Media, My Media
Media, My Media
“The Pixar Story” on Starz
By Leo N. Holzer
Special to The Blue Parrot
Disney/Pixar fans, if you subscribe to the cable premium station Starz, it's time to use your TiVo or digital video recorder.
Tonight at 10, Starz is premiering "The Pixar Story," a feature-length documentary recounting the history of the little Bay Area animation pioneer from its earliest days struggling to make short films to its string of blockbuster features.
The premiere follows screenings of "Cars" and "Ratatouille." Iwerks' film will also be shown at 12:50 p.m. Wednesday and 11:15 a.m. April 30. Please check your local cable listings to verify showtimes.
If you don't subscribe to Starz, find a friend or coworker who does. Do whatever you can to see this film and/or obtain a DVD or VHS copy of the broadcast. There may not be too many chances to see this documentary and it's definitely a film anyone interested in animation or technology will enjoy.
"The Pixar Story" is filled with drama -- an inspirational tale of grit and determination, a modern-day take on "The Little Engine that Could." It's entertaining and emotionally engaging as well as educational.
Who'd of thought that Steve Jobs and Roy Disney would be seen in the same movie with Michael Eisner? They're all featured in "The Pixar Stoy" along with John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, George Lucas, Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal, Brad Bird, Pete Docter, Andrew Stanton, Glen Keane, Diane Disney Miller and dozens of others.
Yes, the big three! Ed Catmull, Steve Jobs and John Lasseter.
"The Pixar Story" disappoints only in the fact that you might want to know more details about Pixar's backstory and history than the documentary's 88-minute running time allows. (For further enlightenment, get the book "To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animations Studios" by Karen Paik and based on interviews conducted by Iwerks for her film).
Living in the Bay Area, I first saw "The Pixar Story" a year ago as a work-in-progress at the Sonoma Film Festival and then later, after it was completed, in San Rafael and San Francisco.
The fact that Starz is showing this film now is a rather unusual situation -- and one that I find a bit disappointing. "The Pixar Story" never got the theatrical run it deserved. I believe it would have made millions both at the box office and as a stand-alone DVD release if Disney would have properly marketed the film before making it available to a cable outlet.
I remember a certain online discussion criticizing Disney's job in marketing "Ratatouille," but the Disney team did a whole lot better on that film than it did on "The Pixar Story."
"The Pixar Story" played at a few dozen film festivals and in about 15 cities in an attempt to qualify for a best documentary feature nomination from the Oscars. The fact that Iwerks' film didn't get the nod isn't too surprising. As great as it is, "The Pixar Story" was competing against several big-issue documentaries and likely viewed as a bit too promotional to make the Academy Awards' short-list of nominees.
Director Leslie Iwerks
Still, it ranked as the third-highest Disney/Pixar associated production in 2007 on rottentomatoes.com -- behind "Ratatouille" and "Enchanted" and far ahead of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and several others. The average for "The Pixar Story" is based on far less votes than other releases, but it wasn't a film many critics or general film audiences even had a chance to see.
I'm disappointed that Disney can get behind a film like "Underdog" and distribute it on 3,000-plus screens, but can't get Iwerks' film on 600 to 800 screens. I know documentaries aren't the easiest films to market -- but just as a few moviegoers can't comprehend the idea of animated films being something adults might enjoy -- no one seemed to look past the documentary tag on "The Pixar Story" to see its potential.
Disney had a chance to do something special in marketing "The Pixar Story." They could have given it the "Hannah Montana" treatment and announced a limited engagement during Spring Break, when many high school and college students are out of school. These frequent filmgoers grew up with both Pixar and technology — and I’m sure many of them would find “The Pixar Story” entertaining, engaging, educational and inspirational. They simply needed to be given a chance to see it.
Disney could have had two or three of the principals — Iwerks, Lasseter, Catmull, Steve Jobs and Bob Iger — on the Charlie Rose PBS talk show to attract more adults to a theatrical release of the film.
In addition, a successful theatrical run would have fueled later stand-alone DVD sales. With Disney's decision to offer "The Pixar Story" to cable before a wider theatrical run and DVD offering, one's left to wonder if Iwerks' film (plussed with all sorts of extended bonus material featuring interviews with Frank Thomas, Ollie Johnston, Joe Grant, Joe Ranft and others who are no longer with us) will ever see the light of day as a stand-alone DVD.
If you get a chance to watch "The Pixar Story," enjoy it and would like to see Iwerks get a chance to release a stand-alone bonus-packed feature DVD, send a note to Mark Zoradi at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 500 South Buena Vista St., Burbank, CA 91521-1485. Let the company know that you'd like "The Pixar Story" as part of your Disney/Pixar film library, to sit alongside "Snow White," "Bambi," "Beauty and the Beast," "Toy Story," "Finding Nemo," and documentaries like "Walt: The Man Behind the Myth" and "Frank and Ollie."
Tuesday, April 22, 2008