Pixar: The Incredible Movie-Making Machine(a)|皮克斯：令人惊奇的电影圆梦家

Pixar: The Incredible Movie-Making Machine

by Marcus Maurice

There are very few movie studios that can claim they have never had a flop.

　　There's been a lot of hullabaloo in the news recently about one of Pixar's biggest fans. Jon Negroni posted an article on a blog called The Pixar Theory. In it, he states that all the characters from every movie Pixar has ever created since 1995 live in the same universe. This means that all the movies are connected in one way or another. He used samples from each movie and put them all in order. This theory has caught fire, and now many people are critiquing it and wondering if Pixar, one of the world's top animations studios, has been pulling a fast one on its fans all this time.

　　Pixar got its start in the late 1970s, when George Lucas demanded better computer-generated imagery for his movies. It wasn't until Steve Jobs was let go from his position as head of Apple in 1986 that Pixar really took off, though. At first, Jobs invested US$10 million in the company, but even then it was still struggling. Eventually, Jobs put in nearly US$50 million before Pixar really got going. After producing a few animated short films, in 1991 Pixar made a deal with Disney to make three movies. The first of these was Toy Story, and the rest is history.

　　Toy Story was released to critical and commercial acclaim in 1995. It was the number one movie during its opening weekend and ended up grossing over US$361 million worldwide. Kids loved the movie because the toys actually wanted to play with the children, instead of vice versa as it is in real life. After being nominated for three Academy Awards and winning one, Pixar's future seemed to be headed to infinity and beyond.

 

皮克斯：令人惊奇的电影圆梦家

很少有电影制片厂可以声称他们从未失败过。

　　最近有关一位皮克斯超级影迷的新闻已经引起了许多骚动。琼˙雷格尼在部落格上发表了一篇名为『皮克斯时空理论』的文章。他在文章中指出，皮克斯自 1995 年以来在每部影片中所创造出来的角色全都存在于同一个时空。这表示所有影片在某些方面都有所关联。他从每部影片中采集范例，并将所有的影片按时间顺序排列。这一理论不断延烧，现在很多人都在评论这件事，并猜想皮克斯这个世界顶尖的动画工作室是否一直都在欺骗它的粉丝。

　　皮克斯创始于 1970 年代后期，当时乔治˙卢卡斯正需要他的电影能有更好的计算机绘图技术。然而，一直到史帝夫˙贾伯斯于 1986 年离开苹果公司总裁的职位后，皮克斯才真正扶摇直上。贾伯斯当时投资了一千万美元在这家公司上，但尽管如此，该公司仍然举步维艰。最终，贾伯斯投入将近五千万美元，皮克斯才算真正步上轨道。就在制作了几部动画短片后，皮克斯于 1991 年与迪斯尼达成协议共同制作三部电影。其中第一部就是《玩具总动员》，而其余的就是众所皆知了。

　　《玩具总动员》在 1995 年发行后便受到评论界和商业界的赞赏。它在上映的第一个周末就登上了票房冠军，最终全球票房总收入超过三点六一亿美元。孩子们喜欢这部电影的原因是因为这些玩具竟然会想要和他们玩耍，而不像现实生活中是孩子们想要玩玩具。获得三项奥斯卡奖提名并赢得其中一座奖项之后，皮克斯的未来似乎就好比『飞向宇宙，浩瀚无垠』。（编按：《玩具总动员》中的其中一位主角巴斯光年，他的口头禅即是『飞向宇宙，浩瀚无垠』。）