ABSTRACT
Among Disney projects, Toy Story at that point was known as “the fringe of the fringe.” This also worked to its advantage—Pixar was neither bound by traditional divisions of labor nor deeply rooted Hollywood hierarchies. The adventurous endeavor drew courage from its deep knowledge of animation traditions, and now combined in this environment with a faith in its new technology. This optimism contributed to early, unrealistic assessments of the challenge at hand. The enthusiastic group severely underestimated the resources demanded by the large-scale effort—in several key areas. Making a feature was not simply multiplying the length of a short or a commercial to equal 75 or 80 minutes of running time. Hundreds of computer-animated feature films have been made since Toy Story, as have “live-action” films with animated characters and numerous other, CGI elements. As a result, all of them bear at least a trace of the editing process that took shape in these early days at Pixar.
