Pixar Animation Studios hasn’t made a big deal of turning 25 this year. But it can celebrate several achievements, including its perfect 12-hit record at the box office, capped this year by “Cars 2,” which is being released on DVD on Tuesday. It hasn’t been an easy year, though: There was the passing of Steven P. Jobs, who helped build Pixar Animation Studios and who was crucial to the company’s success, and unusual for a Pixar film, “Cars 2″ met with mixed critical reaction. Still at this quarter-century milestone, John Lasseter, the studio’s chief creative officer, agreed to answer selected reader questions. Here are his responses, submitted by e-mail.
Q.
What animators have been an influence on you? (yellowkid, auburn, ny) And as a filmmaker, who are your biggest influences? (infinitejest, ny)
A.
First is Walt Disney. Through his films and Disneyland, which I grew up only half an hour from, he entertained me in a certain way that is just magical. The films take me to other worlds through the amazing stories and characters. It so moved me. I loved it and I couldn’t get enough of it. The magic of Disneyland, walking through the tunnel underneath the train station to Main Street, it just transports you to other places and other times. He really inspired me to do my life’s work and to try to entertain audiences in that same way.
Chuck Jones. Great Warner Bros. cartoon director. His comic timing is the best it’s ever been on cinema. He’s a master at that. His work was so funny, and he entertained adults as well as kids. I still watch his cartoons today, and they’re just as funny as ever. And great character development and really smart humor and writing.
Frank Capra, especially with the films like “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” His films have such great characters, and they’re so full of heart. Each of his movies has such tremendous emotion.
Preston Sturges with films like “Sullivan’s Travels,” which I think is one of the most inspirational films for me personally. Really smart, witty writing in his work.
More personally, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston, two of the great Nine Old Men Disney animators, my personal mentors. They had a tremendous influence on me in developing characters and staying focused in animation. No matter what the technique, it’s all about the story and characters.
Q.
In the documentary “The Pixar Story,” many of the Pixar animators and directors interviewed lamented the decline of hand-drawn animation as a result of the popularity and ubiquity of computer animation. Is there any thought of Pixar developing projects using hand-drawn animation either on its own or used in tandem with computer animation? — Lisa, East Windsor, NJ
A.
In overseeing both Disney and Pixar Animation, each studio has a unique culture. A studio is not its building, it’s its people. They’re both filmmaker-led studios. At the Walt Disney Animation Studios, there is tremendous history and heritage. Of course it’s the studio that Walt Disney opened in 1923, and it’s never closed its doors. The studio has always made animation, and it really invented long-form animation. Hand-drawn animation is the heritage at that studio, and we’re continuing hand-drawn animation with “The Princess and the Frog” and “Winnie the Pooh.” We’re developing these really interesting techniques using hand-drawn animation, along with 3D computer animation.
Whereas Pixar invented much of computer animation, and it’s so steeped in that technology, and that’s who we are. Everything that Pixar has done, no one’s done before. We keep pushing the technology. The developments are always because of the needs of our stories.
Hand-drawn animation lives within the Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Pixar will continue focusing on what we’ve always done, which is amazing 3-D computer animation.
Q.
Out of any animated features, which one would you say was your favorite? — Jack W, England
A.
“Dumbo.” Hands down. “Dumbo” is my favorite film for many reasons. It’s very tight storytelling. It’s amazing to have a main character not speak at all through the whole movie. It is the most cartoony of all the Walt Disney features, and I love the style of it. The music, the characters, it’s just fantastic. It’s just over 60 minutes long. It’s a very well told story. And it’s so emotional too, especially for parents. It’s really amazing.
I love the work of Hayao Miyazaki. “My Neighbor Totoro” and “Castle in the Sky” are two of the great films that he’s made that I just love.
I would have to put on my list Brad Bird’s “The Iron Giant.” It’s a brilliant, brilliant film. One of the best animated films ever made, I think.
Q.
Your class at CalArts included several of today’s most visionary filmmakers: yourself, Henry Selick, Tim Burton, Brad Bird, John Musker. Each of you has mastered your own individual aesthetic and method of storytelling that are setting new standards in Hollywood today. This can’t be a coincidence, can it? What was in the water at CalArts? — cm62442, Tempe, AZ
A.
It was pretty magical. We were in the very first year of the character animation program in the School of Film/Video at CalArts. The original instructors were all these amazing Disney artists that had gone into retirement, and so they came out of retirement to teach us. All of them, except one, had never taught a class before. It was just amazing. I remember Ken O’Connor, our layout teacher, had this very dry Australian humor. He said, “I’m not the teacher, I will just tell you what I think you need to know.” We learned a tremendous amount from them, and we also would sit and listen to their stories about working at the Walt Disney Studios and working with Walt, developing this new art form. The stories had a tremendous impact on me, you know, the way things worked, the ideas they had back then, what they were striving for, we got very close to them.
And what Disney had done is taken a list that they had collected of very interested young people who had been writing to the Disney studios for years saying that they wanted to work for Disney. From that, they sent out letters to this whole list, which included me since I used to write to the studios and visit them, and so the first two classes of the character animation program formed a great part from this list. So we got together, and it was this really exciting feeling of coming together. I had an interest in cartoons, animation and Disney that nobody else at my school or my friends had. So when we came together at CalArts, all these people with exactly the same passion, we learned as much from our fellow students as we did from our instructors.
Also at that time – I went to CalArts from 1975 to 1979 – it was a time of this explosion of American filmmaking: George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, Stanley Kubrick, just unbelievable films were being made, and there were new techniques, like the steadicam, and it was so exciting and so inspirational. Those films were entertaining audiences at new levels. “Star Wars” came out at the end of my second year. The new level of entertainment that was being achieved by these filmmakers, it inspired me to do that in animation. And our teachers filled us with this belief of being able to achieve the impossible.
Q.
What do you think animated movies will be like in the next 50 years? — David, Kennewick, WA
A.
I’m going to start with a story. Steve Jobs and I were very close, and early on when I was making “Toy Story” we started talking and he said, “John, you know at Apple when I make computers, what is the lifespan of this product, two years, three years at the most, and then about five years, they’re like a doorstop. But if you do your job right, these films can last forever.” I was amazed by that statement, and I was humbled by it too.
Then I started thinking … name another movie from 1938 that is watched year in and year out as much as “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” So it really affected me in terms of understanding the potential of animation, and if we do our job right, meaning: tell a great story with really memorable characters and make it beautiful and make it great. If you can do that then these films will entertain audiences for generations. The technology will continue to grow. I knew when we were making “Toy Story,” the first computer-animated feature film, and the technology was still in its infancy, what we could do visually would grow tremendously over the years. That’s what’s fun about computer animation: It’s a constantly growing medium. But if you tell a great story with great characters, it doesn’t matter. It will still be entertaining in the future. Everyone wants to hear we’ll be able to technically do _________ in the future. It’s about telling great stories with memorable characters that are truly, deeply entertaining for the audience. They’re funny, but they have heart, and they move you. That’s a great animated film.
Where we will be 50 years from now, the technology will continue to grow, but the technology and how it grows is really dependent on the story you’re telling. At Pixar and Disney, these are filmmaker-driven studios. So getting great filmmakers, inspiring them and having them come up with different stories that come from their own life experiences and their own heart, I can’t predict that. All I know is the goal is to make really memorable films.
Q.
Is it possible there will be a sequel to “Finding Nemo” someday? (G. W. German, Port Townsend, WA) One of my favorite PIXAR films is “The Incredibles,” are you going to make a sequel in the near future? If not, why? (Quinn F, Mount Vernon, NY)
A.
We don’t know yet. The only reason we do a sequel at Pixar is if we come up with a great story that is as good or better than the original. So it lands on the shoulders of the director that created the original to be the seed, you might say, for these things. We may, we may not. It depends on if we come up with a great story.
Q.
I first wanted to thank you for all of the amazing Pixar films and characters which have created an immense amount of awesome memories for me. I was curious as to how many movie ideas don’t make it to the big screen and how you know when an idea is movie-worthy. — Ramin K, Mission Viejo, CA
A.
We do have quite a few ideas that don’t make it to the big screen. Some you hear about, some you don’t. It’s very common in the development of motion pictures.
For me, what I look for early on is first where the heart of the movie is going to come from. The heart comes from the main character and the growth the main character has through the film.
Second is the setting. Where is this movie taking place. Is it someplace I would love to go, and I would love to spend time in this world? We know what computer animation can and can’t do, and we always try to find subject matter that lends itself to our medium.
Those two things. As we develop a story, the plot changes dramatically, characters come and go, but two things you can’t change later are the heart of the film – that’s like the foundation of the building, you’ve got to get that right upfront because everything builds off that. You can’t add that later. You can’t punch up the heart. And then the setting. You can’t just pick the story up and move it to a different world with a different set of characters. So that’s what I look for.
Q.
As a junior in high school, I’ve always dreamed of becoming an animator, either 2-D or 3-D. What advice do you have for someone who wants to enter that field? — Katya, Boston, MA
A.
Good question. The advice that I have is don’t be seduced by the technology. Every young person gets so excited about new software packages and new technology. Technology never entertains an audience on its own. It’s what you do with the technology.
It’s so important as you start out to go to an art school or film school that has really strong basic, fundamental classes, and don’t skip over those. Don’t think you already know. What I mean is basic 2-D design, basic 3-D design, color theory, figure drawing, perspective drawing, basic drawing, basic three-act story structure, basic animation principles. These fundamentals are the things that I use every single day; they’re so vitally important. The tools you use will constantly change, but it’s knowing what to do with those tools is what’s going to make you a great filmmaker and a great animator.
For more information: http://www.pixar.com/
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