Pixar has been around since 1986, but no one really knew about it until almost a decade later when Toy Story came out in 1995. The company has grown to be one of the most successful animation studios in the world since then. Almost all of their movies have either won or been nominated for an Oscar and have made millions of dollars. But it took a lot of hard work to get to where they are now.
One of the reasons their movies are so successful is because they spend so much time brainstorming ideas and coming up with amazing characters and stories. They even brainstormed ideas for four different movies in one day. In one lunch meeting, they came up with the ideas for A Bug’s Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and WALL-E. Here is the true story behind the most memorable lunch meeting in animation history.
6 Four Of Pixar’s Directors Met At Hidden City Cafe (Which Was Featured In ‘Monsters, Inc.’)
The summer of 1994 changed everything for Pixar and made it the famous animation studio it is today. The studio was finishing its first feature film, Toy Story, which went on to be nominated for multiple Oscars and made history as the first 3D animated feature film. But while they were finishing Toy Story, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft decided to meet for lunch to figure out what was next for Pixar. They met at Hidden City Cafe near the studio. They had no idea that it would be the place where the ideas for their most iconic movies would be born. Andrew Stanton told The Post and Courier, "There was something special that happened when John, Joe, Pete and I would get in a room. Whether it was furthering an idea or coming up with something, we just brought out the best in each other." Hidden City Cafe meant so much to them that they put it in the background in Monsters, Inc.
5 ‘A Bug’s Life’ Was Inspired By A Fable
The first idea they came up with later became 1998’s A Bug’s Life. Like many animated movies, it’s inspired by a fable. The Pixar filmmakers were trying to come up with something that wasn’t too hard to animate in 3D and something that also had an interesting story. “Bugs, like toys, would be easier to animate and thus an easier option. They were trying to build on the Aesop fable, "The Ant and the Grasshopper." Andrew Stanton and Joe Ranft suggested that the grasshoppers, unlike the fable, would just take the food from the ants,” according to Go Into The Story. Since grasshoppers are physically bigger than ants, it makes sense that they would flip the story and make the grasshoppers the villains. It wouldn’t be the same if Hopper wasn’t the villain.
4 A Popular Childhood Belief Inspired ‘Monsters, Inc’
Every Pixar movie is made with kids in mind (even though adults love them too), but Monsters, Inc. is completely inspired by them. When you were a kid, you probably thought there was a monster hiding in your room. That idea that kids have is what inspired the idea for the movie. Pete Docter told Oh My Disney, “Working on Toy Story, I was always amazed by how many people believed, as we do, that toys were alive when you weren’t in the room. I was trying to find any other beliefs like that I had as a kid. And I knew that there were monsters hiding in my closet waiting to scare me. So we started exploring that. And I’m not sure who asked, but they said, Why? Why are there monsters waiting to scare kids? What do the monsters get out of it? But that’s what sparked the whole concept.”
3 ‘Finding Nemo’ Was Also Inspired By Childhood Memories
Finding Nemo’s storyline isn’t really about kids like Monsters, Inc., but the idea for it was inspired by the director’s experience as a kid. Andrew Stanton took some of his childhood memories and turned it into a hit movie. “First, he remembers as a child watching the fish in the tank at the dentist's office, and wondering if the fish wanted to go home. In one of his trips to Marine World (Six Flags Discovery Kingdom), he saw a shark which he thought could be done so well in animation (like A Bug’s Life and Toy Story, at that time animation was restricted and advanced materials could not be made). He also got the idea of an overprotective father when he was doing something with his son at the park one day,” according to Go Into The Story. Nemo and Marlin ended up being clownfish because of a picture he saw after he came up with the story. The movie went on to win an Oscar for Best Animated Feature and it even inspired an organization called the Lucky Fin Project, which helps kids with limb differences just like Nemo.
2 ‘WALL-E’ Was Created From The Idea That Mankind Might Have To Leave Earth One Day
The last idea that arose in that historical lunch meeting turned into the adorable robot love story we all know today. Andrew Stanton had the interesting idea of a robot being the only one left on Earth if the pollution got so bad it made humans flee the planet. And that’s how WALL-E was created. In the production notes for WALL-E, Andrew Stanton said, “One of the things I remember coming out of it was the idea of a little robot left on Earth. We had no story. It was sort of this Robinson Crusoe kind of little character—like, what if mankind had to leave Earth and somebody forgot to turn the last robot off, and he didn’t know he could stop doing what he’s doing?” The movie came out in 2008 and although the studio was worried if it would keep people’s attention, they made the right decision taking a chance on it. Viewers didn’t care if the robots didn’t talk that much and the movie has become a fan favorite over the years.
1 The Pixar Filmmakers Drew Rough Sketches Of The Characters On Napkins
While John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Joe Ranft were brainstorming, they drew rough sketches of characters on the napkins in the cafe. Pixar creates their stories based on their characters, so they wanted to draw them out first. That’s the key to making their films so amazing—the character is the center of the story so fans will connect more with them. The sketches on those napkins became characters we love and billion dollar ideas. “It’s been noted that the four filmmakers created rough outlines of the characters on top of table napkins in the Hidden City Cafe. That lunch break spawned what would become the golden age of Pixar films, and the 4 films alone grossed over $2 billion,” according to Geekritique. The Hidden City Cafe closed in 2012, but it will always be remembered as the birthplace of Pixar’s most iconic characters.