Chapter 83 - Are you serious?

"I am neither talented at giving speeches nor good at inspiring others. However, I can promise you all, that as long as there are no problems with your work, Pixar will not have any layoffs for the next three years."

Eric announced to all the employees gathered in the office, once Steve Jobs left. This was also their biggest concern. In the past year or so, Pixar had continuously laid off several batches of employees because of financial constraints.

Sure enough, after Eric made the promise, many people breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone knew the identity of Eric. The young man was now in control of great wealth. Since he had made such a promise, he will not easily go back on his words.

"Well, everyone can continue with your works. The management team, please assemble in the conference room."

After a brief commotion, the heads of Pixar, led by John Lasseter, gathered in the conference room.

"Everyone must already know me. I also have some understanding of who you are, as I read your profiles. So we can temporarily skip the introductions."

Low laughter sounded in the meeting room. Eric smiled and waited for a while, then said: "Pixar's situation was very bad in the past, but it won't be like that again. You may be very curious about why I bought Pixar at this point. As I told John, I am interested in making 3D animation movies, and I had money to invest, so I did. Hopefully, none you doubt my vision when it comes to making a film. After I watched Pixar 's short film, Tin Toy, I thought of a good story idea to make a full-length film."

"Sheriff Woody, a good-hearted cowboy doll who belongs to a young boy named Andy, sees his position as Andy's favorite toy jeopardized when his parents buy him a Buzz Lightyear action figure, who was new in appearance and advanced in function, and little Andy could not put it down. When Andy's family moves to a new house, Woody and Buzz fall out of the packing and into the hands of the neighbor's kid. Now, they must escape the clutches of the neighbor's kid and reunite with their owner..."

It took a few minutes to roughly tell the tale of Toy Story, and Eric continued: "The last time I met John, I told him that I would invest 30 million USD in this 3D animation movie. Of course, the budget can be increased, I just need you to make this animation your best so far. For me, it doesn't matter if I fail once, but I think Pixar can't afford to fail anymore."

All the Pixar executives had solemn expressions on their faces. In the past, Pixar couldn't make ends meet. If the path of 3D animation doesn't work, it is estimated that it would be difficult for Pixar to stand alone. Eric was very satisfied with the reaction of everyone. He knew that 3D animation would become the mainstream of animated movies in the future. But, if he were to say the same to encourage everyone, these people would definitely not believe it. It might as well put some pressure on them in another tone.

"I know that an animation movie's production cycle is very long. For this movie, I intend to give you three years of production time. Within these three years, there will be no changes to Pixar, and you don't need to receive any advertising projects to maintain Pixar's operations. You can put all your energy into the production of Toy Story. Okay, I'm done speaking, now let's talk about your views."

The pressure given by Jobs also left Pixar's high-level seniors in pain. After carefully asking a few questions, the people determined that Eric and Jobs were completely different people. They finally let go of themselves and began to talk freely.

Because they were too involved in the discussion, everyone ignored lunchtime. The discussions continued until the sunset. The conference room was almost dark when the crowd of people finally realized that it was very late.

To ensure that Toy Story does not deviate too much from his previous life, Eric spent another three days in Richmond. During this time he personally wrote the complete script and screenplay of Toy Story. He also included sketches of Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and a whole set of toys to hand over to Pixar's production staff.

It wasn't until the President of Fox, Barry Diller called in person after a week, to remind Eric to attend the celebration of Pretty Woman, that he finally left Richmond.

Eric did think about moving Pixar to Los Angeles. When he privately mentioned this to John Lasseter, he was told that it was difficult to execute.

Most of Pixar's technicians had lived in the San Francisco Bay for a long time. They were used to everything here, and most of them were settled down here. Also, the environment in Los Angeles was not suitable for animation studios like Pixar. Richmond was close to Silicon Valley, where high-tech companies gathered and was more suitable for Pixar's survival.

Eric heard John Lasseter 's explanation and gave up his original plan. Anyway, San Francisco was only five or six hundred kilometers away from Los Angeles and can be reached in one hour by plane. It was not inconvenient to go back and forth, and Eric no longer thought about the matter.

After staying in the hotel for a week, he finally returned home and took a comfortable bath. There were a few hours before the evening celebration, and Eric was too lazy to prepare. Wearing loose casual clothes and resting on the living room sofa, he lazily took the remote control to turn on the TV and flipped through channels.

When he was almost asleep, he heard the sound of the doorbell.

Opening the door, he found a sneaky girl wearing a wig sunglasses, and very ordinary clothes, while anxiously waiting at the door, looking around from time to time.

"What took you so long to open the door? It would have been awful to be discovered by the paparazzi."

Eric looked at Julia's dress and tilted his head: "What is up with this look, oh... disguised as Alison?"

"I let Alison dress like me and leave, to get rid of the paparazzi before I got out." Julia's tone was a little triumphant.

"What would you like to drink?" Eric asked when they returned to the living room and walked to the refrigerator.

"Coffee, without sugar, don't make the water too hot."

"Oh," Eric responded, giving Julia a glass of juice.

The girl blankly glanced at him, and still took the juice: "You are always so awful."

Eric leaned on the sofa again, looking at Julia with great interest: "You have changed a lot. Looking at that sitting position, and listening to this tone, I feel like a fan and Hollywood's top actress is in front of me. I can't help but want to ask you for an autograph."

"No problem, where shall I sign?" Julia got a pen out of her arms like magic.

Eric looked at the ceiling for a while, as if thinking about something, and then suddenly pulled the waistband of his slacks and looked inside. Shaking his head he said: "No, I don't feel anything right now, you won't be able to sign it."

Pfft-

Spitting a mouthful of juice at Eric, her face turned pink. Panicking, she lifted the glass of juice to hide her embarrassment.

After a while, Julia put down her glass and said: "I heard you bought an animation studio?"

"Well, it's too tiring to make live-action movies. I plan to switch to making animated movies."

The girl glanced strangely at Eric: "Are you serious?"

"It's all the same to me, actually." Eric said, before sitting upright and asking, "Well, what did you want with me?"