The Adventures of Andre and Wally B is a computer animated short film made by Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project in 1984.  Lucasfilm Computer Graphics Project was the company that would later form Pixar.  Hired by George Lucas as a special effects/ digital editing team, the group knew that their future was in computer animation.  Led by the likes of Ed Catmull and John Lasseter, they created this movie, which was truly ground breaking. It was the first computer animation that used the 12 principles of Disney animation, such as motion blur, squash and stretch, and anticipation.  Lasseter brought the skills he learned from Disney, pushing the other guys to create more complex shapes and CG models than ever before.    They presented this movie at the 1984 SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on GRAPHics and Interactive Techniques) conference and received much praise from the skeptical audience.  There were a few non-believers in the group, though, including George Lucas and Frank Thomas, one of Disney’s Nine Old Men.  Neither of them believed that computer animation had a future because it was not as appealing a medium for animations, nor did they think it was possible for a computer to realistically make a feature length film. That is when Catmull and others decided it was time to separate from Lucas and start their own company. 

To Be Continued (when I finish reading the book!)