Pixar Animation Studios celebrate 40 years of filmmaking and record breaking
You may not know that two of the biggest names in film and technology were involved in the initiation of Pixar Animation Studios.
In 1979, George Lucas – the creator of Star Wars – commissioned Lucasfilm’s Computer Division to revolutionize technology and expand the possibilities of filmmaking.
The team began producing animated shorts and sequences like the Genesis Effect in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
And 40 years ago today, on 3 February 1986, Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs purchased the Computer Division and rebranded them as an independent company, called Pixar.
Employees continued to experiment with animation, mostly in shorts and commercials, but in the early 1990s, they set their sights on a bigger goal - creating the first feature-length computer-animated movie.
Fast forward to now, Pixar has released 29 full-length movies, starring some of the most revered and recognizable animated characters. And that’s not all… they’ve set a multitude of world records too.
First Pixar film
On 22 November 1995, Pixar released Toy Story, featuring the voices of Tom Hanks (Woody) and Tim Allen (Buzz Lightyear).
Not only was it their box-office debut, but also the world’s first feature-length computer-animated movie.
In the 1990s, curating even a short computer animation was time-consuming, so it’s no surprise that Pixar spent over four years producing the final cut. The animators had to render a total of 114,240 frames, each of which would take anywhere between 45 minutes to 30 hours!
Luckily, it all paid off. Toy Story was a huge success and in 1996, director John Lasseter received a Special Achievement Academy Award for “his inspired leadership of the Toy Story team”.
This was just the beginning for Pixar, and with every subsequent film, their animations and software became more advanced. By 2019, Pixar’s Jonas Rivera revealed that they would be able to render Toy Story faster than you can watch it (1 hour 21 minutes).
Pixar went on to produce three more Toy Story films (as well as the 2022 spin-off, Lightyear), and the original isn’t the only record-breaker in the saga - Toy Story 3 became the first animated film to gross $1 billion in 2010.
Highest-grossing Pixar movie
Inside Out 2 earned a whopping $1,698,778,437 (£1.380 billion) at the global box office, as of 10 January 2025, according to The-Numbers.com.
Leading on from 2015’s Inside Out, the sequel follows Riley (voiced by Kensington Tallman) from the perspective of the emotions in her brain, such as Joy (Amy Poehler) and Sadness (Phyllis Smith).
But with Riley having just turned 13 years of age, her mind had amassed some new feelings, including Anxiety (Maya Hawke) and Envy (Ayo Edebiri).
Inside Out 2 surpassed the previous record of $1,242,805,359 (£988.5 million), which was set by Incredibles 2 in 2018.
Most Oscar wins for Best Animated Feature
Since the Best Animated Feature category was introduced at the 74th Academy Awards in 2002, it has been dominated by Pixar.
The studio has taken home 11 of these prestigious trophies, for: 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).
Between 2007 and 2010, Pixar enjoyed an unprecedented streak, winning the award for four consecutive years.
Pixar has received 20 nominations in this category overall, most recently with Elio in 2025.
First computer-animated film to win an Academy Award
As for Pixar’s first win at the Academy Awards, Tin Toy was named the Best Short Film (Animated) on 29 March 1989.
Directed by John Lasseter, the short depicts a one-man band toy called Tinny trying to escape from Billy, a heavy-handed baby.
Fastest animated movie to gross $100 million
When Pixar released Finding Nemo in 2003, it quickly became the highest-grossing animation at the domestic box office (opening weekend).
Yet, despite its popularity, fans had to wait 13 years for the sequel.
When Finding Dory finally hit the big screens on 17 June 2016, it was evident that people couldn’t wait any longer.
Within just two days, the film earned $100,390,876 (£69.8 million) in the US alone, according to The-Numbers.com.
Making waves in the world of record breaking, Finding Dory set multiple GWR titles, including the highest-grossing underwater movie and the highest-grossing day for an animation ($54,746,405; £38.6 million).
Most Annie Awards won by a film in a single year
The Annie Awards have celebrated the finest animated films, TV shows and videogames since 1972.
And at the 45th ceremony in 2017, Pixar amassed 11 trophies for Coco.
The movie was championed for its writing, music, and character animation, and even claimed the coveted Best Animated Feature award.
Coco tells the story of Miguel (voiced by Anthony Gonzalez), a young guitarist who hopes to break his family’s peculiar ban on music. To do this, he visits his great-great-grandfather, a famed singer, in the Land of the Dead.
Highest-grossing college comedy movie
Pixar’s one and only prequel, Monsters University, is the most financially successful college comedy movie of all time.
As of 30 September 2013, it had grossed $743,588,329 (£471,631,000) at the global box office, according to The-Numbers.com.
Monsters University takes us back to the college days of Michael “Mike” Wazowski and James P. “Sulley” Sullivan, and explains how they got their jobs at the famous Monsters, Inc. company.
The second highest-grossing college comedy movie is 22 Jump Street, which made $331,333,876 (£205 million) worldwide.
Read stories about record-breaking films in our Arts & Entertainment section.
Header image: Disney/Pixar/Shutterstock