Topic: HOLLYWALD - on May 31, 2004 at 12:40:00 AM CEST
Welcome to Planet Pixar
How the pixel-packing upstart became an animation superpower and left Disney in the dust.
When Brad Bird arrived at Pixar in 2000, the first director ever recruited from the outside, he was skeptical about the company's reputation as an animator's paradise. You can't blame him. Already an industry legend for getting The Simpsons and King of the Hill off the ground, Bird was furious with Warner Bros. for botching the release of his labor of love, The Iron Giant. "They were closing down the animation division while we were still working on it," he says. "Every week there another exec would be gone. When they released the film, we didn't even have a poster!" So on Bird's first day at Pixar he showed up with a video camera and recorded everything, from the reception desk to the view from his office. He wanted evidence Pixar wouldn't disappear beneath his feet.
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