It’s hard to believe we’re in a world where the original Toy Story, the first fully computer-generated feature film, is more than 20 years old. Its computer animation was revolutionary for 1995, but ...

When I heard the news, my mind didn’t turn to any of the big-budget features produced by PDI/Dreamworks, starting with Antz in 1998. Instead, I thought about an era well before there was a DreamWorks.

Ed Catmull, the Pixar Animation Studios co-founder who helped pioneer the computer-animation industry and led Walt Disney Co.’s animation business to its contemporary renaissance, is retiring. Catmull ...