To Pixar and Beyond

My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History

By: Lawrence Levy

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

An Amazon best book of 2016 in BUSINESS & LEADERSHIP

The never-before-told story of Pixar's improbable success.

"Hi, Lawrence?" the caller asked. "This is Steve Jobs. I saw your picture in a magazine a few years ago and thought we'd work together someday."

After Steve Jobs was unceremoniously dismissed from Apple, he turned his attention to a little-known graphics art company that he owned called Pixar.

One day, out of the blue, Jobs called Lawrence Levy, a Harvard-trained lawyer and Silicon Valley executive to whom he had never spoken before, in the hope of persuading Levy to help him get Pixar on the right track.

What Levy found in Pixar was a company on the verge of failure. To Pixar and Beyond is the extraordinary story of what happened next: How Levy, working closely with Jobs and the Pixar team, produced and implemented a highly improbable roadmap that transformed the sleepy graphics art studio into one of Hollywood's greatest success stories.

Set in the worlds of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, the book takes listeners inside Pixar, Disney, law firms, and investment banks. It provides an up-close, first-hand account of Pixar's stunning ascent, how it took risks, Levy's enduring collaboration and friendship with Jobs, and how Levy came to see in Pixar deeper parallels that apply to all aspects of our lives.

©2016 Lawrence Levy (P)2016 Novel Audio

A great telling of the inner workings of Pixar.

Would you listen to To Pixar and Beyond again? Why?

I would. To Pixar and Beyond does a good job of jumping into the story and taking you on the journey of a finance guy who is pulled into the world of Steve Jobs and given the hot seat position of making Pixar work while Steve is off working at NEXT.

When Pixar takes off, Steve starts dropping by and shows more interest, and all of the characters soon find themselves rubbing shoulders with Eisner, Katzenberg, Disney, and everyone else who took Pixar from an idea that was losing money to a major player in movies.

It is a good read, a great story, and well done.

What other book might you compare To Pixar and Beyond to and why?

"George Lucas", "My Happy Days In Hollywood", any of the biographies or memoirs that do a good job of taking a production company from it's beginning to it's end and tells the fun stories in between.

What about Bronson Pinchot’s performance did you like?

I could feel like I was there. I could see the main character during the stories. He gave the words life.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"Be Careful What You Say Yes To; You Might Be Successful".

Any additional comments?

It was an enjoyable read and as someone who is running out of Hollywood memoirs and biographies to read, I was glad I got it.

Inspiring and captivating

A wonderfully told story of business, perseverance and taking chances for what you believe. I can’t help but feel emotional at the end. I’m inspired to push further and do more. Thank you

Interesting until the end

Could have been more detailed about the success of the movies following Toy Story and maybe any changes to the company as they grew. The final hour of the book was about him finding peace with a Ghandi like person. Not interested in that.

surprisingly fascinating story

I liked the shorter cohesive chapters about this story and I also thought the reader did an excellent job emohasizing key points and applying appropriate emotion.

Loved the book

I thought this was an interesting book inside Pixar and it’s relationship with Steve Jobs. #Business #SteveJobs #Tagsgiving #Sweepstakes

Great book!

I really enjoyed this book. Part history and background of Pixar, part story of the friendship between the author and the late Steve Jobs, and part memoir. I loved it and learned from it.

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I enjoyed every word spoken . What a great follow up to Steve Jobs book. Written and presented beautifully

Better than it has any right to be

I've spent decades interested in tech and the cults of personality surrounding it. I was unprepared for how engrossing the 'how the sausage is made' financials would be. If I took Part IV (his time post-Pixar) into consideration, I'd subtract a star but I'm happy pretending it doesn't exist. The rest is amazing.

Major props to the narrator. This book is filled with dense sentences which he executes flawlessly.

Fantastic and insightful story

the story was gracefully told and is enjoyable by those even outside of corporate business and animation. it really gives a new light to Pixar's history with a mixture of excitement and emotion.

An integral component to the Disney story.

I found this to be very fun and interesting part of the Disney story as a whole seeing from or Pixar started and how it would eventually become a strong part of the Disney brand.