The sky's the limit: Chicken Little leads Disney into the digital frontier.(Animation )(Pixar Animation Studios, Walt Disney Studios, contract)(Cover Story)

Over a span of 77 years, Walt Disney Studios pioneered and perfected the relatively young art form of hand-drawn animation. From squash and stretch and overlapping and secondary action, to slow in and slow out, Disney founded the fundamental principles of animation and became home to the most talented artists in the world. Collectively, these artists have made the studio the gold standard in traditional feature animation and the icon of quality family entertainment.

By the turn of the century, however, Disney, in partnership with Pixar Animation Studios, was producing 3D films that widely outperformed its hand-drawn movies at the box office. Thus, when Pixar ...