Computers don't create computer animation any more than a pencil creates pencil animation. What creates computer animation is the artist.
— John Lasseter
We work very hard in all of the Pixar films to not make anything in the imagery that causes people to think of something other than the story.
True play is creativity.
Growing up, my favorite TV show was 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E.', hands down.
One of the big moments of my life was watching 'Star Wars' on its opening weekend in Hollywood. I was watching all these people enjoy this film, and I thought: animation can do this.
Every movie has three things you have to do - you have to have a compelling story that keeps people on the edge of their seats; you have to populate that story with memorable and appealing characters; and you have to put that story and those characters in a believable world. Those three things are so vitally important.
You never hear of a live-action studio that has been making so-so films looking over at a studio that's making great movies and going, 'Oh, we see the difference - we're using a different camera.'
It's the nature of Hollywood that there are the people in power and the people who tell them what they want them to hear.
I do what I do because of Walt Disney. Goofy. Mickey Mouse. I never forgot how their films entertained me.
Never in the history of cinema has a medium entertained an audience. It's what you do with the medium.
I quickly realized that this medium had a lot to offer someone like me. To do Disney-quality hand-drawn cartoons, you have to be a master of two art forms. Seriously, you have to be able to draw like a Leonardo da Vinci or a Michelangelo. But also you have to know movement and timing and control that through 24 frames a second.
I love movies that make me cry, because they're tapping into a real emotion in me, and I always think afterwards: how did they do that?
We make the kind of movies we like to watch. I love to laugh. I love to be amazed by how beautiful it is. But I also love to be moved to tears. There's lots of heart in our films.
I've got Disney blood running through my veins.
I realized that people make cartoons for a living. It had never dawned on me that you could do this as a career.
'Finding Nemo' was originally shot in 3D.
I've always been thinking in three dimensions, ever since I started working with computer animation in the early '80s.
I can't tell you, as a parent, how it feels when the doctor tells you your child has diabetes. First off, you don't really know much about it. Then you discover there is no cure.
Art challenges technology, but technology inspires the art.
My mother was a high school arts teacher, so I was always surrounded by the arts.
When you set out to really entertain adults as well as kids, your audience is basically anybody who is breathing.
When I look at the success I have, it's because of my creative-thinking skills.
I am, by nature, an honest person. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. There is no 'behind closed doors' with me.
I believe in research you cannot do enough research; believability comes out of what's real.
If you're sitting in your minivan, playing your computer animated films for your children in the back seat, is it the animation that's entertaining you as you drive and listen? No, it's the storytelling. That's why we put so much importance on story. No amount of great animation will save a bad story.
Walt Disney had always tried to get more dimension in his animation and when I saw these tapes, I thought, This is it! This is what Walt was waiting for! But when I looked around, nobody at the studio at the time was even halfway interested in it.
I do what I do because of Walt Disney - his films and his theme park and his characters and his joy in entertaining.
There is such amazing talent at Disney. My job is 100% creative, and I am very excited to creatively lead them.
Animation is the one type of movie that really does play for the entire audience. Our challenge is to make stories that connect for kids and adults.
You cannot base a whole movie on just the imagery alone. It has to be the story and the characters.
Short films really helped me develop as a story teller, animator, and as a director.
I believe once you watch a Miyazaki film, you'll get hooked.
Toys are put on this Earth to be played with by a child.
With science, there is this culture of experimentation, and most of the time, those experiments fail.
Walt Disney always said, 'For every laugh, there should be a tear.' I believe in that.
Look at the films of Walt Disney: 'Snow White' came out in February 1938, and I can't think of another film from that year that's watched as much. The same is true of 'Bambi,' 'Dumbo'... even, frankly, 'Toy Story,' which is probably watched more than any other movie of 1995.
Everything I do and everything Pixar does is based on a simple rule: Quality is the best business plan, period.
What I love about Goofy is the flesh on his cheeks. You can almost feel it.
I believe in the nobility of entertaining people and I take great, great pride that people are willing to give me two or three hours of their busy lives.
Sure, they were simple desk lamps with only a minimal amount of movement, but you could immediately tell that Luxo Jr. was a baby, and that the big one was his mother. In that short little film, computer animation went from a novelty to a serious tool for filmmaking.
Soon I learned that the worse the puns and jokes, the funnier they could be, if you knew how to deliver them.
Every single Pixar film, at one time or another, has been the worst movie ever put on film. But we know. We trust our process. We don't get scared and say, 'Oh, no, this film isn't working.'
Animation is the only thing I ever wanted to do in my whole life. I have no desire for live-action or anything else.
In dire economic times, movies are relatively inexpensive entertainment for the whole family.
The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.
