Pixar Era Analysis – The Golden Age

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As mentioned in my previous blog post, this analysis series will be focusing on all 26 of Pixar’s animated feature films and their film making eras.

The first era that I will be exploring is the Golden Age, which consisted of Pixar’s first six animated feature films, and lasted for nine years from 1995 to 2004:

  • Toy Story
  • A Bug’s Life
  • Toy Story 2
  • Monsters, Inc.
  • Finding Nemo
  • The Incredibles

As mentioned in my previous blog post, Pixar’s film making eras aren’t as well defined or agreed upon as Disney’s film making eras, so I’m going to be analysing Pixar’s film making eras as defined by Modern Mouse and Dave Lee Down Under. Both Modern Mouse’s and Dave Lee Down Under’s definitions of the eras are similar, however Modern Mouse’s definitions go up to 2018 and Dave Lee Down Under’s definitions fills the gap between 2018 and now.

Both Modern Mouse and Dave Lee Down Under described the Golden Age (the latter defining this period as the Platinum Age) as the Age where Pixar pioneered and highlighted their then-new technological style, and made films that focused on great attention to detail and storytelling, with each film evolving from the previous one, with their debut film, Toy Story, setting the precedent. Dave Lee Down Under pointed out that the films in this Age focused on themes of hope, happiness, and togetherness.

The Golden Age ended with The Incredibles, the last film to be made and released before Disney purchased Pixar in 2006. The purchase came after years of tension between the two companies due to disagreements over their respective roles and Pixar wanting more control over their film making.

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