Pixar Celebrates Their 35th Anniversary With Adorable Montage

February 3 is a major day for the Disney owned Pixar Animation Studios, as it marks the anniversary of their founding as an independent company. First a division of Lucasfilm Pixar branched off into its own company in 1986 and eventually caught the eye of Steve Jobs who became a majority investor in the years before they even collaborated with Disney for the first time. Even after the release of films like Toy Story and A Bugs Life though, Pixar was still its own entity and wouldn’t become a Disney subsidiary until 2006 after they’d released six of their movies. To mark their extensive history as a studio they’ve released a full montage of everything they’ve created including their early shorts and their Disney+ exclusives! Check it out below.

Though it has been 35 years since Pixar became its own entity, one fateful lunch among the companies heads in 1994 would likely be the second or third most important day to the company. Now the stuff of legend, that lunch meeting was one featuring John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and the late Joe Ranft, and what happened there was pure magic. As they sat together, ate, talked, and doodled on napkins, they came up with the ideas for four of their biggest feature films all at one time. A Bugs Life, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and Walle-E, were all conceived at one time, with the final of those finally making it to theaters fourteen years later.

xPixar’s most recent release was their 2020 feature Soul. Though originally scheduled to debut in theaters in the summer, it was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually premiered on Disney+ on Christmas Day last year. The film marked the twenty third feature from the animation studio and is already racking up awards leading into Oscar season. To bring it all together, the restaurant where that famous lunch took place makes an appearance in Soul.

The studio has three more projects that are confirmed to be in the works with the upcoming Luca, an Italian set coming-of-age story; Turning Red, about a thirteen year old girl that turns into a giant red panda; and Lightyear, a movie about the real “Buzz” from Toy Story.