Print and broadcast media have explored Ozark culture broadly. Books set in the Ozarks include Where the Red Fern Grows, The Shepherd of the Hills and As a Friend. The 1999 film Ride with the Devil, based on the book Woe to Live On, depicts warfare in Southwest Missouri during the Civil War.
The late story artist Joe Ranft is named a Disney Legend. The Walt Disney Company announces that it has agreed to purchase Pixar Animation Studios. Ed Catmull and John Lasseter also assume leadership of Walt Disney Animation Studios.
They began producing commercial animations for advertising in 1989. In 1991, Pixar teamed with Walt Disney Productions to develop, produce and distribute three computer animated films. Toy Story, the first of these films, was released in 1995 and went on to gross over $350 million worldwide.