An Animated Biography of Steve Jobs
In 2015, a web development company in the Ukraine called
QuartSoft released an animated biography of Jobs as a way to
thank Jobs “for letting us enjoy the perfection of the products
you created.” Marketing officer Dmitriy Nesterov felt inspired
to create an animated biography of Jobs because he was
disappointed by the big-budget biopic Jobs (2012) directed by
Joshua Michael Stern and starring Ashton Kutcher in the title
role. Nesterov and his coworkers spent three months making
an animation that emphasizes how one person can change
the world. “Many creative persons feel obliged to those who
took part in building the global technological infrastructure
that made it easier for anybody to express [themselves],”
Nesterov explained. “Jobs’s team seems to be one of the most
creative tech teams ever. This [success] attracts and inspires
many aspiring animators and artists.”
The black-and-white cartoon runs just under 19 minutes,
depicting the key moments in Jobs’s life from birth to death
and, of course, the evolution of Apple and its products. It also
features people important to Jobs—all drawn with heads larger
than their bodies — from Steve Wozniak and Bill Fernandez to
Bill Gates and Jony Ive. Below the animated biography runs
“the meanwhile bar,” which marks technology milestones
such as the development of the graphical user interface (GUI),
which would form the environment Jobs would eventually
revolutionize.
Some of the best scenes are less well-known moments
in Steve Jobs’s life, including a calligraphy class he took at
Reed College in Portland. A pop-up quote by Jobs says if he
had not taken the class, the Apple computers may not have
featured such distinct typefaces.
The animation also highlights details from Walter
Isaacson’s 2011 biography, like the fact that Jobs shaved
his head when he went to India on a spiritual retreat and
that he was barefoot when he negotiated with Paul Terrell
of The Byte Shop to sell the first Apple computer.
“I think animation can let people imagine something
that has never been shown on film,” said Nesterov. “Steve
Jobs has become an embodiment of [the] American dream
when a simple guy can change the world armed with only
his talents and surrounded with free people united with the
same idea.”
Unfortunately, the animation strikes off notes when it
tries to convey Jobs’s emotions after both his ouster from
Apple and his cancer diagnosis. For example, the story
moves from Steve Jobs introducing the iPad to an EKG
line going flat, and it ends with the text “R.I.P.” Despite the
jarring ending, YouTube commenters praise the animation
for being “concise just like Steve Jobs” as well as for being
“better than the last two Jobs movies” they’ve seen.
The folks at QuartSoft are not the only people who
memorialized Steve Jobs in this medium. If you search
for videos about Apple’s founder, you’ll find more than a
dozen short animated features, ranging from comical satire
to heartfelt tributes. Fans who aren’t happy with feature
biopics — the 2012
Jobs
or Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs (2015),
directed by Danny Boyle and starring Michael Fassbender
in the title role — may find these cartoon versions of his life
more satisfying.
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(PAGE 47) Steve Jobs and the introduction of the
iMac. ILLUSTRATION: QuartSoft
◄
(PAGE 46) Steve Jobs and the team that worked on
the Macintosh. ILLUSTRATION: QuartSoft
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