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The history of the struggle between DreamWorks and Pixar

If Pixar's "Toy Story" opened a new era of 3D animated films, then DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek" A new era of animated films. Over the years, two animation companies have taken the Eden route and the other the cult route. Pixar is treading on thin ice, and DreamWorks is closing in. The themes of the films produced by the two companies frequently overlap, which makes people feel that they are both exciting and strange. This seems to be a mistake, but in fact it is closely related to the little-known grievances and resentments between the two companies. Ten years later, the sequels of the two studios' masterpieces finally met...

When talking about the grievances between the two companies, we have to start from the beginning. Speaking of the feud between Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, one company that must be mentioned is Disney. Disney is the initiator of opening this magic box.

In the 1980s, it was difficult for Disney’s classic animations to bring new breakthroughs to the audience after decades. At that time, computer technology was just becoming popular, and Disney executives saw the future prospects. In 1982, Disney launched "Tron" (Tron) based on computer technology. Unfortunately, the technology at that time was still in its exploratory stage. The technical significance of the film far outweighs its watchability. Although this ambitious tech blockbuster flopped at the box office, it inspired many tech geeks to look to the future. Among them was a young painter named John Lasseter.

In 1983, Lasseter was fired by Disney. This is really great news for Lucasfilm. Lucasfilm was lacking animators who could combine animation with computer technology. After arriving at Lucasfilm, Lasseter thrived in the computer animation department. He soon began to explore and produce experimental computer animation short films. The animation department of Lucasfilm, where Lasseter works, was born in the 1970s. This computer animation department has been at the forefront of software and hardware research and development. This is both its strength and a stumbling block to its future development. The unclear positioning made the company go through many twists and turns.

Lucas did not expect the computer animation division to be profitable. He saw the department only as a high-tech laboratory for his next film. Soon, for Lucas, this department became a cost-effective waste.

In 1986, Steve Jobs bought Pixar for $5 million. Jobs is still working hard on software and hardware development and applications. But Pixar failed to turn a profit for years. Pixar has produced high-end computer graphics and animation software, and won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for its animated short "Tin Soldier."

Subsequently, a series of animated short films produced by Pixar caused quite a stir in the industry. Traditional animators view computer technology with either awe or hostility. Lasseter is different. He perfectly combines computer technology and animation. Soon, Disney offered John Lasseter a generous olive branch. At the time, Lasseter was married and had a stepson. He faced a big financial crisis. But he had plenty of reasons to say no to Disney. He didn't want to move to Los Angeles or have a relationship with Jeffrey Katzenberg, the autocratic head of Disney Studios. But some things are destined to be inevitable.

Katzenberg (middle) and Spielberg take a group photo

The original sin of the growth of animated films

When Disney began to be interested in computer animation, Pixar had already Became a leader in computer animation. In 1990, Disney hoped to cooperate with this company again. The cooperation between the two parties has been quite bumpy.

Pixar was having a hard time at the time. Pixar's technology has also opened up markets for it in advertising production. But five years after Steve Jobs bought Pixar, the company was still losing money year after year. In 1990 alone, Pixar's operating losses exceeded $8.3 million. Some have commented that part of Pixar's problem is that its software technology has outpaced the capabilities of the currently available hardware. Exhausted, Jobs lost patience. Jobs was unwilling to fail. In 1991, he took back the equity from employees at a low price and laid off 30 of the 72 employees.

Katzenberg’s reputation as a “tyrant” in micromanagement drove many young Disney animators away.

After these animators who left Disney came to Pixar, they found that they still had to cooperate with Disney, which was very subjective and repulsive. Katzenberg was worried about the consequences of leaving the entire film entirely to Pixar, and worried about whether Disney violated the union contract by cooperating with Pixar, which is not a union organization.

Although Katzenberg is demanding in film production, he is a pragmatic person in business. He broke some rules to achieve this collaboration with Pixar. Katzenberg decided there was no need to waste time and money letting Pixar learn from making TV shows. He agreed that Pixar would provide the script and produce the entire project.

The negotiations seem to be going smoothly so far, and everything is ready, but it is just the beginning. Disney and Pixar not only have big differences in revenue sharing, but also require Pixar to share the technology of its internal 3D software "Menv". Months passed with no progress. In order to put pressure on Disney, Pixar has negotiated cooperation with major studios such as Universal, Paramount and Columbia. Finally, at Jobs's insistence, Katzenberg gave in again.

In March 1991, Lasseter gave Katzenberg a movie script called "Toy Story." The film script given by Lasseter is relatively simple. The story tells that the toy Tiny was forgotten by his owner at a gas station. There he met Dami, a stuffed animal. Eventually they became toys for children in kindergarten. Katzenberg felt there were some problems with the story. Both main characters are seeking the same thing for the same reason. He asked Lasseter to increase the contrast in his character. After revisions, except for the slightly darker tone of the second draft of the story, the main plot is already quite close to the final version.

Although the outline of the story has been finalized, the main toy character is still just a name and has no exact image. Initially, Tiny was a private G.I. Image of Joe. He later took on the appearance of Astros toy Matt Mason and was renamed Dempsey. Taking into account the dramatic conflict and role contrast, Lasseter designed the bag toy as a cowboy image and named it Woody. The name Woody is taken from the African American actor Woody Schroeder. Schroeder appeared in Westerns by John Ford and Sergio Leone.

In June 1992, Lasseter produced a 30-second test clip. In the clip, Woody pushes Demps down in revenge for taking away his master's love. Although dark, this clip demonstrates techniques that traditional hand-drawn animation cannot. There are shadows cast by blinds in the dim room, and the protagonist Woody wears a plaid shirt. Disney executives liked this clip very much after watching it. Their only opinion is that they think stuffed dolls often appear in horror movies, and they hope that Pixar will change the image of this character. Pixar insists on not filming entirely in Disney's traditional animation style. They weren't going to have the characters burst into song.

The process of selecting screen supporting actors for "Toy Story" was also extremely difficult. Big-name toy companies such as Hasbro refuse to license the images of their toys. The look of Mr. Potato was obtained after numerous negotiations on behalf of the lawyers. Mattel Toy Company also refused to license the rights to use Barbie's image. On the contrary, big-name movie stars are interested in the film. Tom Hanks, who had just finished playing "Philadelphia", appeared in the recording studio very skinny. Everyone loves Hanks' acting style. Even if he is hysterical, no one thinks he is basically harmless to society. With Hanks, this movie is basically half the battle.

On November 19, 1993, Disney executives had differences of opinion after watching the story tape. Schneider felt there were big problems with the script and suspended the entire team's work. Months later, Pixar reworked the story details to make Woody more sympathetic. He's no longer the bad guy who pushed Buzz Lightyear down. Buzz Lightyear accidentally fell down due to Woody's out-of-control little plan and hit the jumping light. In February 1994, Katzenberg approved the story, allowing Pixar to restart production in April.

The team size of "Toy Story" has been rapidly expanded, from the original 24 people to 110 people. Disney's budget is only $17.5 million, which is not enough to attract talent. What excites the new team members is that they will be personally involved in the entire process of creating the first computer-animated film in history.

Although Pixar chose toys as the main characters of the film mainly due to technical feasibility considerations, there were still numerous technical difficulties that needed to be overcome in the film. Both Woody and Buzz Lightyear have more than 700 moving parts on their bodies. In addition, the entire film has 1,561 shots, surpassing any computer animation work produced by Pixar before. But these technical difficulties are nothing compared to the difficulties of the film's planning process.

During the film production process, the director and animators also added many interesting details and content to the film in previous "brainstorming" sessions. Ideas that were not adopted at the time included a teddy bear and plastic pizza strips wearing sunglasses.

Disney’s strong promotional and distribution advantages came into play. "Toy Story" is shown in more than 2,400 theaters across the United States. All products that can be used for advertising cooperation have characters in the film. Disney’s rushed production of toys related to the movie were also looted. "Toy Story" became the first movie to gross $20 million over a three-day weekend.

Jobs always insisted that the relationship between Pixar and Disney is equal cooperation, so Disney is constantly producing its own 3D movies, hoping to no longer rely too much on the increasingly powerful Pixar. However, Disney is too close to the starting line. What's even more troublesome for Disney is that there will soon be a strong opponent that can compete with Pixar.

The grievances between Lasseter and Katzenberg also promoted the rapid development of animated films

The personal grievances of the leaders

In 1984, Michael After Eisner became a Disney executive, Katzenberg continued to follow Eisner and became the head of Disney's film department. Over the course of a decade, Katzenberg earned the nickname "The Tyrant." At the same time, under his leadership, Disney produced classic films such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit," "The Little Mermaid," "Beauty and the Beast," "Aladdin" and "The Lion King." He was a hard-working, accomplished man who was waiting for Eisner to fulfill his promise of a promotion.

In 1994, Eisner's right-hand man Frank Wells was killed in a helicopter crash. Katzenberg stepped forward hoping to fill the void left by Wells. What he got, however, was Eisner's perfunctory response. When he forced Eisner into a corner, the trapped beast made a muffled sound in the air: Get out!

Katzenberg spent several days thinking calmly. He felt he should do something. Not only for his future, he wants revenge. He made three phone calls. The first call was to David Geffen, who had just sold his record company to Warner Bros. for $700 million. The second call was to Spielberg, whose career was in full swing. The third call was to Paul Allen, who was ranked seventh among the world's richest people at the time.

Three entertainment industry leaders and a tycoon who promised "I'll give you as much as you want" founded DreamWorks. This company's start-up capital was as high as 2.6 billion US dollars, and it contained a huge golden key when it was born.

Katzenberg worked harder than ever. He wants to use the performance of an independent film studio to humiliate the aging Disney. He was going to make Eisner pay dearly for his wrong decision. Katzenberg later sued Disney. He received the arrears and out-of-court settlement, totaling US$280 million.

DreamWorks’ positioning is different from that of any mainstream studio or any independent studio. The production costs of DreamWorks' films are twice as high as those of other studios. Since there is no strong distribution channel, the benefits obtained by DreamWorks are often not proportional to the costs.

Katzenberg is not afraid of risk. He wants to speak on his strength and beat Disney in terms of film quality. In March 1996, Katzenberg took a fancy to Pacific Digital Imaging (PDI). PDI is actually a company born at the same time as Pixar. The relationship between PDI and Pixar is also very friendly. Both companies are leaders in the field and even share clients when the business gets too much. When Pixar poached people from PDI during the production of "Toy Story," PDI's founder also maintained his grace.

DreamWorks’ first project after acquiring PDI was a movie about ants. This topic unfortunately collides with Pixar's long-gestating "A Bug's Life". Lasseter and others at Pixar got the news from newspapers.

Lasseter then called Katzenberg to protest. "He started telling the story of Disney's conspiracy to get him out. He said he had to do something." Lasseter realized that Pixar would be the unfortunate victim of a vengeful fire. The problem with Pixar, a small tree, is that it is too close to the forest.

Katzenberg gave the production team of "Ants" ample funds on the condition that the film be completed as soon as possible. He continued to use psychological tactics and announced that he would advance the film's release date from March 1999 to 1998. For Pixar, this was a bolt from the blue. The computational load and number of insect characters in "A Bug's Life" are much higher than those in "Toy Story". The Pixar team is under a lot of pressure on film quality and production cycle. Facing the vicious Katzenberg, someone commented, "This seems to be a desperate war."

Although "Ants" was released early, it still lost to "A Bug's Life" at the box office 》. The U.S. box office of "A Bug's Life" was US$163 million, almost double that of "A Bug's Life." The former's global box office is more than twice that of the latter. This battle has changed a lot: Lasseter no longer regards Katzenberg as a mentor and friend, Pixar feels unprecedented pressure from its opponent, and Pixar no longer discloses anything during the film production stage...

Same The themes of "Finding Nemo" and "Shark Tale" are the most obvious manifestations of the fierce competition between Pixar and DreamWorks

Tit-for-tat themes

While gnashing their teeth at Katzenberg, Pixar He also tasted the consequences of dealing with Michael Eisner. The second month after "Toy Story" was released, Michael Eisner used Jobs' ambitions and Lasseter's vacuum gloves to make an uncontracted movie-"Toy Story 2".

Although most of Pixar's staff at that time were deployed to support "A Bug's Life" to compete with "Ants", there were still a few elite forces and many mercenaries who stayed to continue production. "Toy Story 2". Although the story of this episode is compact, the length of the film is slightly lacking. So much so that Lasseter had to rack his brains as to what to add to the 12 free minutes. Although this was a scaled-down sequel, it was a huge commercial success. The film became the highest-grossing animated film of the year, with a U.S. box office of US$245 million and a global box office of US$486 million. This result is much higher than the box office results of Pixar's first two films. "Toy Story 2" was the highest-grossing animated film in history after "The Lion King" at the time.

When making "A Bug's Life" and "Toy Story 2", Pixar had already begun the ambitious "Monsters, Inc." plan. Through this film, Pixar can further improve the production level of hair and demonstrate its technical strength. But for Pixar, the production experience of this film was a nightmare. Due to Pixar's lack of confidentiality at the time, the title of the monster was also leaked to Katzenberg. Since "Monsters, Inc." took five years from idea to production, DreamWorks Animation had plenty of time to react. In May 2001, DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek" with a monster protagonist was released. This is just the beginning of the nightmare.

In October 2001, Pixar cooperated with Chronicle Publishing and published "Monsters, Inc. Setting Collection". Lori Madrid, who has written many children's songs, found that the story of the film has many similarities with the musicals she wrote. She believed Pixar had plagiarized her work and took Pixar to court. This was only a month away from the film's release. If the court issues a preliminary injunction against "Monsters, Inc." at this time, Disney's previous promotional expenses and a series of losses caused by the film's missed schedule will be immeasurable. The day before the film was released in 3,200 theaters across the United States, a judge decided not to issue an injunction. The lawsuit lasted until June of the following year. The judge finally ruled that the same nightmare was not an infringement.

When "Monsters, Inc." was released, DreamWorks released a DVD of "Shrek" to distract the public. That weekend, Shrek's DVD retail sales surpassed Monsters, Inc.'s box office sales. Although "Monsters, Inc." later received critical acclaim and surpassed the total box office performance of "Toy Story 2," it lost to "Shrek" at the Oscars.

On October 1, 2002, less than a year after the release of "Monsters, Inc." another copyright dispute occurred. Stanley Miller, a 62-year-old artist and illustrator, sued the film for plagiarizing his manuscript. The lawsuit was not settled until 2006. Pixar and the other defendants reached a non-disclosure agreement with Miller.

Internal and external troubles have made Pixar’s executives feel breathless. In the days that followed, Pixar tightened its secrecy. Despite this, Katzenberg will still try his best to find out the content of Pixar's projects and produce the same themes in the shortest possible time to compete with Pixar. Pixar makes "Finding Nemo" and DreamWorks makes "Shark Tale"; Pixar makes "Ratatouille" and DreamWorks makes "Ratland"; Pixar makes "Wall-E" and DreamWorks makes "Monsters vs. Aliens" ...

Although DreamWorks' "Prince of Egypt" received critical acclaim, it lost all its money due to cost and distribution issues. Since then, Disney's films such as "Incarnation", "Atlantis" and "Star Silver Island" have performed disappointingly. Traditional animation seems to be somewhat inadequate in the face of computer 3D animation. Katzenberg has also shifted his focus to his fight with Pixar.

In 2010, after "How to Train Your Dragon" exploded onto the market in early summer, DreamWorks launched "Shrek 4" to compete with Pixar's "Toy Story 3". The two old rivals finally come face-to-face. It doesn't matter who wins or loses this battle. The important thing is that they will continue to fight as always.

Appendix: The battle between Pixar and DreamWorks for animated film supremacy

Pixar and DreamWorks

1995 "Toy Story"

1996

1997

1998 "A Bug's Life", "Ants", "The Prince of Egypt"

1999 "Toy Story 2"

2000

2001 "Monsters, Inc." (November) "Shrek" (May)

2002 ("My Little Pony King")

2003 "Finding Dory" ("Sinbad")

2004 "The Incredibles" "Shrek 2", "Shark Tale"