Over the years, Pixar has produced some of the greatest animated motion pictures ever made: “A Bug’s Life,” “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Ratatouille” and much more. What if these films were never made and they never entered the imaginations of children everywhere?
Well, according to a new book, that nearly happened.
Pixar co-founder Ed Catmull published a new book entitled “Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces That Stand in the Way of True Inspiration,” in which an excerpt was published on Film that released some interesting details that could have changed the future of the company forever.
Catmull wrote that the animation company was nearly acquired by General Motors and Philips for its technology. Fortunately for audiences everywhere, the deal fell through just before the contract was signed, sealed and delivered.
GM and Philips were interested in Lucasfilm spinning off the Pixar team. Philips was intrigued by the Pixar Image Computer’s ability to deliver data from CT scans or MRIs, while GM wanted to buy the company for its modeling technology for car design. At one point, they wanted to pay $15 million for Pixar and an extra $15 million invested into the company’s operations.
All of the three parties were on the verge of signing the agreement, but the deal disintegrated at the final minute, which made Catmull feel “despair and relief.” This can be somewhat attributed to Ross Perot and his Ross Perot Holdovers. Catmull explained the situation in a recent podcast:
“We had built some hardware we had designed, so we were going to use that as a basis for the business. But in the end it was Phillips medical and General Motors who came through and were willing to buy the company for $15 million to George (Lucas) and give $15 million to us to get us going and it was within one week of signing when within General Motors. The EDS part, the Ross Perot holdovers, and the cars people got into a war with each other and it brought all the deals to a halt and so ours fell apart.”
Instead, Steve Jobs, who had recently departed from Apple, paid George Lucas $5 million for the rights to the Pixar technology and added an additional $5 million in capital into the company.
“We’d known from the outset that entering into a relationship with GM and Philips would likely put an end to our dream of making the first animated feature film, but that was a risk no matter who we joined up with,” Catmull averred. “To this day, I am thankful that the deal went south. Because it paved the way for Steve Jobs.”
In 1991, Jobs collaborated with Disney to produce a series of CGI films. The first one was released in 1995 and became one of the highest grossing pictures of all time: “Toy Story.”
Although experts surmise that GM would have never allowed Pixar to produce a film, auto and business analysts say that considering GM has been featuring its cars in the “Transforms” films then they would have eventually permitted Pixar to enter the movie business.
