In the beginning, it was mere recognition of a possible future in which computer animation could be used to make full-length motion pictures, an idea so revolutionary that future Pixar director John Lasseter was once fired from the Disney Animation studio for suggesting the technique for a film called The Brave Little Toaster.

The technology involved took years to develop, so many, in fact, that visionary Steve Jobs lost an estimated $1 million a year waiting for the studio to become profitable. Even after Toy Story became the first monster hit in what would become a series, the struggles continued, complete with wrangles over story values and a threatened split with distributor Disney.

Narrated by Stacy Keach, Leslie Iwerks' film begins with the apprenticeship of Pixar founders Catmull and Lasseter and chronicles their association with Apple co-founder Jobs and the painstaking development of the techniques that opened up an entirely new toolbox for cinema fantasists. Slow at first—as it must have seemed in real life, when the breakthrough successes were still years away—it eventually becomes a catalogue of wild successes, of the sort that wouldn't be out of place shown at a stockholder's meeting. Who knows? Maybe it was.

The men behind the curtain

Computer geeks and fans of business success stories will appreciate the early sections, in which years of effort, millions of dollars in capital and an untold number of late nights at the office are spent in the single-minded pursuit of the dream. Those who prefer hearing about creative decisions will like the later sections, detailing the painstaking attention to storytelling that is as much Pixar's lifeblood as the software its scientists have developed.

Some of their best work was, for lack of a better phrase, "saved in the editing room." For instance, an early animatic preview of Toy Story reveals a Woody who was a bitter, malignant bully, significantly larger than a Buzz Lightyear who is little more than a diminutive, put-upon victim; he was downright unlikable, almost poisonous, in fact, and the project came close to being shelved completely before the storyline was reworked and re-imagined under the gun.

A similar story occurred with that film's sequel; it just didn't work at all, and the best reason for Pixar's success can be illustrated by the company's reaction to Disney executives who insisted that it was still "good enough" to make money. With nine months left to go, John Lasseter was given the assignment to make a silk purse of a sow's ear—an assignment that had to seem impossible and reflects the major difference between Pixar and other studios that release crap they had to recognize as crap before so much as a single frame was shot.

The most frustrating part of the film? The clips from Pixar films such as those mentioned above and Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, A Bug's Life and The Incredibles. They all get you involved in their respective stories within seconds and render it hard to avoid resenting the hard-working, dedicating people who keep interrupting to tell you how they were made.

The documentary also features interviews with George Lucas, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.