BOOK FEATURE : : : :

A lot has happened in twenty years.

In 1986, gifted animator John Lasseter, technology guru Ed Catmull, and visionary Steve Jobs joined forces and founded Pixar Animation Studios. In pursuing their dream of creating the world's first computer-animated feature, they helped develop computer graphics into a medium that would change the landscape of the film industry.

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND is their incredible story, told for the first time. Each defining moment is captured in vibrant detail, from the company's pre-history as George Lucas's experimental Lucasfilm Computer Division, through the ten demanding years leading up to the creation of Toy Story, to Pixar's acquisition by Disney in 2006. Along the way, more than 500 pieces of concept art, storyboards, and snapshots from the Pixar archive—many never before published—help illuminate the development of this truly unique studio.

Author Karen Paik (who also wrote The Art of Ratatouille) began working on the project almost three years ago, conducting exclusive interviews with directors, producers, animators, technical artists, and industry insiders.

Last week, we asked Karen to share with our readers just what it took to bring us To Infinity and Beyond! We've included excerpts below, and you can read the full interview on the Chronicle Books Blog.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered while working on this book?
From a writing point of view, twenty years (more, counting backstory) is a long time, and there were a lot of people involved along the way, so it was tough to try to do justice to all the cool things that were going on at any given point in time while also maintaining an overall throughline.

What's the Pixar archive like?
The Pixar archive actually has two parts. There's a lending library, with reference books and films for the artists to look at, that's located in one of the production buildings. Then there is the actual archive of production art. Mostly any place that holds archived materials is cold (to protect the art), and full of boxes! Inside the boxes, though, are all sorts of cool things: slides, photographs, pastels, maquettes, storyboards, concept art, script pages…

Do any of the visuals from the archive stand out in your memory?
Personally, I think the pictures of the Pixar folks back in the very early days are fantastic. Leslie and Christine (Freeman, Pixar's lead archivist) really collected some wonderful stuff; people were great about sharing things from their personal collections. First, it's always fun to see pictures of people you know now from ten or twenty years ago. :) But mostly I find the pictures very touching and inspiring because back then none of them had any idea whether any of this would pan out—they were just trying to make a living so they could keep doing the work they loved. It reminds you that for all the success the company has had, nothing was ever for certain along the way.

Which Pixar character do you identify with most?
Well, they used my hair as reference for Violet's in The Incredibles, so it's very cool to be able to say I have a teeny tiny link to one of the actual Pixar characters. Personality-wise, though, I am probably most similar to Remy in Ratatouille, because I too love to geek out about things I'm interested in. However, I can only aspire to his culinary genius…

Any last thoughts, observations, tidbits, or secrets to share with readers?
It's probably hard to believe considering the book ended up being over 300 pages, but there were actually a lot of things we would have loved to include but couldn't. You have to stop somewhere, though! We all really enjoyed working on it—I hope people will enjoy reading it!

ENTER TO WIN A PIXAR PRIZE PACK!
In commemoration of their 20th anniversary and the release of the documentary, The Pixar Story (www.thepixarstory.com), Pixar and Chronicle Books are giving away prize packs to three lucky winners. Simply answer the question, "Which Pixar character do you identify with most and why?" Email webmaster@chroniclebooks.com with your response, and we'll enter you into a drawing to win a limited edition The Incredibles Fossil watch, The Incredibles DVD signed by Brad Bird and John Walker, a copy of To Infinity and Beyond!, and other Pixar prizes. (Winners will be notified by email.)

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