Pixar lost 90% of Toy Story 2. A home computer saved it.
In 1998 someone at Pixar ran a delete command on the drives that held Toy Story 2. A folder with about 40 files had four when the team looked again. Then whole sequences vanished.
Co-founder Ed Catmull later wrote in his book Creativity, Inc. that "two years of work" had been "erased in a matter of seconds." The tape backup had failed when its backup files reached a 4-gigabyte size limit. Rebuilding the film would have taken thirty people a solid year, and the release date was November 1999.
About an hour into the crisis meeting, the film's supervising technical director remembered her copy. She had been working from home since having a baby. She and a colleague drove to her house, wrapped the workstation in blankets and belted it into the back seat. The copy was about two weeks old, and it brought the film back.
Toy Story 2 opened in November 1999 and grossed $497 million worldwide. Nobody was punished for the command.
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Pixar
What the captions say
- This is the story of how Pixar lost 90% of Toy Story 2 in seconds, and the unlikely place a copy survived.
- In 1998, Pixar was making Toy Story 2. Co-founder Ed Catmull's studio had two years of work on its drives, and a firm release date in November 1999.
- Then someone ran a delete command on those drives. The associate technical director recalls first noticing it with Woody, the film's cowboy.
- A folder held about 40 files. They looked again, and it held four. Then whole sequences began to vanish.
- 90% of the film was gone. Catmull wrote that two years of work had been erased in a matter of seconds.
- The tape backup, they discovered, had not been working correctly. The backup files had hit a 4-gigabyte size limit.
- Rebuilding it, Catmull wrote, would have taken 30 people a solid year.
- They talked it through. About an hour into the discussion, the supervising technical director remembered something.
- She had had a baby about six months before and was working from home, on a workstation with a copy of the film.
- She and the associate technical director drove her Volvo home, wrapped the computer in blankets and belted it into the back seat.
- The copy was about two weeks old. In Catmull's words, Woody was back, along with the rest of the movie.
- The film opened in November 1999 and grossed about $497 million worldwide.
- Nobody was punished. In his book, Catmull wrote, our people have good intentions.
