If you've ever lost, say, an unfinished work spreadsheet or a uni essay you were working on to the technological abyss, you'll be well versed with the panic that ensues. Imagine, though, losing an entire film.
It has emerged that staff at Pixar nearly deleted the animation for Toy Story 2 after someone mistakenly ran a command that removes everything on the file system. In what sounds remarkably similar to Marty McFly's fading photograph of his family in Back to the Future, staff first witnessed Woody's hat slowly fade from view, then his boots, before he just completely vanished. Buzz Lightyear, Mr Potato Head, Hamm and Rex soon followed. Staff were horrified: it would take 30 people more than a year to recreate the erased work.
With no time-travelling teen to turn to, Oren Jacob, the associate technical director, and Galyn Susman, supervising technical director, stepped up. As misfortune would have it, they discovered that the back-up files had failed to work for the last month. But then Jacob recalled that Susman had mentioned she had been working from home a lot, on account of her newborn baby, Eli. Could her personal computer have what they needed?
After carefully wrapping the software from Pixar HQ in blankets, the pair drove nervously to Susman's house, where they connected the systems together, found the missing files, and managed to salvage the film. A baby saving the day? Sounds like a Pixar plotline to me.
jl_theprofessor on November 14th, 2018 at 00:56 UTC »
This is the kind of story that gives historians nightmares. Once upon a time, there was a dream that digital archiving would be a fantastic way of compressing vast libraries and microfiche into efficient databases. What we found out is that i) everyone is archiving differently and lacks the technical expertise to make it efficient, leading to more nightmares, and ii) those digital archives just straight up get deleted. This is example number one I was given during my time in digital archiving. You're telling me a company worth this much deleted one of its hottest selling films and most prestigious properties? Guarantee you that universities with lack of funding and sufficient staff will have the same thing happen.
Wolfebane86 on November 14th, 2018 at 00:28 UTC »
Here’s an awesome short film telling the story of what happened. It’s well worth a watch!
Edit: Accidentally linked to a video of only half the story. I’ve updated the link to a complete video of the story.
to_the_tenth_power on November 14th, 2018 at 00:03 UTC »
Eli is a hero.