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.
In 1991 Disney finally approached Pixar to make the first movie, Toy Story. Steve Jobs stepped in to run Pixar (Ed Catmull had run it from 1986-1994, and from 1974-1994 taking the pre-Pixar history into account) at the completion of Toy Story in late 1994.