Pixar's films follow a standard narrative structure, which the company calls a 'story spine.'

Watch 4-plus decades of Pixar's opening logos.

Pixar relies on a 'brain trust,' a candid group of the company's minds that works collectively to shepherd creative productions.

Pixar's earliest days began with a handful of academics developing the technologies they thought might make fully animated movies possible.

Check out a fan list of the best Pixar movies.

Many Pixar movies reference 'A113,' an allusion to the classroom where many of the studio's founders took animation classes.

Disney fans categorize the company's films into specific eras

Superfans break the company's animated films into chronological eras: the Golden Age, the Transitional Era, the Disney Renaissance, the Modern Era, and the Revival Era.

‘SNL’ sketches often follow a uniform structure

Sketch comedy relies on pacing, with scripts that hit certain beats. "SNL" often greenlights sketches that lean into a particular formula that features two "turns," or unexpected events that disrupt the "base reality" of the story.

Disney initially pushed Pixar to make 'Toy Story' an edgy comedy that could appeal to adults.

Pixar's first animated film was 1986's short 'Luxo Jr.,' featuring characters still used by the studio today.

Steve Jobs revolutionized animated filmmaking

Steve Jobs left his mark beyond Apple with Pixar, the animated studio he acquired in 1986. In addition to pushing Pixar to focus on storytelling, Jobs led the studio to revolutionize animation via computer-generated imagery.

Steven Spielberg’s movies have a unique style

Despite their distinct genres, Spielberg films often have much in common with one another. For example, supernatural phenomena, middle-class values, and camera techniques—including long, uninterrupted shots and a dolly-zoom method called the "Spielberg Face.”

The 'Star Wars' series begins where George Lucas believed the story was most accessible

The director originally conceived 'Star Wars' as a single long story, but recognized it was far too big for a single movie, so he split each act into its own film. He began with the fourth act, which would later be renamed "A New Hope."

'Tin Toy,' the predecessor to 'Toy Story,' was the first fully computer-generated film to win an Academy Award

Before it was acquired by Disney, Pixar was a small studio exploring the possibilities of computer animation. "Tin Toy," a 1988 short film that would inspire 1995's "Toy Story," was one of its most successful experiments, earning Pixar's first Academy Award for best animated short film and becoming the first fully computer-generated film to win an Oscar. Although you won't find Woody or Buzz, it's fascinating to observe the seeds for what would come later.

Pixar's RenderMan software, which turned code into graphics, changed the way Hollywood produced special effects.

Netflix's original movies are intended to be in the background

Netflix's original content follows "taste clusters," those wildly specific tags for content, like "cerebral Southwestern murder mystery." The low-budget films and shows designed for these genre buckets are written with abundant exposition to remind casual viewers where they are in the story.

Musicals use motifs to tell stories

This clickable interactive illustrates how famous musicals reuse musical motifs to convey character, power, and change—using "Wicked," "Les Misérables," and "Hamilton" to demonstrate how recurring melodies subtly drive the story.

Disney movies pulled in over $5B in 2024

2024 was a banner year for Disney, with the global film studio finding success with "Inside Out 2," "Moana 2," and "Deadpool & Wolverine." While Disney has faced criticism for its reliance on sequels, reboots, and offshoots, the 2024 numbers suggest the public is still eager for its content.

Netflix's 'Kaleidoscope' experimented with non-linear storytelling

Netflix has regularly experimented with how it releases episodes, but its miniseries "Kaleidoscope" experimented with linear storytelling by crafting a show that supposedly allowed viewers to enjoy the show in any order they pleased.

'Tin Toy,' Pixar's 'Toy Story' predecessor, was the first fully computer-generated film to win an Academy Award.

Films must meet a long list of requirements to be considered for an Oscar

Each nominating category has slightly different rules. For best picture, the film must have run for at least a week in one of six specified US cities; for best original screenplay, the nominee must provide a copy of their shooting script.

Walt Disney's 1957 corporate strategy document

From TV to music to amusement parks, Disney is widely regarded as one of the most successful American companies of all time. That's partly because Walt Disney was carefully building a corporate strategy from day one that accounted for the company's publications, merchandise licensing, comic strips, and more. See his 1957 corporate strategy document for yourself (spoiler alert, it's covered in Mickey Mouse illustrations).

Hitchcock uses recurring images, themes, and tropes in his films

Movie nerds Adam Frost and Zhenia Vasiliev break down eight of the director’s “trademark obsessions,” including his penchant for killing blonde leading ladies, the way mothers are portrayed, and the various ways characters are killed.

Shakespeare's storytelling uses intricate, intertwining narratives

According to one professor, readers return to Shakespeare's plays, not for his storylines, but to learn how things unfold. In the process, they often use his plays to understand why humans act the way they do.

The data on sequels in 11 charts

Sequels, reboots, and other adapted content are generally on the rise in Hollywood, with nearly half of all movies based in some previous film or story. This set of 11 charts dives into the data on sequels, including their budgets, critical success, performance in relation to the original, and more.

Disney was saved by 'Cinderella,' which brought the company out of debt

Producing war propaganda and training films helped the company towards solvency, but the military content wasn't a cure-all. Disney wasn't in the clear until 1950's "Cinderella," a much-needed hit. The movie's success was largely due to the return of the company's best writers and the work of Mary Blair, a watercolor artist who brought a more whimsical style to the film.

How Spielberg changed film

Before "Jaws," summer was Hollywood’s off-season. Steven Spielberg’s 1975 thriller changed all that, launching the era of the summer blockbuster. From "E.T." to "Jurassic Park," Spielberg’s films redefined how stories were told, how audiences reacted, and how studios marketed.

The art of miniature sets in Hollywood

Many films utilize meticulously designed miniature sets to produce scenes that would otherwise be too big to film. While artsy filmmaker Wes Anderson is well-known for reviving this technique in an idiosyncratic style, more mainstream films like "Star Wars" and "Inception" rely heavily on small-scale sets filmed in such a way as to make them appear normal-sized. This nine-minute video breaks down how it all works.

Exploring how directors decide where to place the camera

The seamless experience of watching a film is the result of countless aesthetic decisions, one of the most important of which is the placement of the camera taking the shot. In this 8-minute video, directors and actors weigh in on the factors that shape the angles of cinematography, using famous scenes to demonstrate their observations. Watch it here.

2 'Simpsons' producers break down the show's turning points

Longtime director David Silverman and showrunner Matt Selman walk you through some of the show's biggest turning points, from the early days on "The Tracey Ullman Show" through its biggest guest stars and eerily accurate predictions.

How Walt Disney's life impacted his business

Walt Disney has a legacy of ingenious innovation and undying creativity. This podcast walks listeners chronologically through the major events of his life, as reported in Neal Gabler's biography "Walt Disney: the Triumph of the American Imagination," and explains how they led to his groundbreaking work in film, storytelling, and business.

Watch Walt Disney's early innovative film, 'Alice's Wonderland,' which innovated the use of animated characters in the real world.

Disney chipped away at its debt by creating propaganda during World War II

Disney began producing training videos for the Navy and propaganda films for US involvement in World War II, including the shorts "Der Fuehrer's Face," "The Spirit of '43," and "Donald Gets Drafted." The effort provided a much-needed cash injection, allowing Disney to continue producing films.

Disney animators went on strike in 1941, protesting unpaid overtime

Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” was a notoriously messy production—exceeding the budget by 400 hours—though it was also a massive success, grossing $75M and establishing Disney as a major Hollywood player. Disney’s animators, though, alleged they weren’t compensated for their overtime.

Kurt Vonnegut sought to invert the 'shapes of stories'

Kurt Vonnegut is among the most popular postmodernists, renowned for his humor and willingness to move between genres. This clip from a lecture on narrative is a perfect example of those tendencies, with Vonnegut diagramming typical story structures only to mock their predictability. It's not only an enlightening look at the way stories are told—it's also just good comedy.

Imagining the memoirs of aging Disney princesses

This resource shares a collection of drawings that humorously imagine the books Disney princesses would write as middle-aged women. See Cinderella’s guide to passive income or Sleeping Beauty’s story of becoming sober in this creative collection of comics.

What is 'Spielberg Face'?

Spielberg's career is filled with a consistent technique: zooming in on a significant character's face as they process some essential element of the story. One of the most famous is from "Jaws," when Brody first witnesses the shark.

Fan fiction relies on tropes and subgenres

Fan fiction sites often appear to be littered with inscrutable codewords, with stories labeled as "AU," "drabble," or "PWP." These alert readers to elements of a fan fiction: "AU" is an alternative universe narrative; "drabble" is a very short story; "PWP" stands for "plot? What plot?"

A deep dive into A24's top ten films

The film studio has released over 100 films since it's founding in 2012, so where should a newcomer begin? This extended video breaks down ten of the best of the studio's productions, showcasing its quality and variety. (Note: The video contains...