So last week there was a story about a girl, Colby Curtin, that touched the hearts of thousands of readers, and Pixar played an important roll in it all. She was dying of vascular cancer, and her last wish was to see the movie Up. The only problem was that the movie is only in theaters, and she was to ill to be transported. So a friend of the family made a call to Pixar, and it touched their hearts enough to fly an employee out with a DVD to the family’s home the next day (on June 10th). Just 7-hours after watching the movie Colby passed away.
Pixar didn’t want to comment on the story, and from what I’ve read Pixar even asked the mother not to talk to the media about it. They wouldn’t even release the name of the employee who had gone out to the family’s house. They weren’t doing it for the publicity, they were doing it because they cared. They cared so much that they wasted no time getting out there, and that made all the difference. Bravo Pixar. It’s not often that you hear of a big company striving to make a difference in someone’s life.
After 24-hours the source of the article reported that it had been read by over 400,000 readers on their site. Not to mention the thousands of other people that I’m sure read the story in forums, blogs, and countless other sites. It’s safe to say that this story has traveled around the world.
I had also read that this isn’t the first time Pixar has done something like this, and it’s never the media attention they’re after. I guess they are the only ones who know how many wishes they’ve made come true, and hopefully they’ll keep doing so.
I was very moved when I read this story in a local paper. Good job, Pixar.
Every once in a while, even if we try to go unnoticed, it’s good to have a pat on the back. Good work Pixar!
Do they have to give the DVD back?
Another article said the employee took the DVD with him when he left.
My guess is that this was not an official move from Pixar but the initiative of a single employee. Having worked in large structures like Pixar, I know that it is totally impossible for an individual to get the right people involved, get sign-offs from 20 managers, make a DVD release with a specific watermark, register the people with access to the DVD and so on. That simply cannot be done in 24 hours.
As a Pixar employee, I would have taken a day off, smuggled a DVD out, flown to the poor girl’s house and made sure myself that no copy was made and that the DVD would be back unnoticed. Hence the request for secrecy from the employee so that he wouldn’t get fired for breaking company security policies.
I hope that this good buzz will give Pixar and others an incentive to do something good for their karma.
Huh, that is a really interesting interpretation of how this could have happened. I have a feeling that more than one person was involved, but I actually think you are right. I’m sure they didn’t jump through the hoops to get proper approval.