Steve Jobs: A brilliant film producer

New Delhi: Pixar Animation Studios were doing good work before the year 1986 also but the real change in its profile happened afterwards, when the 'Apple Man' Steve Jobs acquired the company.

The animation company has won 26 Academy Awards, 7 Golden Globes and 3 Grammy Awards till now and does not seem to loose many awards in the near future.

Jobs started patronizing the film making business with 'Toy Story' in 1995. It was first ever film to be made entirely with the help of Computer Graphics Interface, CGI.

Directed by John Lasseter, the film featured the voices of Tom Hanks and Tim Allen. The heart touching story about a group of toys which acts as lifeless in the company of human beings successfully created a doubt about the reasons of fun the so called civilized society needs.

Toys under the leadership of Woody the cowboy made the age old idea of toys coming to life simply irresistible. Randy Newman's memorable background score brought the ecstatic feeling of imagination alive on the silver screen.

Meanwhile DreamWorks also came up with a CGI film 'Antz', but 'A Bug's Life' again proved the supremacy of Pixar in the realm of animation films.

Full of treachery and hook points, 'A Bug's Life' probed about the reasons and causes of differences between two different species. This film clearly flaunted the type of philosophy, Steve Jobs and Pixar wanted to promote. Similar to some of Jobs' speeches, the characters of the film talked about a dream society where the world will skilfully use whatever the Mother Nature offers.

'Toy Story 2' and 'Monster Inc' came in a span of three years after 'A Bug's Life'.

Received with enthusiasm, 'Toy Story 2' carried forward the story of 'Toy Story' with a slight change in the character list.

The story of hope and zeal ended at a happy note where the toys get happy to have a new owner.

Animation films are usually hard to produce because the storyline could only be supported by nice background score and camera techniques. One can use voiceovers with profound effect but generally there remains no vivid body language to help the makers. In that sense, Pixar and Jobs were doing a great work by infusing enough money to support the talented technicians to come up with real looking actions.

The city of 'Monstropolis'(Inspired from Fritz Lang's 'Metropolis'!) in 'Monster Inc' was also created with enormous enthusiasm and thinking. The film talked about the energy crisis and the growing influence of the industrialisation on daily lives.

Similarly, Jobs also produced films like 'Finding Nemo', 'The Incredibles' and 'Cars' that met with commercial success as well as critical appreciation.

'Finding Nemo' in particular was a serious film in its crux message. The climax where Nemo leads a group of fish to overcome the net was so subtly presented that the audiences forgot for a minute that they are actually watching an animation movie.

Later, Australian government used the clips from 'Finding Nemo' to promote the tourism in the eastern coastal area.

The film successfully maintained the basic line of philosophy of Pixar films that focussed on environmental changes.

However, the history was still not made.

Next five films from Jobs' production house jumped all bars and went on to carve a niche in the viewers' hearts for their entire life.

'Ratatouille' had the lesser opening than the usual Pixar films but soon it went on to catch other big release of the year. Word of mouth publicity coupled with the respect Pixar had generated over the years eventually made it a roaring success.

'Wall-E', 'Up' and 'Toy Story 3' redefined the animation films to quite a good extent. These films were more human and natural looking than their predecessors. The stories also become less animated and more oriented towards the well being of mankind.

Probably, 'Cars 2' is the only week film from Pixar till date but it's just a matter of time before the studio comes up with another super saga.

A good part of the credit should go to Steve Jobs too who despite being an industrialist, kept the profit making instincts aside before producing a film.

Jobs might not have any direct say in the films Pixar produced but these marvellous films would not have been possible without his backing for sure.