PIXAR: The Company and Its Founders - Sharyland ISD

A COMPUTER-GENERATED FEATURE
LOOMING UNCERTAINTY
People were excited to work on Toy Story because
it was new. But the
very novelty that
fueled animators’ and
TOY STORY’S TOY STORY
engineers’ enthusiasm
Around the time of the movie’s release,
a representative from Disney’s Consumer
had Pixar’s owner, Steve
Products Division met with Toy Story coproducer
Ralph Guggenheim and watched a clip
Jobs, worried. Jobs
had already invested
of the film. Guggenheim was excited about
the potential toys that could be made for
close to $50 million in
their film, but the Disney representative
Pixar and had yet to get surprised him by saying that the clip did not
show much potential for marketable toys.
significant return on his
Disney Consumer Products passed on
investment. As Catmull, licensing the characters from Toy Story, so the
Lasseter, and others
Pixar team looked to other toy companies. But,
time was running short and the toy makers
at Pixar gave Toy Story
would not have the 18-month window they
their all, Jobs quietly
preferred to make new products. As a result,
began to look for a
two big toy companies, Mattel and Hasbro, also
passed on the chance to make Woody and Buzz
buyer for the company.
Lightyear dolls for kids.
But instead of
At a toy fair in New York City, representatives
from Toronto toy company Thinkway saw
selling the company
a clip of Toy Story. They decided to purchase
right away, Jobs decided the license to make dolls of Woody and Buzz
to license Pixar’s
Lightyear. Because no one else had opted to
patents on its software.
make the toys, the small company was able to
purchase the worldwide license. They ended
Patents give inventors
up making toys for the highest-grossing
the exclusive right to
movie of the year.
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