It's a done deal

Walt Disney Co, the leading US media company, has completed its acquisition(take-over) of Pixar Animation Studios Inc, sealing a deal that will reshape the animated movie industry.

The much touted (publicised) US$ 7.4 billion deal, aimed at restoring Disney's lustre (shine) as a leader in the animated film business, was completed just three months after it was unveiled. The board of Pixar approved the transaction recently.

Pixar is Disney's biggest acquisition in more than a decade and will help revive its once vaunted (boasted) animation division.

"Pixar did what Disney used to do - tell great stories with dazzling animation", said Brandon Gray, President of Burbank, California-based film tracker BoxOfficeMojo.com.

"Disney has struggled in animation and hasn't been able to capture what Pixar does."

Disney President Robert Iger said in February that he decided to buy Pixar after concluding that Disney's animation unit, home to Mickey Mouse, Snow White and Cinderella, had not created any recognisable animated characters in the past decade.

"It really hit me hard that we had had 10 years of real failure", he said then. "Keeping animation strong is incredible vital".

The deal came a month before the partnership between the two companies was to expire. Disney agreed to finance the first computer-animated feature film, 'Toy Story', in 1991. The film was released in 1995, the same year that Pixar went public.

The relationship between the two companies produced a string of box-office hits, including 'Finding Nemo' and 'The Incredibles'. The seventh and last film under the old distribution agreement, 'Cars' was released on June 9.

Talks to extend the agreement began two years ago, but faltered (weakened) in large part because of personal animosity (hostility) between the top executives of the two companies.

The Sunday Times of Singapore