Brainstorming a revolution: the most productive lunch in the history of animated cinema
A single lunch doesn’t sound like the sort of thing capable of going down in Hollywood folklore as one of the most important meals in the history of animated cinema, but Pixar didn’t rise to prominence by doing things the obvious way.
After originally being founded in 1979 as part of Lucasfilm’s computer division, the company eventually spun off into its own separate entity and began tinkering with fully digital animation. The end result was several shorts that broke new ground, pushed the medium forward, and scooped an Academy Award for John Lasseter’s Tin Toy, which ended up becoming known as a watershed moment for animation.
There was a lot riding on Toy Story as being the first of its kind. However, any doubts over the viability and appeal of computer-generated animated movies were quickly dispelled when Pixar’s first feature-length production became an instant classic, conquered the box office, earned an honorary Oscar for its history-making existence, and put the nascent studio firmly on the map.
Nobody was planning to rest on their laurels, though, with a single lunchtime interaction between four of the outfit’s leading lights eventually leading to a quartet of critical and commercial smash hits. At the Hidden City Café in California’s Richmond Point in 1994 – long before Toy Story had even been released – Lasseter sat down with Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft to brainstorm potential ideas for Pixar’s upcoming slate.
Tossing ideas back and forth while sketching and scribbling on napkins, that single meeting formed the basis for A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and WALL-E, which isn’t bad going for a lunch break, all things considered. Stanton admitted that “there was something special that happened when John, Joe, Pete, and I would get in a room,” which is underselling it dramatically in hindsight.
Remember, Pixar hadn’t even released a single movie at the time, and the importance of that lunch goes well beyond the quartet of films it spawned. Of course, they shouldn’t be ignored when they combined to earn over $2.4billion at the box office, and each won an Oscar, but neither should it be overlooked where the careers of those involved ended up heading.
None of them had ever helmed a feature at the time, but Lasseter, Stanton, Docter, and Ranft ended up being credited as directors or co-directors on not only the aforementioned four movies but also Toy Story 2, the multi-billion dollar merchandising empire of Cars, Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory, Up, Inside Out, and Soul. Pixar may have changed the game, but it still needed to prove itself in the aftermath of Toy Story, and that lunch between its biggest power players played a major part in altering the landscape of animated cinema forever.
