The original Toy Story turned 30 years old earlier this week, and to mark the occasion, the Steve Jobs Archive released a never-before-seen interview where the late Apple co-founder (and majority shareholder) talks about Pixar’s then-upcoming debut feature.
In the 22-minute interview, which took place a full year after the film’s release, Jobs discussed helping foster an environment where Pixar staff could thrive and have them “work together as peers.” To him, Pixar is the only place that could hire the “very best” workers from the Hollywood and Silicon Valley cultures and be successful. “[We’re] a very hot place to be right now,” he bragged, mentioning the studio’s growing headcount and the need to keep quality consistent across staff and work.
He also talks about adopting a Silicon Valley-like model of employee retention, while saying it in a very Disney-like fashion, saying Pixar should be a company “nobody will ever want to leave. We don’t take anybody for granted, because if they don’t want to be here, then they should probably leave anyway, whether or not they’d have a contract.”
During the interview, Jobs noted Pixar was doing so well at the time that it became the first non-internal studio Disney approached for animation—a collaboration he spoke highly of. With access to resources and guidance that Disney wasn’t sharing with its peers (or selling), Pixar adopted Disney’s methodology of “editing your film before you make it,” refining that and other techniques for itself. The relationship with Disney was going so well back then, Jobs openly speculated about whether the studio would reteam with Disney after its initial three-picture deal ended—he mentions the second project, codenamed “Bugs,” which would later be A Bug Life—or pursue other partners.
Funnily enough, he was proven correct about Toy Story’s impact when he speculated its shelf life would last 60 years. At the time, he attributed that to its story, but it’s also because Pixar has made it a recurring franchise, with Toy Story 3 arriving a year before his death. (He even marketed it during an iPhone OS 4 event.) The series’ next installment, Toy Story 5, comes out June 19, 2026.
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