December 22, 1989: Digital Magic in The Little Mermaid

When Steve Jobs bought Pixar from George Lucas, he didn't hope the company would make wildly successful movies, he hoped the company would sell a ton of computers for image processing. That didn't happen.

The computers made by Pixar were both hard to use and very expensive. Pixar's only regular customer was, not surprisingly, Disney. Disney used the Pixar software and machines to cut out the laborious chore of painting hand drawn cells in their animated features.

The first Disney movie to take advantage of the technology was The Little Mermaid. Disney only used the Pixar solutions in a single scene but it was the beginning of the digital revolution in Disney animation. The revolution was one month old in December of 1989.