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Pixar

American computer animation studio

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 19, 2026
Entity authorityQ127552
Source-derived summary

Pixar (), doing business as Pixar Animation Studios, is an American animation studio based in Emeryville, California, known for its commercially successful computer-animated feature films. Pixar is a subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, a division of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It is one of Disney's three feature animation studios, alongside Walt Disney Animation Studios and 20th Century Animation.

The studio started in 1979 as part of the Lucasfilm computer division. It was known as the Graphics Group before its spin-off as a corporation in 1986, with funding from Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, who became its majority shareholder. The studio's mascot is Luxo Jr., a desk lamp from the studio's 1986 short film of the same name. Disney announced its acquisition of Pixar in January 2006, and completed it in May 2006. Pixar is best known for its feature films, technologically powered by its RenderMan software. RenderMan began as Pixar's implementation of the industry-standard RenderMan Interface Specification (RISpec) image-rendering API, which came out in 1988; support for RISpec was dropped in 2016. RenderMan became fully path-traced and physically based (PBR).

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Pixar” is american computer animation studio. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Pixar, American and computer, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1979, 1986, 2006, 1988—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1986-02-03. For this dossier, Pixar, American and computer is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “american computer animation studio” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q127552. VIAF identifies the subject as 154056027. The Library of Congress control number is n88295388. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1979, 1986, 2006 and 1988.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Pixar”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Pixar primary sources, Pixar archive and Pixar research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Pixar”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Pixar” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.