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.
Apple bought NeXT in 1996 for $426 million and Jobs began serving as an adviser to his former company. Also in his time away from Apple, Jobs founded Pixar, a very successful computer animation film studio now owned by Disney. On September 16, 1997 Jobs was named interim chief executive of a struggling Apple.