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PIXAR GREAT!
I was reading up on Steve Jobs this weekend. Steve is CEO, and creative visionary, at Apple Computers. Being a designer, Apple has been my friend for some years now but these days the company is best known for introducing the world to the iPod phenomenon.
Steve was at the helm at Apple in the 1980s - then became creatively frustrated - fell out with the Board at Apple - left to explore a new direction - created the NeXT platform and the company that went with it.
The seemingly tireless Mr Jobs also, during this time, bought the computer-graphics arm of LucasFilms, which at that time was owned by Mr George Lucas of Star Wars fame. The company later became Pixar.
Meanwhile, NeXT was bought by Apple Computers and Steve resumed his rightful position as CEO of Apple.
Keeping up? Then I shall continue.
Back to Pixar, Disney became the distributor for Pixar feature animations which include such classics as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.
Fast forward a few years and Disney buys Pixar. Steve Jobs becomes the largest individual shareholder at The Walt Disney Company and everyone is happy. Not bad work if you can get it!
Whilst the story of Mr Jobs is a fascinating one, it's not the web site of the week. During my research I naturally took a peek at the Pixar web site - and as you might expect from a perfectionist such as Mr Jobs - it is a very neat, smooth, informative and useful web site.
Pixar is noted, not only for its feature animations, but for iths cinema shorts and this site has its own theatre with clips from all of them.
I was intrigued by 'For the Birds' which features around 10 or 20 little birds sitting on a telegraph wire and one huge bird on the telegraph post. It was my expectation that the big bird was about to use the wire as a sort of cruel catapult which I thought would be hilarious - especially as all the little birds are teasing the big bird. The thought made me laugh but it seems the story goes in a different direction - you'll have to watch the whole short to find out what happens.
Other clips worth a look include Jack-Jack Attack.
As well as taking a sneaky peak at the movies, the site includes an outline of the full storyline of each short animation which, if you like the sound of it, you can download from I-Tunes. I checked out 'For the Birds' and this costs £1.89 to download.
There are also hilarious out-takes from the full feature animations - I particularly recommend Toy Story. Woody and Buzz need to make a comeback soon. Definitely worth a look.
Meanwhile, if you, or you children, are interested in how the whole animation process works, the sites walks you through the basics and introduces you to some of the main talents behind the scenes.
There's a ton of information on this site - and just like the Pixar films - it will inform and entertain both young and old at the same time. How do they do that?
Jacqueline Alexander
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