is great and allows the company both as Pixar and Disney to take more risks. Now whether or not it will reach the heights of Pixar's former success remains to be seen. Pixar has made all of this possible. One of my recent great professional memories was when I was invited up for the "Finding Nemo" TV interviews at Pixar where we were allowed to roam supervised and seeing some of the creative nooks first hand.When we went down to see the film in Pixar's screening room, the person shaking hands near the opening of the room was none other than Steve Jobs who had his scruffy beard but was just smiling and shaking hands. I didn't realize the gravity of who I was speaking to at the time but now the power of that moment hits me. This was in 2003 before the IPod revolution had become as full force as it is right now.Seeing the purely digital element of "Nemo" in their theater is about as pure as you can come to seeing a film with Walt Disney at that level. So that said, I have a great respect and love for Pixar since I have been in the shadow watching first hand for most of their full fledged career. And, as shown as Siggraph in LA last year when Lasseter introduced one of his favorite Japanese artists who did a hand drawn abstract narrative feature, I understand the inspiration of what drives the company, especially Lasseter.And it is becoming more prevalent at the high commercial level. At the inset at Showest this year, Disney introduced a fully 3D reel which included "Toy Story 1 & 2" in 3D with "Toy Story 3 being made exclusively in 3D. "Tron 2" is now coming in 3D which in no small part is probably because Lasseter pushed it through. The level of animation seen in that is a whole other direction and was the first time the test footage was ever shown in 3D. "The Princess & The Frog" which we saw some rough 2D animation from starts the ball rolling again from hand drawn again which Lasseter believes is always necessary and an inspiration.I wanted to give that insight because, even with that background, Price goes much deeper. What I really like about this book is how we see the beginnings of the computer systems with Ed Catmull and Alvy Ray Smith who first started creating the computers that would make this all possible. John Lasseter brought the animator spirit that would rocket Pixar but Catmull and Smith began the research in Long Island that initialized it back in the late 70s. A forgotten billionaire who loved the idea of computer animation is the one who started the train in terms of money by buying astronomically priced image buffers for the team to try to make this kind of animation before it or even the image graphics we take for granted on our Mac was even possible. This was the real genesis of this revolution. But without this man willing to put his money where his mouth is, Pixar would not exist. Same thing with George Lucas although his reasons sound more purely self serving in terms of creating Edit Droid and the like. But that said, Lucas let the guys including a just fired Disney animator called Lasseter who tooled around in perpetuity, really work out the kinks.These years weren't easy but they did it, it seemed, for the love of the work. Jobs came into play later and one day there will be an epic film to detail his rise, fall and rise again. The guy is a brilliant enigma. When Jobs finally got to the point of combustion with Pixar, it was just a matter of money and making the right deal. And while the venture at times was not practical, Jobs, despite some rearrangement, kept it going. Pixar works because it was a collection of people. The purity of the earlier years described in the book seems almost like a frat or film school because that is really what it was. But instead of purely creatives you combined the scientist and engineers which made the interaction different. The fact that, at Lucasfilm, it was Catmull's team made the Genesis sequence in "Star Trek II: Wrath Of Khan", is simply legendary and revelatory. The making of the early short films and Price's inclusion of the stories of staying up all night in the halls of a decrepit office light years away from their current luxury in Emeryville really gives perspective to this journey.From "Toy Story" on, the aspect and politics take over which itself is a hard battle but one I had been more aware of. However, with ones with perspective on these industry travails, it is seems very close to the truth that has been spoken about. Price's gift here is getting down to the basic elements without sugar coating the facts and creating bias. He is very good at this and explains both the computer technical elements at enough of an intermediate level that most fairly comprehending college level freshman or younger who are interested in this arena or filmmaking can generally can get the gist of the progression. I mean two year old kids know how to use iPhones now.This book is exceptionally concise, intelligent and precise in assimilating its information and quoting its sources. The epilogue for this edition includes a new 2009 foreword which is more op-ed than actual facts but is meant to give a perspective on recent developments but without specific interview based facts. Still a great book end to end that you do not want to put down if you are interested in the birth of computer animation and the uphill battle to assimilate this culture into the zeitgeist. Out of 5, I give it a 4.