The success of Pixar Animation Studios goes far beyond its revolutionary approach to film animation, its slew of awards, or its uncanny knack for rolling out box-office hits like Toy Story, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles and Cars. What really drives the Emeryville-based company is its corporate culture: an environment of collaboration that emphasizes joy and creativity. After all, these people make animated movies for a living. Why shouldn’t their work be fun?

That’s the essence of The Pixar Story, a new documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Leslie Iwerks that premieres this month on the Starz premium cable channel. Featuring never-before-seen footage from the Pixar library, plus interviews with many of the key players behind the computer animation giant (including co-founders John Lasseter, Ed Catmull and Steve Jobs), it’s an inside look at the people who forever changed animated films. And that’s the ticket – as Lasseter notes in the documentary, beyond all their achievements in 3-D animation, “Pixar is its people. Our philosophy is that an office is an empty canvas [where everyone can create and play], and that’s why it’s so fun.”

To illustrate the point, the documentary takes viewers behind the scenes of both the creative process at Pixar – from Lasseter and other directors acting out storyboards, to computer animators struggling to find the right expression for characters such as Nemo and his dad – as well as the everyday work environment, where a production meeting is likely to break out into an impromptu battle of Nerf dart guns or an epic paper-airplane-flying competition. It’s an attitude of “work plus play can still equal productivity” that continues to be emulated in offices across the country.

Lasseter’s love of animation is evident throughout the documentary, but so is his commitment to creating good stories and strong characters. For all its computer-generated wizardry, Toy Story, the animated feature that put Pixar on the map in 1995 after earning $350 million, never would have succeeded had the characters not resonated with the audience. Woody (the toy cowboy voiced by Tom Hanks in the movie) may be a child’s plaything, but the displacement he feels at the arrival of hip new toy Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim Allen) is something anyone can relate to. That basic formula – giving lifelike attributes to otherwise inanimate objects – also plays a huge part in the Pixar success story.

The Pixar Story premieres Tuesday, Apr. 22 at 10pm ET and PT on Starz and repeats throughout April and May. Check your cable or satellite listings or go to www.starz.com for additional airings. Pixar’s latest release, WALL-E, hits theaters this summer.

Digging a Hole to Chinatown
Archaeologists unearth pieces of San Jose’s history.

A dedicated team of archaeologists and historians spent seven days last month in a five-acre San Jose lot built directly over the remnants of what once was the city’s Chinatown. The team was digging for relics that would provide insight into a cultural oasis now long gone. Among the crew’s niftiest finds were the remains of an 1888-built Taoist temple called the Ng Shing Gung (a replica of which can be found at the History Park at San Jose’s Kelley Park), as well as artifacts from the former Chinatown residents’ daily life – a doll’s head, bones from food, ceramics, and glassware, including a small homeopathic medicine vial.

From 1887 until 1931, the lot at Fifth and Jackson was the site of Heinlenville, a settlement built by German landowner John Heinlen for the Chinese people displaced after anti-Chinese rioters burned down its predecessor, the Market Street Chinatown. Adrian Praetzellis, an archaeological historian who took part in the Heinlenville dig, notes that it was a courageous gesture on Heinlen’s part to help out a group of people that was bitterly hated by many at the time. “When one studies the history of minority groups in California, the story is usually 100 percent negative,” Praetzellis says. “It’s always stories of Chinese getting murdered and getting turned out, abused, and one thing and another. But here, a highly moral person did something about it.”

According to Praetzellis, the city of San Jose has followed in Heinlen’s footsteps by doing the right thing with respect to this dig. “It’s not treating the archaeology as another kind of pollution – it’s actually seeing it as an opportunity to get another picture of the history of the place,” he says. “So I think the folks who live in San Jose should be pretty happy with how the city is treating this.”

Given the vast amount of artifacts that may still be scattered across the former Chinatown’s five acres, the week-long excavation barely scratched the surface, so to speak. Expect more Heinlenville digs in the near future.

Takin’ It to the Streets
Groundwerx gives Downtown San Jose a makeover.

The next time you’re in Downtown San Jose and need to know where the nearest bathroom is, ask the nearest guy or gal with the green hat and the friendly smile. This person is one of 10 ambassadors working for Groundwerx, a five-year, $1.6 million program designed to make the Downtown area cleaner and more pleasant. These folks are standing by to give directions, restaurant tips and recreation advice, as well as to lend umbrellas when necessary, escort people to their cars during late hours and report problems such as graffiti, panhandling and loitering.

Put into motion on Jan. 28 as part of the Property-Based Improvement District (PBID), Groundwerx also aims to rid the city of trash, dirt and graffiti, and to landscape select portions of Downtown San Jose – beautifying the area with benches, planters and hanging flower baskets. Groundwerx’s 11-member, orange hat-clad Clean Team works in shifts from 6:30am until approximately 8pm, sweeping the streets with the aid of $37,000 Applied Green Machines that consume only two gallons of gas per day. The materials used by the Groundwerx crew are proven to be environmentally safe, right down to the biodegradable trash bags. Their Tenant M20 sidewalk scrubbers recycle 70 percent of the water they use, and both the scrubber and the street sweepers are biodiesel-powered.

Groundwerx operations manager Eric Hon says feedback from people on the street has been positive so far. “The Groundwerx equipment really brought about everyone’s curiosity initially,” he states. “Now that we’ve been providing services for two full months, everyone is more aware of who we are and what we do. People haven’t been shy about asking questions, making service requests and having brief conversations with the Groundwerx crews.”
(415-981-0189).

If you see a part of Downtown San Jose that could use some attention, contact Hon at (408) 590-0241 or ehon@sjdowntown.com. For more information about Groundwerx, go to www.sjdowntown.com.