Pasted and expanded from a letter I wrote to Mr. Unkrich: I was only given 10 minutes to live. Because of this, I know God wanted me here for something, and trust completely in Him.I I am 22 years old, and I was born with Cerebral Palsy. Because I could not walk well, or run, I could not play with the other kids in elementary school. I ended up getting ignored and sitting on a bench each day during recess for the entirety of my elementary school career. Because of this, I developed a deep love for Disney’s animation, movies, and cartoons. In 1995, Toy Story was released by the then unknown Pixar Animation Studios. I was 6 years old at the time. When I saw Toy Story for the first time, my eyes were opened. It was so lifelike. The toys were alive! Being an outcast myself, I immediately empathized with Rex, who was friendly, wanted to help, and yet did not like confrontation. Just like me! I remember, that year, all I wanted for Christmas was a Rex action figure. I got him, Buzz, and Woody. From then on, every time a new Pixar film came out, I had to get it on video, and get a toy of my favorite character. I was just preparing to start college when Toy Story 3 came out. It made a huge impact, and felt like Pixar made it just for me. As soon as it started, the train came on the screen, and I was thrilled! Trains and Toy Story! Two of my childhood favorites combined! For the past few years, I have been collecting everything Pixar, including lithographs, soundtracks, toys, shirts, (when adult sizes exist) and posters.
Because I had no friends, I formed a strong bond with Disney and later, Pixar. Toy Story taught me to take care of my toys in case they were alive, Bug’s Life taught me to like bugs, TS2 did the same thing as TS, Monsters Inc. cured my fear of the dark. Finding Nemo made me not fear the ocean…Incredibles gave me superheroes to like, VCars reignited my passion for Cars, Ratatouille taugh me to follow my dreams, WALL-E showed me that robots aren’t scary, Up gave me a greater appreciation for life, TS3 readied me for college which I entered after seeing it, and Cars 2 was an awesome spy film. Then really cool things happened which made me think God wants me to change the world through Pixar, so I’m learning to program, and have been for 5 or so years.
What a beautiful thread! It makes me so happy to hear just what these films are capable of doing. 
Thanks,Leirin.
That is a really amazing story, MTM… I don’t think mine is quite as touching, but I’ll give it a try as to what Pixar means to me.
My connection with Pixar is deep; really deep. And it’s odd, since I didn’t get into Pixar until 2002. I have memories of seeing bits of Toy Story and A Bug’s Life when I was a wee lass; I’m not proud to admit that Toy Story freaked me out (and thing is, it had nothing to do with Sid, as far as I remember!). However, upon seeing Monsters Inc, my first Pixar film, on December 31st 2002, my feelings toward it were immediate. I had no idea I was actually obsessed, but looking back… I spent hours looking at all that bonus material and the movie itself and thinking up stories about the characters and actually sorting through my thoughts on the characters… I even remember jumping on my old trampoline pretending I was a Luxo lamp! And nearly ten years later, I still do that… (well, I haven’t done the Luxo lamp hop in a while) yeah, I was obsessed. Finding Nemo was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and I remember quoting lines from it on a day-to-day business, something else I do now. And for all the films that I saw from then… The Incredibles, Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Cars, Up, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 3, Cars 2, and now Brave, I’ve had similar experiences admist each obsession. However, I had no idea how deep my love for Pixar was until I saw ABL; at the time of December '09, it was the only Pixar film I hadn’t seen, and when the Blu-Ray went on sale at Toys R Us, I took a chance and picked it out as a Christmas present. Once I saw it, I knew I was obsessed with Pixar, extremely so. Throughout 2010, I allowed myself to look deeper and see that these are more than just funny movies, they are absolute pieces of art in every shape and form. To me, Pixar represents everything that is wonderful about storytelling, laughter, heart, and the amazing creative process behind each film. People sometimes complain about movies these days - either for their content or lack of imagination - but Pixar is different. Incredibly so. My love of art and animation has rooted from what these amazing animation visionaries can do (that, and those long days back in '03 spent watching the MI bonus feature disc over and over again), and words cannot adequately describe my feelings for this company and their movies. Pixarians are blessed beyond words with astonishing talents, and their enthusiasm is contagious. And I have nothing bad to say about any of their films or any of their future projects. There is no feeling in the world like the excitement of each Pixar film’s release, and few things bring a smile to my face as wide as the ones I get when I watch Pixar films. I honestly don’t think I’ve even said enough in this one post to get my thoughts across clearly… but I can say that Pixar has been a blessing to me, and it’s helped in giving me a dream of storytelling the way they do.
Simply, incredibly, breathtakingly, heartwarmingly awesome. <3
Wow. This is the first really touching, worthwhile thread I’ve seen here in a long time. This really warms my heart. I’m so happy to see some Planeteers are still passionate. <3 Wonderful work, Modeltrainman. Brilliant.
Well, I guess I can share my story, if this thread is for everybody 
…
Well, to be honest, I was never into animation or ANYTHING of the like before. I wanted to be a herpetologist. One day, I saw a preview for The Incredibles. I think I was eight or nine at the time. I remeber thinking right off the bat, “Wow, tat looks so cool…” This was odd. I never shown any interest in super heroes before. But more importantly, I’d never taken interest in a movie I’d never seen before as much as I did this one, and in this way… It was sorta… kismet. But, I wanted to wait and see if it was any good before I got really into it. So I waited, and waited, and waited. And finally, after several mentions of how much I wanted to see it, we got tickets for opening day. That was the start. I walked out of theater in love… though I’m not sure if I realized it at the time. I loved Violet from the start. And soon after, I had my first piece of merchandise: a talking Violet plushie. I still sleep with her. I’m 17 years old. Time went on, and my love for the movie grew. One day, for my birthday, I got a drawing kit with The Incredibles in it. I was so excited, but not to draw… to have another Incredibles item. But one thing upset me: the kids weren’t in it. I was very angry. Now, you’ve gotta understand, I had this zeal for proving people wrong, and I felt like the book was telling my that I couldn’t draw Violet. So I took a sticker that was included, and drew her from that sticker… And it was good. Really good. I didn’t realize it, but my parents told me how good it was, then my other family, then friends, then strangers I showed. Everybody would ask, “Do you wanna be an artist.” They were shocked when I said “No.” But, eventually, as much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was losing interest in Herpetology, but gaining interest in art. I eventually determined to do both. But my desire to study reptiles continued to wane… eventually giving way completely to my craving to draw. And I started writing fanfictions, and eventually creating my own characters and stories.
Aside from how it changed my career choice, it also changed how I think about a lot of things. All their movies have impacted me, but none as much as The Incredibles. And Violet particularly struck a chord with me. It’s funny, she was nothing like me. She was a shy, sad soul. I was always a very happy, loud person. But she made me think of a character’s psychology. She made me dig deeper into the heart of the broken, helped me learn to tell people about issues that no one wants to talk about, that no one understands. I’ve tried so hard to alter myself in so many ways to be like her, maybe in some ways that I shouldn’t have. She changed my heart, and infected it beyond repair. And I couldn’t be more thankful for her. God knew what I needed to see when He showed me The Incredibles.