The Pixar Touch

The Making of a Company

By: David A. Price

Narrated by: David Drummond

Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

The Pixar Touch is a lively chronicle of Pixar Animation Studios' history and evolution, and the "fraternity of geeks" who shaped it. With the help of visionary businessman Steve Jobs and animating genius John Lasseter, Pixar has become the gold standard of animated filmmaking, beginning with a short special effects shot made at Lucasfilm in 1982 all the way up through the landmark films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Wall-E, and others.

David A. Price goes behind the scenes of the corporate feuds between Lasseter and his former champion, Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as between Steve Jobs and Michael Eisner. And finally he explores Pixar's complex relationship with the Walt Disney Company as it transformed itself into the $7.4 billion jewel in the Disney crown.

©2008 David A. Price (P)2008 Tantor

great story about Disney and Pixar history

loved it. the narrator was engaging and entertaining as well as easy to understand
and follow.

Pretty interesting.

As an animation and tech lover, I loved it. The story is well developed and the details are interesting.

PIXAR rules the world!!!

I always enjoy reading books about how companies came to be, but this one was especially enjoyable because I've been a HUGE fan of PIXAR's movies since I saw Toy Story in theaters back in 1995.

Granted, the book ends with Disney's acquisition of PIXAR in 2008, but the backstory of it's founders and the company's origin were what I was really looking to learn about. It's a quick, but not brief, listen. Enjoy!

superb story and narration

I was constantly captivated by the ascent of both cutting-edge tech and storylines for animation.

Awesome story for a 3d geek like me.

What did you love best about The Pixar Touch?

Being a 3d geek who did animation on my Amiga using lightwave, it was fascinating to learn the history of anti-aliasing and motion blur. The story also goes into the behind the scenes of the Pixar block busters. Great listen and I couldn't put it down.

What did you like best about this story?

I loved the history of 3d animation and the pixar movies.

What does David Drummond bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Sounded natural and unforced,

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Some of the background behind the Disney and Pixar relationship was fascintating.

intriguing details

As a long time Pixar fan, I thought I knew a good amount about their history. This book was a whole other level! The origins of Pixar's core members and their journey from dream to reality was well explored. I hope they can follow up someday. I recommend this to any interested Pixar fan. The reading is a bit dry (though this is my first audio book of this type) but does put the right feeling in when it's needed.

More about gears than heart

Going into technical detail like a stereo manual, court room and corporate minutia like a WSJ editorial, I was disappointed this didn't go into the heart of the creators of the finest films. Pixar knows the human heart as shown in their stories. However this book takes an often clinical look at a feeling soul. The performance is done well for the content but it overall was not what I expected. Interesting but not moving.

Exactly what you should want from this book

This is what I was hoping for when I bought this book, a quick but surprisingly deep dive into the origins of Pixar. The author did an excellent job of turning a corporate history into a well paced and put together story. If anything one of my only complaints is that the tough times are glossed over as just part of the process of revolutionizing an industry. I also wish the book would have gone further into the future but I understand that the laws of time and physics won't change for my reading enjoyment.

Bottom Line: You'll learn all the twists and turns and planning that went into turning a small college program in New York to the multi-billion dollar dream factory that Pixar is today. If you're a Disney fan or a Pixar and care about how the sausage gets made this the book for you.

The narrator does a solid job of sounding genuinely interested and invested in the story and I hope he does more corporate histories.

Great behind the scenes of development

Terrific if you're into how computer animation was formed. Something we take for granted these days had a very complex and expensive upbringing. This book doesn't get too technical but explains things in a way that you'll understand what's being said. Now I have to go back and compare Toy Story to more recent Pixar films to see how far it's come.

Being part of the industry helped me relate to the process of development. Having made many of the scannable objects for computer manipulation in my time helped me understand their objectives.

I think that computer animated cartoons has faired better than the computer animation for live action films. I still see MUD in a lot of the live action films, blurred scenes that shouldn't be blurred and flatness of dimensional objects. One of the things I'm glad for is that the special effects and prop building technicians are still needed even to render certain things in a computer.

Love Love Love This Book!

Ok, I admit it, I'm a movie and digital graphics geek. So to me this book was SUCH a treat. I'm pretty familiar with Pixar the movie company, and their history there, but what was so interesting was the decade or so leading up to their first film! And then learning about many of the behind-the-scenes people from Pixar that you probably don't know about.

Anyhow, very very well researched, and a story well told. The story takes you up past the Disney-Pixar merger, and the release of their film "Cars". You also learn quite a bit about George Lucas and Lucasfilm, Steve Jobs, and Disney along the way.

I am so glad that I got this book. You know a book is good when you feel a sense of loss when it is over.